Date of Award
2001
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Helms (1989) theorized that a person's racial identity is impacted by personality and family-of-origin experiences. Research studies have indicated that gender (Kopinak, 1987), the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality factors (Trapnell, 1994), and the family level variable of birth order (Sulloway, 1996) are associated with constructs similar to racial identity. This study considered Helms' theory and the related research. The purpose was to examine how gender and Achieved White Racial Consciousness (WRC; Rowe et al., 1994) types differed on personality factors and to predict membership in one of the four Achieved WRC types based on one's birth order, while considering the spacing between siblings and controlling for potential intervening variables (gender of participants and siblings, sibship size, socioeconomic status). Participants were 134 male and 164 female White undergraduate students from a mid-sized, Midwestern university. Participants completed the Oklahoma Racial Attitude Scale-Preliminary Form (Choney & Behrens, 1996), a measure of WRC. Participants completed the Revised Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992a), a measure of the FFM personality factors. Birth Order and demographic information were also obtained. Results indicated a nonsignificant MANOVA interaction effect for gender and WRC on personality. The main effect for gender and personality factors was also not statistically significant. However, the main effect for WRC and personality factors was significant. WRC types that theoretically represent greater degrees of cognitive complexity, sophistication, and maturity were related to higher scores on the Openness to Experience and Agreeableness personality factors. No significant collinear relationships were found among birth order, participants' gender, sibship size, SES, and siblings' gender. A Direct Multinomial Logistic Regression (DMLR) was then conducted. The DMLR Chi-Square value was analyzed and found to be nonsignificant. Birth order did not predict a person's WRC. Implications for multicultural counseling and diversity training and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Cohen, Elan Adam, "The Relationships Among Personality Factors, Gender, White Racial Consciousness Types, And Birth Order" (2001). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1104.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/1104