Context-Specific Learning, Personality, and Birth Order

Most people believe that learning to get along (or not get along) with their siblings played an important role in shaping their personality, and that their position in the family—oldest, youngest, or in the middle—had lasting effects. Yet studies of birth order generally fail to support these beliefs. The apparent contradiction can be resolved by taking into account the context-specific nature of learned behavior. There is abundant evidence that people do not automatically transfer behavior from one context to another: They wait until they have evidence that what they learned in Context 1 will also be useful in Context 2. Because patterns of behavior acquired in the family of origin tend to be useless or inappropriate in other settings, birth order effects show up only in that context. Outside the family they grew up in, firstborns and later-borns are indistinguishable in personality.     

Associations between Birth Order and Personality Traits: Evidence from Self-Reports and Observer Ratings

Sulloway (1996) proposed that personality traits developed in childhood mediate the association of birth order with scientific radicalism. Birth-order effects on traits within the five-factor model of personality were examined in three studies. Self-reports on brief measures of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness in a national sample (N= 9664) were unrelated to birth order. Self-reports on the 30 facet scales of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) in an adult sample (N= 612) showed only small effects for Altruism and Tender-Mindedness. Peer ratings (N= 166) supported the hypotheses that laterborn children would be higher in facets of Openness and Agreeableness, but spouse ratings (N= 88) did not replicate those findings. Birth order may have subtle effects on perceived personality, but it is unlikely that this effect mediates associations with scientific radicalism.     

Birth Order and Sex Differences In Complexity-Simplicity,Color-Form Preference and Personality

With 196 undergraduate Ss it was found that (a) females preferred more complexity than males, and first-born males and later-born females preferred more complexity than their respective sex groups; (b) first-born males and later-born females checked adjectives which were like those of independent Ss in a conformity study; (c) there were no significant differences with the Internal-External Control Scale; (d) males preferred more form than females. These significant findings were related to previous research in personality and in creativity.     

Sex Differences in Relationships between Verbal Fluency and Personality

The Thurstone Verbal Fluency Test, Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test, and NEO-FFI personality test were administered to 182 university participants (126 female, 56 male). The men scored higher than the women on the spatial test, and the women scored higher than the men for the verbal fluency test, as reported by others. Women reported more extraversion and agreeableness than men. Extraversion was correlated with verbal fluency for both sexes. For the men, verbal fluency was also positively associated with agreeableness, and for the women, verbal fluency was associated with openness and conscientiousness. No relationships between personality and spatial ability were found. Thus, the relationships between cognitive variables and personality factors differed between the sexes. These findings are discussed in terms of the common frontal neural substrate of verbal fluency and these aspects of personality, as well as the inherently social nature of language as a communication tool.     

初中生的社会支持与人格的关系

采用问卷法对432名初中生主观感知的社会支持、外界提供的社会支持与人格之间的关系进行研究,结果表明：（1）在大多数维度上,主观感知的社会支持与外界提供的相应支持及人格有显著的正相关。（2）人格类型不同的初中生主观感知的社会支持有显著差异。（3）人格的谨慎性和开放性、外界提供的社会支持对主观感知的社会支持有显著的正向预测作用;谨慎性和外向性对外界提供的社会支持有显著的正向预测作用。     

Relationships between Personality and Organization Switching: Implications for utility estimates

This study examined individuals' tendencies to migrate from one organization to another (i.e., the propensity to switch employers). Previous researchers have suggested that switching organizations throughout the career span may be partially heritable and therefore related to individual differences in personality traits. If personality traits are indeed related to a tendency to turnover from organizations, this suggests that current procedures for calculating utility may be inaccurate. Using a database of 1081 individuals who have been in the workforce for several years, results indicated that personality traits measured by the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (non‐ipsative; OPQn) were modestly related to organization switching (i.e., repeated moves from organization to organization). We found that higher scores on extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness‐related traits were modestly correlated with more frequent organization switching. However, we demonstrate that these modest relationships can produce large inaccuracies in utility estimates.     

