This study of relations of family size, birth order, sex, and social interest for 125 volunteer subjects yielded no significant relationship among birth order, sex, and social interest. Family size was related to social interest; persons coming from small families had higher Social Interest scores than persons coming from large families. The findings are discussed with regard to internal consistency of these constructs within Alfred Adler's theory.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerA. (1929) The science of living. London: Allen & Unwin.
2.
AdlerA. (1931) What life should mean to you. New York: Capricorn Books.
3.
AnsbacherH.AnsbacherR. (Eds.) (1956) The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York: Basic Books.
4.
BaskettL. M. (1985) Sibling status effects: adult expectations. Developmental Psychology, 21, 441–445.
5.
CrandallJ. E. (1981) Theory and measurement of social interest. New York: Columbia Univer. Press.
6.
CrandallJ. E.BiaggioM. K. (1984) Relations of two measures of social interest to ego defensiveness. Journal of Individual Psychology, 40, 83–91.
7.
DunnJ. (1983) Sibling relationships in early childhood. Child Development, 54, 787–811.
8.
HallC. S.LindzeyG. (1978) Theories of personality. (3rd ed.) New York: Wiley.
9.
HerrD. M. (1985) Effects of sibling number on child outcome. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 27–47.
10.
JoestingJ.JoestingR. (1975) Birth order and desired family size: a replication. Journal of Individual Psychology, 30, 211–212.
11.
JordanE. W.WhitesideM. M.ManasterG. J. (1982) A practical and effective research measure of birth order. Individual Psychology, 38, 253–260.
12.
KalliopuskaM. (1984) Empathy and birth order. Psychological Reports, 55, 115–118.
13.
McDonaldA. P. (1971) Birth order and personality. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 36, 171–176.
14.
MosakH. H. (1972) Life style assessment: a demonstration based on family constellation. Journal of Individual Psychology, 28, 232–247.
15.
SteinR. S.SteinA. B.KaganJ. (1970) The effects of ordinal position and identification on development of philosophical attitudes. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 117, 13–24.
16.
StokesC. S.JohnsonN. E. (1977) Birth order, size of family of orientation, and desired family size. Journal of Individual Psychology, 33, 42–46.
17.
StotlandE.MathewsK. E.ShermanS. E.HansonR. O.RichardsonB. Z. (1978) Empathy, fantasy and helping. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
18.
ZajoncR. B. (1976) Family configuration and intelligence. Science, 192, 227–236.
19.
ZajoncR. B. (1986) The decline and rise of scholastic aptitude scores: a prediction derived from the confluence model. American Psychologist, 41, 862–867.
20.
ZajoncR. B.MarkusG. B. (1975) Birth order and intellectual development. Psychological Review, 82, 74–88.
