Personality, longevity, and successful aging among Tokyo metropolitan centenarians

The purpose of our study was to examine two hypotheses: 1) that androgyny and Type B behavior are related to longevity; and 2) that personality characteristics associated with longevity may also be related to successful aging. Participants were eighty-two centenarians (37 men and 45 women) who were compared with 605 elderly in their sixties, seventies, and eighties. Both groups were living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. We used the Bem Sex Role Inventory and Bortner Pattern A Behavior Scales to measure personality, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Cattell Anxiety Scale to measure successful aging. We found that androgyny was not more prominent among centenarians than masculinity, femininity, or undifferentiated. In fact, more femininity was observed. Additionally, we found that more women were classified as feminine than were men. The results indicated more Type B's among centenarians than among those in their sixties and more women than men showed Type B behavior. Our hypothesis that Type B behavior is related to longevity was supported. We observed lower self-esteem for femininity than for either the masculinity or androgyny. We also observed that anxiety was lower for femininity than masculinity but higher than androgyny among women. Type B women showed lower self-esteem than Type A women. Type B men showed lower anxiety than Type A men. We conclude that femininity is related to longevity and that androgyny may be related to successful aging. Further, we suggest that Type B behavior is associated with longevity, but its relationship to successful aging differs between men and women.