Association of Various Measures of Empathy and Pro-Social Behaviour with Birth Order

Abstract

A survey was conducted to find the effect of birth order and its association with the behaviour of kids. It was carried out among university students to determine if the order of birth had any effect of them being sympathetic to other strangers or friends and if it had any effect on their social behaviour and open mindedness. There were total 50 males and 153 females who took part in this survey. Their ages were between 18 to 24.. They were all given the same set of questionnaires. Results indicated that the first born were more willing to help out others and strangers and were more emphatic towards other people than the second or third born. The first born showed signs of pro socialism and were willing to give a helping hand regardless of the nature of their relationship with the other individuals. Where the send or third born were less willing top do the above. It is hypothesized that Birth order can have a specific effect on the behaviour related to Empathy and being Pro Social to some extent. After research and testing it was found that the data calculated agrees with the hypothesized statement and the kids who were first born showed signs of Pro socialism and empathy rather then late born siblings. The findings had been checked and analyzed. The tables and the tests are also provided at the end of the report.

For a while psychologist have been studying the social behavior of people and their mentality. Birth order is believed to have a great influence on many aspects of one’s personality. We can also consider Alfred Adler and his birth order theory for this research. Birth order is defined as the “sequential position of a person among his/her siblings in respect of birth” ( Adler, 1979). He believed that the siblings would get different responses and affection from their parents due to the order of their birth (Adler, 1927). This difference was believed to influence the personal growth and developing personality. For Instance, Birth Order influenced Children to create their own personalities and differentiate themselves from their siblings so that they could reduce competition, Establish their own identities and secure their fraction of parental love. This attitude then shapes their personality traits, such as superiority and command (Freese, Powell,B., & Steelman 1999). Adler Believed that the youngest Child was prone of having a more dependent personality and a passive lifestyle, While (Sulloway,2002) suggests that the last born tend to practice a weak approach such as pleading and bargaining.

The concept of pro-social tendencies reefers to the likelihood that an individual will engage in “voluntary actions that are intended to help or benefit another individual or group of individuals”(Eisenberg,1998,). Adler suggested that the role of a Guardian is satisfied by the first born child. (Adler,1927). Yonger siblings distinctively are restless and are under a constant pressure from older siblings. He also concluded that First born were experiencing a trauma from “ Dethroning” linked to the birth of the new born which then associated the firstborn’s identity with authority. (Begue&Roche, 2005). Social learning theory also suggests that the interaction of second born kids with their older siblings influences their social behavior and skills. ( McHale, Updegraff, Helms-Erikson, & Crouter, 2001). The same Theory also suggests that last born children are more adept compared to the first born because of having parents and their older siblings to socialize with, who are also more capable of modeling advanced social skills in relationships with peers ( Sulloway, 1999, 2001). There is enough evidence to suggest that a child’s personality traits are immensely shaped by early childhood experiences. (Hardy & Kisling, 2006.) Early Childhood experiences can differ In certain environment and situations. I a child is first born, his early childhood experiences are filled will parental love and guidance and perhaps in some cases over protection. On the other hand if the child is second or third born his experiences can be completely different. Those can be filled with envy or jealousy from elder siblings or the can be filled with love and affection both from siblings and parents. They can also be influenced by friends, since second born are tend to be more rebellious (Adler 1979), they could have their childhood experienced filled with shared memories from friends and close ones rather than parents. It was also found by ( Brokenau, Riemann, Angleitner and Spinath. 2001) that environmental factors do account for up to 40% to 80% of the phenotypic variance in personality, and birth order is responsible for as much as 35% of personality variance. In the past Studies have inspected the effect of birth-order on pro-social behaviour among first, middle and last borns. According to (Eisenman,1992) First-borns show an elevated level of anxiety and creativity when compared to middle or last borns. It can be explained by the fact that social anxiety anticipated higher levels of proactive pro-social behaviour. This assumption could be supported by ( Culotta & Goldstein, 2008) who suggest that first-borns might be more subjected towards pro-social behavior rather than the other siblings in the birth order.

The existent study focused on settling whether various measures of empathy and pro-social behaviour are associated with birth order. It was predicted that the first born were more empathetic, were willing to help out strangers or close ones and showed stronger traces of pro-social behaviour in their personality traits. It was hypothesized that first born would differ from second born on terms of being social, Helpful and showing volunteering tendencies.

Method

Participants:

This study was consisted of 203 participants. The participants were taken at random. They were students from the Australian National University. 50 out of these 203 participants were male and the rest 153 were female. These participants were aged from 18 to 24 with a mean age of 19.9 years (SD= 1.3). In this study the First born dydas consisted of 106 participants and the later Born dydas consisted of 97 participants.

