1 / 20

A Study on the Effects of Birth Order on Personality

A Study on the Effects of Birth Order on Personality. Gloria Torres, Maria Perusquia, Nicole Modugno, and Monica Vosoghi California State University, Northridge December 8, 2005. My Sister and Me. Introduction. Birth Order is defined as:

saman
Download Presentation

A Study on the Effects of Birth Order on Personality

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. A Study on the Effects of Birth Order on Personality Gloria Torres, Maria Perusquia, Nicole Modugno, and Monica Vosoghi California State University, Northridge December 8, 2005

  2. My Sister and Me

  3. Introduction • Birth Order is defined as: “ the sequential position of a person among his or her siblings with respect to order of birth” –J. Warren 1966

  4. Introduction • Past Studies: • J. Warren (1966) Warren’s major theoretical assumption about birth order focused on family interactions as a frame of reference.

  5. Introduction • Past studies: • Herrera and Zajonc (2003 Stanford University) Their study described that first-borns were rated as more “intelligent” than last-borns. But first-borns were also less creative than last-borns

  6. Introduction • F.J. Sulloway (1995) • Creator of the Big Five Personality Inventory. He used this test to categorize the personality traits associated with birth rank. • Sulloway’s claims that First-borns were more achievement oriented, assertive, conforming, neurotic, and organized. • Sulloway also claimed that later-borns were more adventurous, easygoing, rebellious, and unconventional.

  7. Introduction • Hypothesis: • We hope to find that first-borns do in fact present more achievement oriented, extraverted, conscientious, agreeable, open, and perhaps neurotic personalities and that later borns also present characteristics of adventurousness, easygoing, and in general rate significantly lower on the Big Five Inventories five personality segments.

  8. Method • Participants • 25 CSUN students acquired from the human subject pool. • Age Range18-25 • 18 Female 7 Male • Breakdown of the participants : 14 were first born 7 were second born 1 was a third born 3 came after the third child

  9. Method For the purpose of our study : • We only counted biological siblings or step-siblings raised with the participant at or before the age of five. • we considered those who were born 2nd 3rd or after as simply “later borns”

  10. Methods • Materials • BFI test ( Big Five Inventory) created by F.J. Sulloway • Consists of 44 questions judged on a likert scale • BFI rates a participants personality on Five major 1. Extraversion 2. Agreeableness 3. Conscientiousness 4. Neuroticism 5. Openness to experience

  11. Results • Used and independent sample t-test • The alpha level was set at .05. • The statistics showed no significance between birth order and personality based on these characteristics. However, the results did show tendencies towards our conclusions.

  12. Results • The characteristic of extraverted showed: First borns had a M=3.44 with a SD=.79. All other borns had a M=3.19 with a SD=.56. • The characteristic of agreeableness showed:First borns had a M=3.91 with a SD=.47. All other borns showed a M=3.67 with a SD=.49

  13. Results • The characteristic conscientious showed: First borns with a M=3.52 and a SD=.65. All other borns had a M=3.38 with a SD=.64. • The characteristic openness showed: First borns had a M=3.62 with a SD=.62. All other borns had a M=3.31 with a SD=.52 • The characteristic neuroticism showed: First borns had a M=3.09 with a SD=.86. All other borns had a M=3.24 with a SD=.83

  14. Discussion • Findings were not significant • There was a Slight trend in the direction of our hypothesis • Our research did trend towards Sulloway’s findings: That first-borns do in fact present more achievement oriented, extraverted, conscientious, agreeable, open, and perhaps neurotic personalities and that later borns also present characteristics of adventurousness, easygoing, and in general, rate significantly lower on the Big Five Inventories five personality segments.

  15. Discussion • Interesting Findings: • In addition to analyzing the statistics on birth order and personality, we also analyzed personality differences in the men and women that we questioned as well as what type of personality differences having a brother or sister had on the participants.

  16. Discussion • Interesting Findings: • Females tended to rate higher in terms of being Conscientious (M=3.64, SD=.60) and males rated lower (M=2.98, SD=.49). • Females also tended to rate higher in being Neurotic (M=3.27, SD=.74) and males rated (M=2.86, SD=.94)

  17. Discussion • Interesting Findings: • Those participants who had a brother only rated higher in being agreeable and conscientious and slightly lower on the three other personality segments. • Those participants who had answered to having a sister only actually rated slightly lower on all personality segments except neuroticism, where the participants rated higher for being neurotic when they had a sister only.

  18. Discussion Limitations: • Sample size was too small (only 25 participants) • Only gave the participants the BFI test • Limited the study to participants with siblings only so we did not look at only child results.

  19. Discussion Suggestions for future research: • Larger sample size • First born to all other born ratio could have been more equal

  20. The End Thank You

More Related