Personality dimensions in a 70-year-old urban population. Norms for the MNT scales and sex and age relations.

The three personality dimensions validity, solidity and stability according to Sjöbring were measured by means of the MNT scales in representative samples of 70-year-old men and women taking part in a health control survey in Gothenburg, Sweden. Means, standard deviations, stanine scores and a comparison with results from other Swedish studies pertaining to representative samples of middle-aged men and women and 16-year-old boys and girls are presented. Seventy-year-old men scored higher than 70-year-old women on validity, as did men in all other age-groups. The difference could, to some extent, be related to the lower prevalence of neurosis and personality deviations in men. There was no difference between the sexes in the 70-year-olds nor in the middle-aged people with regard to solidity and stability. Sixteen-year-old boys scored higher on stability than 16-year-old girls. Seventy-year-olds of both sexes scored lower on validity than 45-year-olds of both sexes and 70-year-old men scored higher on stability than 45-year-old men. The size of the differences of personality dimensions between the sexes was similar in 70-year-olds and 45-year-olds, and the standard deviations of the personality dimensions were also similar between the 70-year-olds and the 45-year-olds.