Material:

This survey was assembled to calculate the participants willingness in helping out and being pro-social. The question was the same through out the questionnaire while changing the conditions and circumstances. They had to show their willingness to donate a kidney if they had perfectly two healthy kidneys to Closest person, Immediate family member, Close friend, Distant friend, Acquaintance, Child Stranger, Adult stranger. They had to show their willingness on a scale of 1 being () till 4(). the questionnaire consisted of ___ number of questions.

Procedure:

All 203 Participants were given a questionnaire. All of them were students and were currently taking part in a lab. This survey was performed during one of the labs where the participants were asked to fill up these questions as a part of an assignments. No initiative was provided to them however they were allowed to deny the faculty from

using the data collected from them. All participants willingly consented for their data provided through this survey to be used for research purposes. This survey was conducted Online where each participant’s information was password protected. It was also done under the supervision of one of the teachers present in the lab at that time for invigilation purposes. There was no control group. The data which did not match the standard for the research was discarded.

Result

Data was collected through questionnaires and was analyzed through (SPSS) Statistical analysis software. Comparison between data provided us with a significant difference between the values of the both groups. There was a notable difference in the scores for donating a kidney to an acquaintance for First born (M= 51.2, SEM=3.5) and Late born (M=42.3, SEM=3.4) conditions t(201)= -2.10, p=0.020. These results are in favor of our hypothesis which suggests that First born are more willing to donate a kidney to acquaintances, hence they are more Empathetic and pro-social.

Discussion

As predicted. The first born showed greater traits of pro-socializing in their personality than later born. The present findings agree with (Adler 1979) First Born turned out to be more empathetic towards strangers and we found out that birth order was associated with children being more pro-social. The rest of the test also implies with the findings of (Freese, Powell,B., & Steelman 1999). It was found that Due to the fact that Parents had different attitude towards their children according to the birth order, Children developed their own personality. Which according to the outcome of the test proves that first born are more pro-social and willing to help.There might be a lot of factors which might have been ignored. Considering the fact that the number of participants in the survey was, although picked at random but was uneven. The number of participants who were first born was significantly greater than the number of participants who were later born. Since they were all university students, they might be at the most mature levels of their personality and to be an ideal student and individual they might have let their morels intervene with their answering. Results also indicate that the first born participants were high on their morals and social values. For instance as earlier mentioned, role of a Guardian is satisfied by the first born child. (Adler,1927) The first born Child might think that it’s his moral responsibility to help out a close one, sibling or even a stranger in times of need, which in this case is donating a kidney.

Parents try to raise their kids as well as they can and they want their kids to pass those hard times where they failed. They want their kids to be a better reflection of themselves. Most of the times parents want their kids to fulfil their personal dreams. The want them to succeed where they failed, hence as soon as they have their first child, they try to raise it with care and try to become the most ideal parents. Since this is their first child, they are emotionally attached to it. They would try to give him the best treatment and would imbed the moral values in the Child. Parents would not hesitate to compromise for their first born. Considering all these aspects its not wrong to conclude that the first born would have enjoyed complete attention and affection from the parents resulting in a mature and social personality. Hence they would grow up to be more caring and helping. This complies with Adler stating that siblings would get different responses and affection from their parents due to the order of their birth (Adler, 1979).

The child born later might not get the same affection and attention from the parents. This would stimulate that child to develop a different personality. The later born child would be influenced by a lot of people including older siblings and friends. Adler also suggested that the youngest Child was prone of having a more dependent personality and a passive lifestyle. This carefree life style might have an influence on his personality resulting him to be less pro-social compared to his elder siblings. There are a few aspects which might have effected this research. for example the first born child might have completely different and distinctive personality if he is the only child. the only Child might show opposite personality traits. Secondly, the attitude of first born Child towards the later born can not be controlled and in most cases it can’t be predicted. The first born might have enjoyed the love and attention from his parents as long as he was the only child. The birth of another sibling might have had a positive or negative effect on his personality. The first child could have taken the roll of a leader and guide for his younger siblings. On the other hand, the first child could have felt envious and demonstrate hate towards the second child. This could have had a great influence on the later born child resulting in different personality traits.

Overall, the results of the study suggest that, various measures of empathy and pro-social behaviour are associated with birth order. The personality of different siblings can differ from each other due to them being first born in the family or the later born. However further research can help us discover how to use this differentiation as a resource for a morally good personality among all siblings. It could also help us guide parents on how to make sure that all of the children in their family are in a healthy mental environment despite the order of their birth.