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Showing papers on "Personality published in 1981"


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, Eysenck's theory of extra version-introversion (E-I) and neuroticism (N) is described in the context of the St Pancras Station in the African jungle.
Abstract: The territory that psychologists explore is still largely uncharted; so to find Eysenck’s model for personality in the middle of this terra incognita is rather like stumbling across St Pancras Station in the heart of the African jungle Faced with this apparition, one’s first question is, not “does it work?”, but “what’s it for?” This, indeed, is the right question to ask Eysenck’s model bestrides the field of personality like a colossus There have been other attempts to describe personality, notably Cattell’s and Guilford’s, and other attempts to explain it, above all, Pavlov’s and Teplov’s: but no one has tried to achieve both these aims on the same scale as Eysenck In consequence, it is extremely difficult to see the Eysenckian edifice in perspective: there are too few other buildings with which to compare it, only the surrounding trackless jungle It is by asking “what’s it for?” that we can best provide this perspective In answer to this question, Fig 81 dis plays what I take to be the general structure of Eysenck’s theory of extra version-introversion (E-I) and neuroticism (N)

1,285 citations


BookDOI
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: A survey of the effects of brain lesion on personality can be found in this paper. But the authors focus on the effect of extraversion on personality and do not consider the effects on the brain itself.
Abstract: 1 General Features of the Model.- 1.1 Models and Explanations.- 1.2 The Development of a Paradigm.- 1.3 Theory Making: Correlational and Experimental Psychology.- 1.4.1 Theory Testing: Constraints and Complications.- 1.4.2 Theory Testing: Some Sources of Error.- 2 The Psychophysiology of Extraversion and Neuroticism.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 The Physiological Basis of Extraversion.- 2.3 Extraversion and Electrocortical Activity.- 2.4 Extraversion and Cortical Evoked Potentials.- 2.5 Extraversion and the Orienting Reaction.- 2.5.1 Stimulus Characteristics.- 2.5.2 Subject Selection.- 2.5.3 Measures of Electrodermal Recording.- 2.5.4 Conclusions.- 2.6 Extraversion and Pupillary Response.- 2.7 The Interaction of Extraversion and Neuroticism.- 2.7.1 Neuroticism and Stress.- 2.7.2 Normal and Patient Populations.- 2.7.3 Neuroticism and Emotional Response Patterning.- 2.8 Conclusions.- 3 A Survey of the Effects of Brain Lesions upon Personality.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 The Brain-Damaged Personality.- 3.3 Laterality of Lesion and Personality.- 3.4 Frontal Lesions and Personality.- 3.5 Cingulate Gyrus Lesions.- 3.6 Amygdala Lesions and Violence.- 3.7 Hypothalamic Lesions, Aggression and Sex.- 3.8 Thalamic Lesions.- 3.9 Temporal Lobe Lesions and Personality.- 3.10 Brain-Stem Arousal Systems and Personality.- 3.11 Individual Differences in Response to Cortical Stimulants and Depressants.- 3.12 Personality Processes.- 3.13 Brain and Personality: A Synopsis.- 4 The Genetic and Environmental Architecture of Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 The Biometrical Approach.- 4.2.1 Basic Model.- 4.2.2 Estimation of Parameters in the Model Using MZ and DZ Twins.- 4.3 Empirical Studies.- 4.3.1 Older Studies.- 4.3.2 Studies Involving the EPQ and Similar Questionnaires.- 4.4 Conclusion.- 5 Personality and Conditioning.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Basic Issues: The Major Theories.- 5.2.1 Pavlovian Typology.- 5.2.2 Modifications of the Pavlovian System.- 5.2.3 The Personality Theory of Eysenck.- 5.2.4 The Drive Theory of Spence.- 5.2.5 Gray's Reformulation of the Eysenck Theory.- 5.2.6 Summary.- 5.3 Basic Issues: The Period of Aufklarung.- 5.3.1 Summary.- 5.4 Newer Perspectives: Determinants of Responding.- 5.4.1 Studies Including Personality.- 5.4.2 Studies Excluding Personality.- 5.4.3 Summary.- 5.5 New Perspectives: Recent Extensions.- 5.5.1 Substantive Areas.- 5.5.1.1 Conditioning in Infancy.- 5.5.1.2 Response Topography.- 5.5.1.3 Extinction.- 5.5.1.4 Attitude and Evaluative Conditioning.- 5.5.2 Theoretical Issues.- 5.5.2.1 V-Form and C-Form Responding.- 5.5.2.2 Psychoticism as a Dimension of Personality.- 5.5.2.3 Cognition.- 5.5.2.4 Conditionability.- 5.6 Conditioning and Personality.- 6 Learning, Memory and Personality.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Basic Theoretical Constructs.- 6.2.1 Attention: Selectivity and Intensity.- 6.2.2 Working Memory.- 6.2.3 Summary.- 6.3 Effects of Anxiety on Learning and Memory.- 6.3.1 Spence and Spence (1966).- 6.3.2 Anxiety: Cognitive Factors.- 6.3.3 Working-Memory Capacity.- 6.3.4 Levels of Processing and Elaboration of Encoding.- 6.3.5 Towards a Theory of Anxiety.- 6.3.6 Success and Failure.- 6.4 Effects of Introversion - Extraversion on Learning and Memory.- 6.4.1 Interrelationship Between Introversion - Extraversion and Anxiety.- 6.4.2 Introversion - Extraversion: Reward and Punishment.- 6.4.3 Cortical Arousal.- 6.4.4 Retention Interval.- 6.4.5 Distraction.- 6.4.6 Task Difficulty.- 6.4.7 Retrieval: Speed and Power.- 6.4.8 Summary and Conclusions.- 7 Personality and Social Behaviour.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Affiliation and Personal Space.- 7.3 Birth Order.- 7.4 Group Interaction and Social Skills.- 7.5 Speech Patterns.- 7.6 Expressive Behaviour and Person Perception.- 7.7 Expressive Control.- 7.8 Field Dependence.- 7.9 Suggestibility.- 7.10 Conflict Handling.- 7.11 Attraction.- 7.12 Sexual Behaviour.- 7.13 Attitudes and Values.- 7.14 Recreational Interests.- 7.15 Occupational Choice and Aptitude.- 7.16 Industrial Performance.- 7.17 Academic Aptitude and Achievement.- 7.18 Mental Health.- 7.19 Psychotherapy.- 7.20 Drug Use and Abuse.- 7.21 Crime and Delinquency.- 7.22 Cross-National Differences.- 7.23 Conclusions.- 8 A Critique of Eysenck's Theory of Personality.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Personality Description.- 8.3 Biological Explanation.- 8.4 An Alternative Theory.- 8.5 Coda 1: Strength of the Nervous System.- 8.6 Coda 2: Psychoticism.- Epilogue.

