The Relationship between Gender and Personality - Statistics Project Example

Observational Study - Survey Research People’s perceptions about other people to a large extend seem to be based on personal characteristics, for which most of the characteristics are due to personal life experiences. Gender, optimistic tendencies, relationship status and attachment styles are all indicative of individual personalities. In this particular study, a population sample of ninety undergraduate students was taken as participants. These participants were either single or in committed relationships. They were then examined in helping explore the relationship between gender and personality. It was hypnotized that participants that were female, in committed relationships, with healthier attachments, and with more optimism would more likely predict that the couples stay together. The participants were given the survey questions to respond. The questionnaires contained attachment styles and for optimistic outlook questions. The findings failed to indicate that gender, relationship status, and attachment style are key elements in the way persons perceive others. However, the study found that optimistic people have more likehood of predicting that the couple would mean their relationship. These study findings suggest further research for studies to examine the interactions between the personality traits and others personal perceptions. INTRODUCTION The Relationship between Gender and Personality There are various theories that have attempted to define personality. Whichever the definitions, most have presented personality as something that pertains to combinations of aspects such as attitudes, emotions, and behaviors of individuals. Personality style is what could be described as preferences and perceptions based on such aspects. There are various studies that have explored the subject of personality. Arguably, the exploration of the personality subject began with Hippocrates. There are various variables that underlying the personality of individuals. This paper explores the relationship between gender and certain styles of personality. IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH The issue of personality remains to be pivotal in all aspects of human life. Needless to say, personality affects relationships in people. Additionally, in the business arena, companies are persistently developing interest in the personalities of people to consider for hiring. Therefore, this research would be crucial in shedding additional light about styles of personality, as far as gender is concerned. This would be helpful in enabling people deal with various issues of personality effectively. Related studies There are various studies that have explored aspects, as well as personality styles. A research study on the motives behind drinking, with respect to gender, was explored by Hazan, and Shaver (1987). The study established that factors of personality play a crucial role in determining the motives of drinking. Additionally, Hazan and Shaver (1987) established that there is a clear trend of development as individuals undergo the transition from childhood adolescence to motives that are gendering specific. For instance, they established that boys often turn out to score highly, in terms of social enhancement motives, during the late adolescence. In early phases of adolescence, such differences were not existent. Upon examination of elderly groups, such as those of groups in tertiary institutions, the study revealed that men have scored highly in terms of coping motives. Men had the likelihood of being influenced compared to the opposite sex. They suggested that the motives associated with drinking are the crucial antecedents to the alcohol drinking and were government by motives, as subject of gender. The contribution of Horppu andIkonen-Varila (2001) cannot be overlooked, as far as the subject of personality and personality styles is concerned. Their contribution entailed formulation of the Personalities five factor model. This comprises of five essential constructs and identities of personality in terms of emotions, experience, motivation, attitude, and motivation styles. These are all considered crucial in understanding personality. Another recent, pertinent study is that carried out by Davila, Burge and Hammen (1997) which investigated the relationship between leadership capability and gender. In this study, participants were grouped into groups so as to carry out an activity that did not require leadership, and then filled up the questionnaires. They found out that low femininity, as well as the high extraversions, could predict the behavior pertaining to leadership. Additionally, the study also established that there was an insignificant relationship between femininity and leadership that is self-rated. This was regardless of the scores on extraversion. Nevertheless, the study also established that a combination of conscientiousness and masculinity positively correlated with the ability of leadership, as well as higher scores in the evaluations by the peer. These research studies are similar to this study because they investigated the personality styles. However, considering that the world is persistently under evolutions, which are undoubtedly shaping the preferences and perceptions, a revisit of personality styles would be necessary to ascertain whether there could be any changes. METHOD Participants Ninety undergraduate students, 30 males and 60 females, from the University took part in the study. The participants took part in the study voluntarily and were recruited by convenience sampling, with some receiving course credit for their participation. The ages for the students’ ranged from 18 years to 34 years. Their median age was 19.7 years. The sample included 46 people all of whom were not in committed relationships and 44 people all to whom were also in some kind of committed relationships. Materials Forms for consent were given to the participants of the study. One form was to be used by the participant for keeping records, another form was to be used for the researcher’s