title: Secular changes in personality: study on 75-year-olds examined in 1976-1977 and 2005-2006.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In order to study secular changes in personality factors neuroticism and extroversion, representative population samples of non-demented 75-year-olds underwent psychiatric examinations in 1976-1977 (total n = 223, 138 women, 85 men) and 2005-2006 (total n = 556, 322 women and 234 men).
  
  
  METHODS
  Eysenck Personality Inventory was used at both occasions. Demographic factors (educational level, marital status, having children) were registered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-five-year-olds examined in 2005-2006 had higher values on extroversion and lower values on the Lie scale compared with those examined in 1976-1977. Neuroticism did not differ between the two birth cohorts. Neuroticism scores were higher in women than in men both in 1976-1977 and 2005-2006, and Lie score was higher in women than in men in 2005-2006.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that present cohorts of 75-year-olds are more extroverted and less prone to respond in a socially desirable manner than those born three decades earlier. Neuroticism levels remained unchanged, suggesting this trait may be less influenced by environmental factors than the other traits studied.
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. eva.billstedt@neuro.gu.se
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Billstedt
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Waern
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Duberstein
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Marlow
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hellström
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ostling
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Skoog
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality; D013548:Sweden