Birth Order Position and Prosocial Tendencies

This study investigated the relationship between psychological birth order position and different types and levels of prosocial tendencies. An ex postfacto, between-family research design was used. Data on prosocial tendencies were obtained from 888 college students (females = 80.4%, mean age = 20.94 yrs, SD = 2.83; males = 19.6%, mean age = 21.62 yrs, SD = 2.44). Participants completed a biographical questionnaire as well as the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (Carlo & Randall, 2002). Data were analysed to compare and contrast prosocial tendencies between demographics using parametric ANOVAs, t tests and the Mann-Whitney Test. Significant differences in prosocial tendency scores were only found between middle-borns and last-borns on altruism, with middle-borns scoring significantly higher in prosocial tendencies than last-borns. There is no evidence to suggest that a definitive link between prosocial tendencies and birth order exists in this study.     

本土化人格特质与工作绩效的关系：线性与非线性

采用跨文化（中国人）个性测量表（Cross-Cultural [Chinese] Personality Assessment Inventory, 简称CPAI-2）对182名服务企业员工进行本土化人格特质测查,并同时获得其直接上级主管对他/她工作绩效的评定。目的是探讨本土化人格特质与工作绩效之间的关系模式（线性或非线性）。结果表明：和谐性与工作绩效具有正向的线性关系;面子与工作绩效具有倒U曲线关系;人情与工作绩效具有正U曲线关系;其他本土化人格特质与工作绩效的关系均不显著。     

Relationships Between Suicidal Behavior and Personality Types

This study examined the hypotheses that introversion in general and the introverted-intuitive-feeling-perceiving (INFP) type as measured by the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator are related to suicidal ideation and behaviors. Analyses of data from 330 university students found four interactive suicidal behavior risk models: introverted-perceiving (IP) (females); introverted-sensing-feeling (ISF) (males); introverted-intuitive-perceiving (INP) (males); extraverted-intuitive-judging (ENJ) (males). Study findings were interpreted in terms of implications for risk assessment and intervention.     

Personality and Preference for Rural Ministry: Replication and Reconsideration

A random sample of 1,057 male stipendiary parochial clergy completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data demonstrate that clergy serving in rural ministry tend to be more introverted, more socially conforming and less toughminded. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the shape of rural ministry.     

Recovery and Replication of Internalizing and Externalizing Dimensions Within the Personality Assessment Inventory

Leopold Bellak, The TAT and CAT in Clinical Use, 2nd edition. New York: Grune &; Stratton, 1971, 218 pages, $12.75. Reviewed by Sarah a. Alleman

Rudolph Ekstein. The Challenge: Despair and Hope in the Conquest of Inner Space. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1971, 354 pages, $7.95. Reviewed by Irving R. Stone     

Season of Birth and Personality: Another Instance of Noncorrespondence

Abstract

A systematic relation between season of birth and personality variables has been postulated from different theoretical standpoints. The present study was especially aimed at an empirical comparison of the positions of astrology and chronobiology, considering also the possibility of an unspecified, not yet explicable relation between season of birth and personality. The hypotheses were formulated after the data for another, earlier study with completely different aims and hypotheses had been collected. In it, 154 women had been tested with paper-and-pencil self-report inventories (the Guilford-Zimmerman, 1949, Temperament Survey and Budner's, 1962, Scale of Intolerance of Ambiguity) and an experimentally oriented cognitive test battery with 10 different tasks. For the present study, these data were submitted to a further analysis that considered the previously ignored influence of season of birth. These hypothetical influences could not be demonstrated with a significance greater than could have been expected by chance. In comparison to the much larger sample sizes of some other studies, the empirical argument has its definite limits. In addition to the empirical results in the discussion, the different standpoints are compared in respect to their theoretical deductive arguments.     

An Examination of the Relationships Between Personality,Attitudes, and Cognitions Relevant to Alcohol-Impaired Driving Tendencies1

Previous research has explored the domain of legal and educational prevention in regard to the phenomena of accidents and injuries caused by drinking and driving. Most investigations of psychological factors attempt to distinguish characteristics of drunk drivers relative to the general driving population or controls matched on driving risk variables. In contrast, the present research concentrated on the examination of the process by which empirically derived personality and general attitudinal constructs operate within a cognitive framework to influence the decision to drive. Four conceptual models were proposed that suggested the presence of direct, indirect, and moderated effects of personality and general attitudinal constructs on cognitions relevant to drunk-driving tendencies. Support was observed for a model suggesting the presence of indirect, direct, and moderating effects for the general attitudinal construct driving aggression, and support for an indirect effects model for the personality variable emotional control. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of utilizing personality and general attitudinal constructs to improve short term cognitive-based interventions.