records. The researchers questionnaires were also used in this experiment (see Appendixes 1). They had questions that cut across personality characteristics. This included dating, married affairs questions, and engagement related questions. Each of the person that was in the relationship problem that possibly could lead to the termination of that relationship, was asked about related issues in. There were array of questions made in a formatted style of yes-no or in the form of multiple-choice. The reformatted version of an Attachment Style of Survey was also used in this experiment (see Appendix 1). The survey questionnaire had questions all that were from the three attachment categories which were, secure, insecure and anxious ambivalent. The scale for the response was made to follow a likert scale format. These were from 1 that meant strongly disagree, to 5 that meant strongly agree. Examples of the questions were, “Have you ever cheated on a partner in a relationship/marriage,” and, “I can be demanding in relationships.” The scores, which were on the attachment, were used to measured questions’ categories of attachment styles that were unique to the participants. These participants, as well filled the Life Orientation Test. The survey had 10-questions which were on the optimistic or pessimistic tendencies of the participants (see Appendix 1). Additionally, the answers given ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Examples of such questions that are contained in this survey include, “I am (was) satisfied with my current (last) relationship,” and “I enjoy my friends a lot.” The outlooks for optimistic or pessimistic were rated from the answers that were given. The participants finally gave answers to demographic questionnaire. These included answers about their age, sex, as well as relationship status (see appendix 1). Design and Procedure This study design was quasi-experimental. The variables for the experiment were not at all manipulated. The study was made in a 2 X 2 X 2 X 3 experimental format. Gender was the first independent variable to be studied, with two levels, that is male and female. The relationship status came second as the independent variable, with two levels i.e. involved or uninvolved. The optimistic tendency was the third independent variable, which was defined either as optimistic or pessimistic. Last but not least, was the attachment style, which was also measured as the independent variable. The variables were then categorized as securely attached, avoidant or anxious or ambivalently. The dependent variable, in this case, was the way in which the participant perceived the relationships. After arriving so that they can participate in the study, all the participants were each given two copies. The copies were for the informed consent. Of this, one was for the records for the experimenters and another for the records of the participant. Then the participant was introduced to the questions. The questionnaires were all given to participants in, random yet different orders in ensuring the personal life of the participant did not affect responses to any of the questionnaire, and also to help in controlling sequencing. After the participant running through the questionnaire, he/she was asked to respond to questions that dealt with his or her opinion about the relationship of the partner, as well as his or her opinion concerning the future of the partner that was described in the study. Upon finishing this task, the participant was then introduced to the Life Orientation Test to help in evaluation of the optimistic tendencies. It was then that, the originally adapted Attachment Style Survey was filled. Lastly, the participant was told to fill a questionnaire that had questions that dealt with the participant’s demographic variables. On that very survey, the participant was, as well asked to reveal the status of his or her relationship, as well as how long he or she has had to be involved in the relationship. The final question asked was in respect to the previous last relationship the individual was in, whether the relationship was terminated negatively or positively. Upon completion of the final survey, all the participants were debriefed about the subject the study was examining. The participants were then appreciated and given permission to leave. RESULTS Since both males and females appear to be having different standards in their own relationships, it was expected that females would predict the partners to work things out. The F-test was conducted in examining the difference between the predictions among males and females. It was discovered that there was no significant difference between the two (F< Fα). It was believed that those participants in committed relationships would predict their partners to work out their problems to help them remain together, while, those participants, not in committed relationships would more likely predict that the partners separate. The F-test was conducted and found no significant difference between the participants in committed relationships responses and responses for participants in committed relationships, (F< Fα). It was also predicted that attachment style would have to play a crucial role to determine whether participants who were in relationship stay together and work towards correcting their problems, or otherwise go separate ways. No support was found towards the conclusion that participants who had the higher score on the secure attachment scale predicts that the partner works things out more than the participants who were with an insecure attachment style. (r = .133, n. s.) The attachment styles for the Anxious and avoidant appeared to correlate negatively with predictions of the participant in relationship correcting their problems though not significantly. (r = -.144, n. s. and r = -.077, n. s.) It was hypothesized; as well that optimism would contribute to the determination of whether the participant predicts the happier outcome or would predict a break up for those in relationship. It was found that the more optimistic the person was, the higher the likelihood of him or her to