Developmental approaches to personality Flashcards
Sulloway’s (1996) niche model of personality development
- informed by Darwin’s (1859) theory of evolution by natural selection
- niche is specialised role that suits an organism and enables them to survive in their environment
- siblings must compete for parental investment by developing their own niche
Sulloway’s (1996) niche model of personality development: First Born’s
- tend to work within their parents guideline and try to please them in a traditional fashion
- may also take on a ‘surrogate parent’ role in the family
- results in first-borns growing up to be conscientious and conservative
Sulloway’s (1996) niche model of personality development: Later Borns
- missed out on that niche
must develop their own - more likely to develop traits such as empathy, uniqueness, and progressive political views
Sulloway’s (1996) niche model of personality development: statistics
- siblings raised together (with 50% same genes and seemingly same environment) end up surprisingly dissimilar
- children in same family have very different experiences and not raised in the same way by their parents
- predicts that firstborns should score higher for conscientiousness, extraversion
Birth order effects on personality: Evidence
- sulloway based theory on more than 6,500 historical figures, including scientists (Sulloway, 1995)
- birth order seemed to relate to tendency to support revolutionary ideas
- claimed first-borns would score more highly on conscientiousness, neuroticism, surgency and lower on agreeableness and openness to new experiences than later-borns
Birth order effects on personality: Michalski & Shackelford (2002)
- 438 undergraduate students (USA)
- completed a survey for course credit
- coded birth order dichotomously: 1 = eldest child, 2 = later-born child (only children excluded)
- asked about full biological siblings separately
- firstborns with younger halfsiblings/ stepsiblings might switch from closer parental affiliation to greater openness as younger siblings garner larger portion of parental investment
Birth order effects on personality: Healey (2008)
- asked respondents (n=203) to rate themselves and their siblings on conscientiousness and openness (from big 5)
- eldest siblings rated as higher on conscientiousness, and later-borns were rated as higher on openness
Birth order effects on personality: Marini & Kurtz (2011)
- collected data on Big 5 personality traits from 231 undergraduates
- pts rated themselves and data was provided by a parent and a friend
- researchers controlled for family size and socio-economic class
- no birth-order effects found for any traits on data from any sources
Birth order effects on personality: Damian & Roberts (2015)
- American high school students (age 15-18)
-Big data: n=377,016 - controlled for social factors: age, sex, family size
- firstborns tended to be slightly more conscientious but also more agreeable and less neurotic (contradicting)
- effect sizes were very small (average .02)
- tiny differences can still reach statistical significance so effect size is arguably more important than p-value
Birth order effects on personality: Rohrera et al (2015)
- United States (n = 5,240), Great Britain (n = 4,489), and Germany (n =10,457)
- within family and between family designs
- no birth-order effects on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination
- some difference in openness was explained by intellect
- IQ does seem to have some birth-order effects, with first-borns typically scoring slightly higher
Parenting Styles: Baumrind (1966)
Authoritarian – harsh, great use of punishments, demanding, but unresponsive
Authoritative – demanding but responsive, strict rules but also nurturing
Permissive – responsive but not demanding, lenient or indulgent, little use of rules
Parenting styles: Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983)
- developed model and added a fourth style – neglectful/uninvolved
- responsiveness and demandingness
Parenting styles: studies
Smetanam (2017)
- authoritative parenting style widely seen as most beneficial for children’s development
More recent studies have shown complexities:
- authoritarian parenting may be more beneficial in dangerous environments
- personality and beh of children can determine their parents’ parenting style
- parents tend to use a mix of different parenting styles depending on the situation
- harsh parenting tactics more harmful when they contradict social norms
Parenting styles and personality: Huver et al (2010)
- parents’ personalities predicted their parenting styles, specifically
- extraversion and agreeableness positively related to supportiveness
- emotional stability positively related to lower strict control
- extraverted, agreeable, and less emotionally stable individuals most likely to be authoritative parents
Parenting styles and personality: Sun and Wilkinson (2020)
- study on parenting styles, personality and internet addiction (n=1,200)
- ‘problematic’ parenting styles related to introversion, tendency to lie, neuroticism, psychoticism, and internet addiction in adolescents
- harsh parenting styles likely lead to poor interpersonal relationships and poor mental health, increased risk of developing addictions
