Personality similarities and differences within families
Date
2024-12-05
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Abstract
The following paper details a study conducted through a survey about personality type differences within families. The main goals were to see if significant patterns existed in personality types within families and to promote self-reflection on personality type in participants. Survey participants were directed to take the 16 Personalities test online, which is a free Myers-Briggs like Type Indicator. Participants were anonymous but connected their surveys to their families' through a unique family code. Patterns in personality type were analyzed based on the participants' answers to a free response question about what family position they held and who they participated with. Through the Chi-Squared Test of Independence, no significant correlations between family position or personality type/traits could be identified, however, the sample size of 56 participants was not large enough for the tests to be reliable. For this reason, comparisons were made mostly through data visualization, with emphasis on how patterns identified in that way should only be considered potential hypotheses for future studies with higher sample sizes. The patterns identified were that mothers and fathers had a tendency to be in the Sentinel and Diplomat personality categories, respectively, with seven out of 10 participating mothers being in the Sentinel category, and five of seven fathers being in the diplomat category. No significant personality types were found for any of the birth positions, but every birth order position did show a preference for specific letters in the personality type based off of the data visualization. The third letter (associated with Feeling vs Thinking) showed the most differences, with 31 out of 48 family comparisons having the third letter differ. The results for the self-reflection portion were generally positive and showed that the survey likely succeeded at promoting self-reflection in the participants, with 78% of participants saying they were likely or very likely to have a conversation with their family about their personality.
Description
Colorado State University. CSU Honors Program, College of Natural Sciences.
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Subject
personality type
Myers-Briggs
heritability
16 personalities