MANIFESTATIONS OF DIFFERENTIAL LEVELS OF SOCIALIZATION BY BIRTH ORDER

Application of the socialization hypothesis to the findings of experiments on anxiety-affiliation and volunteering behavior appears to reconcile the contradictory results. The socialization hypothesis was further tested within an anxiety-affiliation experiment. Threat of painful electrical shock was used to induce anxiety in 81 male and 99 female volunteer undergraduates. As predicted: (1) firstborns were more responsible about keeping their experimental appointments, (2) firstborns were less likely to indicate suspicions that the experiment was not as the E had represented it to be, and (3) firstborn males were least likely, later borns more likely, and firstborn females most likely to express desires to withdraw from the experiment before the administration of the shocks. Methodological and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.