Sex differences in overt personality patterns in older men and women

A population of 118 older persons, 59--90 years of age, completed an adaptation of the short version of the Bortner rating scale. The seven scales and a total score were analyzed in separate 2 (sex) X 2 (age) analyses of variance to examine sex and age differences in overt personality patterns in men and women under and over the age of 70. Although the results in no way presume to characterize these older persons as prototype A-B personalities, for theoretical reasons, the women reflected significantly stronger pattern A behavior than the men regardless of age. The Bortner scale appears to offer a crude but effective measure of overt "Type Active" behavior -- aggressiveness, expressiveness, and time-conscious activity -- which is consistent with reports of sex differences in intrapsychic and psychosocial adaptive measures of personality. The lack of any main effect due to age is also in line with previous reports that age appears to be a significant variable in internal personality processes rather than external or overt aspects of personality.