predicting the couple could stay together. Hence, a significant correlation existed between happiness prediction and the optimism (r = .291, p < .001). The study indicated that there existed a strong relationship between secure attachments style and levels of optimism. It was discovered that the participants that highly scored along the secure attachment style, as well also appeared to have increased optimism level (r = .569, p < .001). The lower level of optimism was found in the participants that tended to score higher on the anxious or ambivalent, and avoidant attachment style (r = -.349, p < .001, and r = -.497, p < .001). While the participants that highly scored on the secure attachment styles seemed most likely to be in relationships (r = .240, p < .05). On the contrary, participants that highly scored on the avoidant attachment styles had less likelihood to be in any relationship (r = -.276, p < .005). It was found out that participants with higher scores at the anxious or ambivalent styles tended towards being in their relationships the shorter time period (r = -.392, p < .001). Refer to table A for the descriptive statistics. DISCUSSION The study was set with the objective of evaluating the relationship between gender, optimistic tendencies, relationship status, and attachment style. These study findings failed to indicate that attachment style has an influence on the beliefs and opinions people tend to have about others, as was done in previous research work (Horrpu, &Ikonen-Varila, 2001). Though the study failed to find support for the three of its hypotheses, the study found other significant results relating to the understanding of the relationships between the studied variables. The study was consistent with previous research done by Davila Burge & Hammen (1997). Where it was found that participants with the higher score on the secure attachment styles appeared to have higher optimistic personalities, In its finding that tally with the previous research, this study found that participants with anxious or avoidant attachment style happen to have significantly less optimistic personality. The strong correlations indicate that indeed attachment style has some influence on the personalities of the people. However, this study did not find that attachment styles relate to others perceptions. Results from this study also showed that people that tended to having secure attachment style were significantly likely to be in committed relationships, while people who had higher avoidant attachment style were significantly with less likelihood to be in a relationship. This is because participants in a more secure relationship, as well were more optimistic, and those participants that were less secure were less optimistic and also less likely to be in a relationship. It is apparent, therefore, to conclude that there exist a connection between attachment styles, optimism and the relationship status. Although the variables that were studied in recent research failed to reveal any significant relationships, it is clear from the other correlations that these variables are closely related. More so, the research ought to take into consideration the relationship that was revealed in this study and to help formulate future research. One other significant finding from this study was that the less time period a person has had to date someone, the less he/she is secure in attachment styles. In this case, anxious attachment style happen to tend to be commonly found in those that were in relationships in a less period of time than those that had longer relationship. Those persons that had been in relationships for a longer time tended to have more secure attachment styles. Even though, this study found significant correlations, it had some limitations. First, participants were limited to only undergraduate students that voluntarily participated in the study. Additionally, the study had only 90 participants, 64% of these participants were females. It, therefore, limited this study by restricting the population by which the study can generalize. Those slight differences observed in the results of this study might have been of more significant had the study utilized more participants, as well as more equal males to females’ proportion. There are chances that due to the closeness in proximity, by which the participant took the questionnaire in, may be a few of the participants could have felt that they would have responded to the attachment questionnaires in a somewhat socially and acceptable way. The social desirability problem would have been addressed through allowing participants to engage the survey in a somewhat more private area. Maybe through giving allowance to each person to sit in a various yet different rooms, would have made the participants to feel more some sense of privacy. It is prudent for future studies to consider peoples limitations and work on them while conducting further research along these topics. Although this study had some limitations, the results from it are indicative of how valuable the personality is in evaluating other people. This study made the importance of being optimistic in our lives it valid, just like the previous studies did on optimism (Hazan, & Shaver, 1987). The study, might as well explain the interactions and relationships people have since they might be more likely to forming satisfying and enriching relationships once they maintain optimism. There was no other study found to have researched the relationships of the variables studied that were studied in this research. Insights offered through this research shows that the characteristics and behavior of an individual plays a crucial role in the way his or her relationship is. The situations occurring within relationships might perhaps be explained through examining the individual rather than examining the situation alone. The information from this study could be applied further in relationship therapy. REFERENCES Davila, J, Burge, D, & Hammen, C. (1997). Why does attachment style change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 826-838. Hazan, C, & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524. Horppu, R, & Ikonen-Varila, M. (2001). Are attachment styles general interpersonal orientations? Applicants’ perceptions and emotions in interaction with evaluators in a college entrance examination. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 18, 131-147 Appendix 1 1. What is your current relationship status? 0-Single/never in a relationship 1-Dating 2-Married 3-Divorced 4-Separated 5-Single but been in a relationship before_______________________________ 2. What length of time was your longest relationship (in months)? _______________________ 3. Are you currently in a romantic relationship? 0-Yes 1-No (skip to 3a. If yes, how long have you been in your current relationship? ____________________ 3b. Do you currently live with your significant other? 0-Yes 1-No 4. I am (was) satisfied with my current (last) relationship. (Circle one) 0-Strongly Disagree 1-Disagree 2-Agree 3-Strongly Agree 4-Never been in a relationship 5) a) Have you ever been cheated on while in a relationship/marriage? 0-Yes 1-No (skip to 2) 2-Do not know (skip to 2) b). Has being cheated-on affected your decision making with respect to your romantic relationships. 0-Strongly Disagree 1-Disagree 2-Agree 3-Strongly Agree 6). Have you ever cheated on a partner in a relationship/marriage? 0-Yes 1-No 7). At what age did you lose your virginity? __________ 8). How many sexual partners have you had in your lifetime? __________ 9). How many times a week, do you have sex with another person? __________ 10). My closest friend rates my most recent relationship positively. 0-Strongly Disagree 1-Disagree 2-Agree 3-Strongly Agree The Attachment Style Survey 1. Please read each of the following statements and rate the extent to which you believe each statement best describes your feelings about close relationships: Not at all like me Somewhat like me Very much like me 1.1 I find it difficult to depend on other people. 1 2 3 4 5 1.2 It is very important to me to feel independent. 1 2 3 4 5 1.3 I find it easy to get emotionally close to others. 1 2 3 4 5 1.4 I want to merge completely with another person. 1 2 3 4 5 1.5 I worry that I will be hurt if I allow myself to become too close to others. 1 2 3 4 5 1.6 I am comfortable without close emotional relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 1.7 I am not sure that I can always depend on others to be there when I need them. 1 2 3 4 5 1.8 I want to be completely emotionally intimate with others. 1 2 3 4 5 1.9 I worry about being alone. 1 2 3 4 5 1.10 I am comfortable depending on other people. 1 2 3 4 5 1.11 I often worry that romantic partners don’t really love me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.12 I find it difficult to trust others completely. 1 2 3 4 5 1.13 I worry about others getting too close to me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.14 I want emotionally close relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 1.15 I am comfortable having other people depend on me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.16 I worry that others don’t value me as much as I value them. 1 2 3 4 5 1.17 People are never there when you need them. 1 2 3 4 5 1.18 My desire to merge completely sometimes scares people away. 1 2 3 4 5 1.19 It is very important to me to feel self-sufficient. 1 2 3 4 5 1.20 I am nervous when anyone gets too close to me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.21 I often worry that romantic partners won’t want to stay with me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.22 I prefer not to have other people depend on me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.23 I worry about being abandoned. 1 2 3 4 5 Not at all like me Somewhat like me Very much like me 1.24 I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others. 1 2 3 4 5 1.25 I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. 1 2 3 4 5 1.26 I prefer not to depend on others. 1 2 3 4 5 1.27 I know that others will be there when I need them. 1 2 3 4 5 1.28 I worry about having others not accept me. 1 2 3 4 5 1.29 Romantic partners often want me to be closer than I feel comfortable being. 1 2 3 4 5 1.30 I find it relatively easy to get close to others. 1 2 3 4 5 For the next section please circle one of the following for each question: 0-SD = Strongly Disagree 1-D = Disagree 2-A = Agree 3-SA = Strongly Agree 2. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 3. At times I think I am no good at all. . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 4. I feel I have a number of good qualities. . . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 5. I am able to do things as well as most other people. . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 6. I feel I do not have much too be proud of. . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 7. I certainly feel useless at times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 8. I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 9. I wish I could have more respect for myself. . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 10. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure. . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA 11. I take a positive attitude toward myself. . . . . . . . . . . 0-SD 1-D 2-A 3-SA Background Information Questionnaire Age: ____________ Sex: Male Female I am currently: a) single b) dating, but not exclusively c) exclusively dating d) engaged e) married 2. What is your sexual orientation? 0-Bisexual 1-Heterosexual 2-Homosexual (Gay, Lesbian) 3- Transgender 4-Questioning (Not sure TABLE 1(A) Table 1(A) Descriptive Statistics ________________________________________________________________________ Mean SD Months Dating * 20.158 28.987 Months Single ** 8.031 6.442 Optimism Score 3.4517 .5350 Secure Score 3.6312 .5679 Anxious/Ambivalent Score 3.2759 .5464 Avoidant Score 3.0364 .6144 Happiness Prediction .1766 .3006 Note. N = 90 * N = 46, ** N = 34 Anova Table Variation D f SS MSS F ratio Fα (α=0.05) Treatments 2 150.6 75.3 2.71 3.28 Error 41 751.3 27.836 Total 44 902.167 Source Treatment (Erase them all) Error Total Read More