Rigidity: A comparison by age and gender

This study compared personality rigidity in young adults (ages 17 to 21), older adults (21 to 72), male and female groups. A probability sample of 295 community-college psychology students were administered a 39-item, true false rigidity questionnaire. The following research hypotheses were formulated: Rigidity is related functionally to age and gender, with males being more rigid than females, young being more rigid than old, and young male and young female groups being more rigid than old male and old female groups. Measures of central tendency and dispersion as well as one-tailed t tests were used to analyze the data. The following significant differences at the .05 level were found: The male group was more rigid than the female group; and the young male group was more rigid than the young female group. Since no significant differences existed between old males and old females, it was concluded that rigidity differences may diminish with age.