Does Birth Order Affect Personality?

Overview

Objectives/Goals This project was the study of how ones birth order affects ones personality traits, or ones tendency to do particular things. My hypothesis was that birth order does have an impact on personality, and when testing, each subject would score within his or her actual birth order. Methods/Materials Two different tests were used to complete this project. The first was somewhat of a failure while the other proved that birth order has an affect on personality. The first test failed because I simply asked the subject if they were for example: organized, somewhat organized, or unorganized causing their results to be very inaccurate. As a result, 90% of the subject fell into the "neither category." By these results, I created a second test showing examples of when one would posses certain qualities (in what conditions). I handed 65 of these tests out to the first and second- borns in the family. The subject's ages ranged from 10-18 years old and the majority were females. The second test consisted of 19 questions, pertaining to the qualities of a first and second-born. All questions that were answered representing second-born qualities were worth 1 point. All questions answered representing first-born qualities were worth 3 points. There was also an in between answer worth 2 points that showed neither qualities of a first nor second-born. In the end, if ones points added up to a range between a 19-36, one had the qualities of a second-born; 37-42 indicated that one showed neither qualities of a first nor second-born; 43-60 specified that one posses qualities of a first-born. Results I used the results of my second test (because they were much more accurate) to come a to valid conclusion. Only about 29% of my subjects scored within the "neither category;" The other 71% of my subjects succeeded in scoring within their actual birth order. Conclusions/Discussion I concluded my project by stating that through studying, and from testing, birth order does in fact have an impact on personality. This supported the first part hypothesis, which was that birth order does affect personality. Before, I did not take into consideration that people grow up in different lifestyles that can affect this, which is why the second part of my hypothesis was incorrect. In the second part of my hypothesis, I stated that no one would fall in the "neither range," but I found from my results that many people did.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Social Sciences (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1701

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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