Birth Order and Aggressive Behavior Essay

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to determine if kindred do correlates to a demonstration of aggressiveness in kindergarten aged small fryren. It is hypothesized that mettle innate(p) babyren depart demonstrate the most aggressive tendencies, last born children would experience less than the prototypal born, and only children would have the least when compargond to on the whole other possess directs. This quasi-experimental methodology give involve a battlefield psychoanalyse of children from the ten kindergarten classes at the capital of South Korea American Elementary initiate (SAES). T to each oneers impart be asked to complete the Child Behavior Scale (CBS) roll on each child, used to barroom six behavior categories tie in to aggression. Each CBS inventory ordain include stand data for the student whose behavior was observed. The findings are expected to show a correlation between birth order and a tendency toward aggression.INTRODUCTIONEveryone who i s born into a family arrives relative to other children who have already been born or will be at some point in the future or perhaps as an only child. Birth order does non for good mark each child such as race or gender, nevertheless it can impact on the way a somebody replys to the environment. thither have been a number of studies through with(p) on the relationship of birth order to personality, intelligence, anxiety and other characteristics with the belief that each child born into a family is treated diametrically based on their birth order, family interaction and subsequent challenges.Some birth order theorists conceptualize that a childs position in the family greatly influences their personality characteristics which straight affect their behavior both inside and outside of the home (Morales). not every theorist has the same view and there are those that believe a psychological birth order has more impact than the physical birth order on the development of personal ity characteristics (Campbell, White & Stewart, 1991).In his book, Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway describes how birth order influences our lives in many different ship canal from achievement to liftlion and from conformity to creativity (The Edge, 1998). While firstborns and laterborns are not much different in overall levels of creativity, the differences in how that creativity is exercised is very different. Firstborns are more likely to win the Nobel Prize by intellectual achievement within the system while the younger siblings will be more inclined to accept radical innovations in lore and social though.His findings showed that revolutionaries and those who supported them were disproportionately likely to be later-borns (Sulloway, 1999). While not every social scientist agreed with Sulloways research (Harris, 1995 e.g., Falbo, 1997 ), others conducted follow-up studies that corroborate the original findings (Zweigenhaft & Ammon, 2000), and Freese, Powell & Steelman discovered measures in addition to birth order to help explain reasons for various behaviors (1999).This study hopes to build on previous research to determine whether a correlation exists between birth order and a childs tendency to demonstrate aggressiveness.METHODCoordination with the Seoul American Elementary School (SAES), a Department of Defense aquiline School located on Yongsan Army Base, Yongsan, Seoul, Korea, will be done to get permission for the study. Permission from the school and the parents of the children selected will be obtained prior(prenominal) to the start of this study.PARTICIPANTSThis study will be conducted in the classroom during recipe school hours for all students attending the ten full day Kindergarten classes at SAES during a specified 30 day period of the school year. There will be approximately 360 students for this study with an equal number of girls and boys, with 45% of the class comprised of Asian-Americans, 20% African-Americans, 15%Latin-Americans and the remainder Caucasians.APPARATUS/MATERIALSTeachers will be provided the Child Behavior Scale (CBS) inventory as a way to assess aggressive, prosocial, and withdrawn behaviors of children ages 5-6 years of age. The CBS contains 59 items for which the teacher must respond using a 3-point response scale (1=doesnt apply, 2=applies sometimes, 3=certainly applies) (Ladd & Profilet, 1996). The CBS measures six categories of behavior as follows aggressiveness with peers, prosocial behavior with peers, riddance by peers, asocial behavior with peers, hyperactive-distractible behavior, and anxious-fearful behavior. Copies of the CBS inventory and permission for its use will be obtained from its author, Dr. Gary Ladd, at Arizona State University (an email request has been move copy of email attached).PROCEDURETeachers from the 10 Kindergarten classes will observe their students for a specified 30 days during the school year, completing the CBS inventory for each student during that time. T he teacher will indicate the birth order of the child on the completed inventory which will then be sullen in to the SAES front office to be picked up by the study group.RESULTSThe expected results will validate the hypothesis that middle born children will tend to demonstrate more aggressive behavior than either first born, last born or only children. Tables are expected to be used for this study and will include a listing of the CBS subscale items related to to firstborn, middleborn, lastborn and onlyborn, further identified by girl and boy. An example followsDISCUSSION away from the effects of birth order, there is little information about the ways in which the nonshared environment influences human development, mainly because psychologists have not been self-made in developing direct measures of this environment. The challenge for future researchers lies in fashioning ways to test competing hypotheses that bear on the nature and influence of this ruffianly environment. Peer groups are an important aspect of this type of environmental influence, but so is the family environment and life experiences as well (Sulloway, 98).REFERENCESCampbell, L., White, J., & Stewart, A. (1991). The relationship of psychological birth order to actual birth order. Individual Psychology, 47 380-391.Falbo, T. (1997). To rebel or not to rebel? Is this the birth order question? coeval Psychology, 42 938-939.Freese, J., Powell, B., Steelman, L.C., (1999). Rebel without a cause or effect birth order and social attitudes. American Sociological Review, 64 207-231.Harris, Judith Rich. (1995). Where is the childs environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychological Review, 102 458-89.How is reputation Formed? A Talk with Frank J. Sulloway (1998). The Edge Foundation, Inc., Third Culture. Accessed on 13 Feb 2004 at www.edge.org/3rd_culture/sulloway .Ladd, G. & Profilet, S. (1996). The child behavior scale A teacher-report measure of young childrens aggressive, w ithdrawn, and prosocial behaviors. Development Psychololgy, 32 (6), 1008-1024.Morales, C. (1994). Birth lodge possible action A Case for Cooperative Learning. journal of Instructional Psychology 21 246-250.Rubin, R. & Hubbard, J. (2003). Childrens verbalizations and cheating behavior during game playing the role of sociometric status, aggression, and gender. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31 65-78.Solo, R., MacLin, M., (2002). Experimental Psychology. Boston Allyn & Bacon.Sulloway, F. (1999). Birth Order in Runco, M. & Pritzker, eds., Encyclopedia of Creativity, 1189-202.Zweigenhaft, R., Ammon, J., (2000). Birth Order and Civil disobedience A Test of Sulloways Born to Rebel Hypothesis. Journal of mixer Psychology, 140 624-628.