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None Provided24

None Provided24  This study was conducted to see to what degree parents’ perceptions about the effects of sibling status on children are reflected in their perceptions of their own children. This was tested by selecting a sample of voluntary parents who attended a psychology course at an urban college in the mid-southern United States. Parents were asked to complete two adjective checklists; one for what they would expect from an only, firstborn, and lastborn child and the other for their expectations of their own children. In accordance with previous research conducted about this, this research study found that parents described their firstborn children in a more positive light and therefore expected more from them than from later-born children.  The key criteria I used to critique this study were: 1) Does the data attained in this study accurately explore the research question that is being posed? 2) Is there a minimum margin of error in the study design? 3) Can the findings of this study be applied in more general terms, or is it limited to the specific group tested upon?  The research question is: Does sibling status (age order) play a role in determining what parents expect from their children or the way they respond to or perceive their children?  The research question is conceptualized like so: The effect to which the expectations parents have of their children, and first-born, later-born, and only children in general, is evident based upon the adjective checklist. The study design is the degree to which parents attribute their children as well as hypothetical first-born, last-born, and only children as likeable, outgoing, obedient, unspoiled, and academic.  Mostly quantitative methods are used in order to collect the data for this research question. The answers parents gave on the questionnaires (adjective checklists) were rated and put on a number scale.  The findings of this research study agreed for the most part with previous studies. The birth order of the child greatly effected the way parents “rated them” and determined what they expected from the children. For example, parents of more than one child, tended to rate first-borns better than last-borns, and therefore (as shown in another study) expected more from them. They also saw the eldest child as the least spoiled. There are also other factors besides birth order though, that contribute to parents’ expectations of children, such as the ages of the children. A high consistency was found between parents’ description of their expectations of their children to expectations from hypothetical children of different birth order, however it was “less pronounced” in the hypothetical situation. The results of this research have shown that birth order is another factor that needs to be taken into consideration when looking at parents’ expectations of their children, but the extent to which the child’s development is effected, depends on the parents’ treatment of them, and that in turn depends on the attributions or expectations parents give them.  I think that the conceptualization and study design were done well, but a few things could be added. One thing I thought was good was that the researcher had two separate groups: the hypothetical attributes for children and the parents’ own children. I thought however, that a bigger and more diverse sample should be chosen. There were also many more women parents involved in this study than men. My biggest critique on the study design was that on the questionnaire, there were only five attribution factors. Is five really enough to base parents’ expectations of children upon? In my opinion, more attributes should be added. The mean ages of the parents was 30.75. Older parents should have been included as well because they would bring a different perspective and be “further along in the game” than parents aged in their thirties. The parents chosen for this particular sample had attended a Psychology course at an urban university. Firstly, if this study had been conducted in a rural environment, would the same results be found? If I had conducted this experiment, I would have not limited it to a particular area. Secondly, the fact that the parents attended a psychology class may have biased their answers to the questionnaire by answering what they thought the experimenter was looking for.  I thought that a questionnaire was a good way of collecting this type of data, however I think that a questionnaire should also have been given out to the children of these parents to see if they felt that birth order effected their parents expectations of them. Qualitative methods should also have been employed to collect data. The data that resulted from this research study supported the inferences that were drawn for the most part, but if I were to conduct this study, I would add what I mentioned above to reduce the margin of error and I wouldn’t limit my research to a specific area or type of people. Bibliography:

Word Count: 821