The Relationship Between Morningness-Eveningness, Ageing and Personality

In an attempt to study the relationships between ageing and personality and the morningness-eveningness dimension two experiments were carried out. In Experiment I, an Italian version of the Morningness--Eveningness» Questionnaire (MEQ) was administered to 435 Ss ranging in age from 20 to 79 yr, and divided in to six age groups. In comparison with younger people older Ss tended to display greater Morningness-Eveningness scores. These results suggest that ageing relates to a shifting toward morningness. In Experiment II the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the MEQ were administered to 233 Ss (20-29 yr). Morning-types had significantly higher N scores and tended to be insignificantly more introverted. Evening-types had significantly higher P scores and tended to be insignificantly more extroverted. The present findings are consistent with reports of a tendency for morning-types to be introverted and for evening-types extroverted. However, they do provide some evidence of individual differences on the neurourism and psychoticism dimensions of personality between the two diurnal types.