Iris Marušić

Perceptions of Aging across 26 Cultures and their Culture-Level Associates

College students (N=3,435) in 26 cultures reported their perceptions of age-related changes in physical, cognitive, and socioemotional areas of functioning and rated societal views of aging within their culture. There was widespread cross-cultural consensus regarding the expected direction of aging trajectories with (a) perceived declines in societal views of aging, physical attractiveness, the ability to perform everyday tasks, and new learning; (b) perceived increases in wisdom, knowledge, and received respect; and (c) perceived stability in family authority and life satisfaction. Cross-cultural variations in aging perceptions were associated with culture-level indicators of population aging, education levels, values, and national character stereotypes. These associations were stronger for societal views on aging and perceptions of socioemotional changes than for perceptions of physical and cognitive changes. A consideration of culture-level variables also suggested that previously reported differences in aging perceptions between Asian and Western countries may be related to differences in population structure.

Stereotypes of Age Differences in Personality Traits: Universal and Accurate?

Age trajectories for personality traits are known to be similar across cultures. To address whether stereotypes of age groups reflect these age-related changes in personality, we asked participants in 26 countries (N = 3,323) to rate typical adolescents, adults, and old persons in their own country. Raters across nations tended to share similar beliefs about different age groups; adolescents were seen as impulsive, rebellious, undisciplined, preferring excitement and novelty, whereas old people were consistently considered lower on impulsivity, activity, antagonism, and Openness. These consensual age group stereotypes correlated strongly with published age differences on the five major dimensions of personality and most of 30 specific traits, using as criteria of accuracy both self-reports and observer ratings, different survey methodologies, and data from up to 50 nations. However, personal stereotypes were considerably less accurate, and consensual stereotypes tended to exaggerate differences across age groups.

Contribution of Arnett's inventory of sensation seeking and Zuckerman's sensation seeking scale to the differentiation of athletes engaged in high and low risk sports

Abstract AISS (Arnett, 1994) and Zuckermans SSS scales were administered to 94 pairs of males between 17 and 47 yr of age ( M = 29.6 yr) from Zagreb, capital of Croatia. Pairs were equivalent in age and education. The independent variable is the risk level of the sports they are engaged in (high risk sports were parachuting, diving, gliding, speleology and alpinism, while low risk sports were athletics, rowing, bowling and table tennis). The aim was to find out which of these two scales is better at discriminating the two groups of athletes, since this is an important test of criterion validity for these two operationalizations of sensation seeking construct. Univariate F ratios show that all six predictors significantly differentiate the criterion groups on p

Relations of Masculinity and Femininity with Personality Dimensions of the Five-Factor Model

The aim of this study was to examine therelations of masculinity and femininity with five-factorpersonality dimensions in Croatian adolescents. Sampleconsisted of 464 high school graduates, all of them Caucasian, and approximately 90% Croatian.Results were analyzed by multiple regression procedureusing masculinity, femininity, gender, and theirinteractions as independent variables. All three maineffects were found to be statistically significant,with no significant interactions. Masculinitycontributes positively to extraversion andconscientiousness, and negatively to neuroticism andagreeableness, while femininity shows strong positive relationshipwith agreeableness, and weak positive relationships withthe other four dimensions. Results are discussed interms of four proposed models of the relation between gender role orientation and psychologicalhealth.

Gender Stereotypes of Personality: Universal and Accurate?

Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show well-defined developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very little is known about perceived gender differences in five-factor traits in spite of their potential implications for gender biases at the interpersonal and societal level. In particular, it is not clear how perceived gender differences in five-factor personality vary across age groups and national contexts and to what extent they accurately reflect assessed sex differences in personality. To address these questions, we analyzed responses from 3,323 individuals across 26 nations (mean age = 22.3 years, 31% male) who were asked to rate the five-factor personality traits of typical men or women in three age groups (adolescent, adult, and older adult) in their respective nations. Raters perceived women as slightly higher in openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness as well as some aspects of extraversion and neuroticism. Perceived gender differences were fairly consistent across nations and target age groups and mapped closely onto assessed sex differences in self- and observer-rated personality. Associations between the average size of perceived gender differences and national variations in sociodemographic characteristics, value systems, or gender equality did not reach statistical significance. Findings contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of gender stereotypes of personality and suggest that perceptions of actual sex differences may play a more important role than culturally based gender roles and socialization processes.

The inaccuracy of national character stereotypes

Consensual stereotypes of some groups are relatively accurate, whereas others are not. Previous work suggesting that national character stereotypes are inaccurate has been criticized on several grounds. In this article we (a) provide arguments for the validity of assessed national mean trait levels as criteria for evaluating stereotype accuracy; and (b) report new data on national character in 26 cultures from descriptions (N=3,323) of the typical male or female adolescent, adult, or old person in each. The average ratings were internally consistent and converged with independent stereotypes of the typical culture member, but were weakly related to objective assessments of personality. We argue that this conclusion is consistent with the broader literature on the inaccuracy of national character stereotypes.

Family study of the big five personality dimensions

Abstract NEO—PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) was administered to a sample of 138 adolescents and their parents. Father-offspring correlations, mother-offspring correlations and regressions of offspring on midparent score were computed for 30 facet scales as well as for the five broad domains: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. At the domain level, father-offspring correlations were significant for openness to experience and conscientiousness, while mother-offspring correlations were significant only for neuroticism. The regressions of offspring on midparent score were significant in all of these three domains. At the facet level, one-third of the father-offspring and mother-offspring correlations as well as half of the parent-offspring regressions were significant. However, results indicate weak family resemblance for the big five personality dimensions. The median father-offspring correlation, mother offspring correlations and midparent-offspring regression for 30 facets were 0.11, 0.10, and 0.15, respectively.

Self-reliance and some personality traits: sex differences

Abstract The aim of this investigation was to examine the relations between self-reliance and some well-known personality traits such as sensation seeking, Eysencks personality dimensions, shyness, Machiavellianism, as well as self rated physical attractiveness. The data, obtained on a sample of 150 male and 211 female university students, were analysed separately for each sex. Stepwise multiple regression demonstrated that a relatively high percentage of the total variance can be attributed to the set of predictors used in this study, but separate analyses for males and females revealed a somewhat different pattern of results. Self-reliant males are less shy and neurotic, show higher thrill and adventure seeking and lower dissimulation than their less self-reliant peers. Similarly to the males, self-reliant female students are low in neuroticism and shyness. Furthermore, they are more extraverted, have a lower score on the EPQ Lie scale and rate themselves higher on the physical attractiveness scale.