Analysis of the “Big Five” Personality Factors in Students of the Older People's University of Almería

The goal of the present study is to determine, through the administration of the NEO-FFI, the personality characteristics (as a function of variables such as age, gender, and civil status) of a specific group of 263 people over 50 years of age, who are part of an active ageing program such as the University Program for Older People “Science and Experience” of the University of Almería. Thus, as a function of gender, we only observed significant differences in the factor Neuroticism, with the women presenting higher levels than the men, with a considerable effect size (d = 0.61). With regard to civil status, the group of widowed people obtained the lowest scores in Factor A (Agreeableness), with significant differences with regard to the groups of married people and of divorced/separated people. Lastly, in the analysis as a function of age, we found significant differences in the following factors: Extraversion, Responsibility, Neuroticism, and Openness; the proportion of total variability attributable to age in the score of each variable was low.