Personality development among the Japanese elderly: A ten-year longitudinal study on a sentence completion test.

To investigate stability or change in personality, we administered a sentence completion test to the Japanese elderly twice in 1976 and 1986. Positive and negative changes and stability were observed. Positive family (children and spouse) image increased with advance in age. Positive responses in the dimension of relationships with friends showed predominance of women over men. With respect to self-concept, the past self changed from objective to positive. The present and physical self maintained positive responses, while the future self and the attitude of living shifted from objective to negative.