977 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Re-analysis of the correlations of six studies indicated that the domain appears to be well described by five factors, with some suggestion of a sixth, and the five factors were related across studies, using the Kaiser-Hunka-Bianchini method.
Abstract: Psychometric studies of the organization of the "natural language of personality" have typically employed rating scales as measurement medium and factor analysis as statistical technique. The results of such investigations over the past 30 years have varied greatly, both with respect to number of factors and with respect to the constructs generated. Re-analysis of the correlations of six studies, including the classical work of Cattell, indicated that the domain appears to be well described by five factors, with some suggestion of a sixth. The five factors were related across studies, using the Kaiser-Hunka-Bianchini method. Generally, the factors were highly related, with most indices of relatedness exceeding .90. The five-factor model was tested by the multiple-group method, used to factor a large-scale study of teachers' ratings of children. With slight modification of the originally hypothesized structure, the five-factor model accounted for the observed relationships quite well. The five constructs suggested by the factors appear to be domains of research effort and theoretical concern which have long been of interest to psychologists.

746 citations


Book
30 Mar 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors bring together clinical literature on personality disorders in a single source book and present contrasting views of the dynamics and development of each syndrome, with special attention to the newer personality syndromes such as avoidant, narcissistic, borderline, and schizotypal, as well as more common mixed'' personality types.
Abstract: Brings together clinical literature on personality disorders in a single source book. Coordinates and evaluates current theory on the subject in close conjunction with the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) to which the author made substantial contribution in the section on personality disorders. Presents contrasting views of the dynamics and development of each syndrome, with special attention to the newer personality syndromes such as avoidant, narcissistic, borderline, and schizotypal, as well as more common mixed'' personality types.

658 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the structure of young persons' perceptions of the elderly within the framework of Eleanor Rosch's theory of natural categories and found that behavioral and personality associations were stronger for "prototypic" instances of the different subcategories than for less prototypic instances.
Abstract: Three studies are reported exploring the structure of young persons' perceptions of the elderly within the framework of Eleanor Rosch's theory of natural categories. The first two studies employed picture-sorting, trait-rating, and statementsorting tasks to demonstrate that the cognitive representation of the elderly as a social category is differentiated into meaningful subcategories associated with distinctive physical features and personality and behavioral characteristics. In addition, it was found that behavioral and personality associations were stronger for "prototypic" instances of the different subcategories than for less prototypic instances. The third study investigated the effects of category prototypicality on the processing and recall of information about specific individuals. It was found that information that mixes features from different subcategories (within the general category of the elderly) is recalled less well than is homogeneous information. On the other hand, information describing an elderly individual that is /^consistent with generalized stereotypes of the aged takes longer to process and is recalled as well as is prototype-consistent information. These results were all interpreted to support the general conclusion that stereotyping of individuals occurs at the level of basic rather than superordinate categories.

640 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results indicate that stressful life events and constitutional predisposition increase, but hardiness decreases, subsequent illness.
Abstract: Utilizing a prospective design, this study considers the mediating effects of personality-based hardiness (commitment, control, and challenge) and constitutional predisposition (parents' illness) on the stressful life events-illness relationship. The subjects are middleand upper-level managers who filled out questionnaires covering a period of five years. Results indicate that stressful life events and constitutional predisposition increase, but hardiness decreases, subsequent illness. Possible additive effects of the three independent variables are discussed.

548 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors acknowledge the complexity and heterogeneity of child maltreatment, and they advocate the use of sophisticated concepts of development, personality, psychopathology, and family and social systems theory.
Abstract: Research methods and inferential techniques must acknowledge the complexity and heterogeneity of child maltreatment. Empirical investigation of child maltreatment must be guided by sophisticated concepts of development, personality, psychopathology, and family and social systems theory.

524 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an objective index of degree of parental agreement was generated by comparing the independent responses of 83 parental dyads to a set of Q-sort items reflecting child-rearing values and orientations.
Abstract: BLOCK, JEANNE H.; BLOCK, JACK; and MomISON, ANDREA. Parental Agreement-Disagreement on Child-rearing Orientations and Gender-related Personality Correlates in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 965-974. An objective index of degree of parental agreement was generated by comparing the independent responses of 83 parental dyads to a set of Q-sort items reflecting child-rearing values and orientations. This index was found to significantly predict subsequent continuation or termination of the marriage and to relate to independently described characteristics of the family home environment. Further, the index of parental agreement was significantly related to the quality of psychological functioning in boys and in girls over a 4-year age range, from age 3 to age 7. Reliable differences were found in the patterning among relationships for boys and girls wherein parental agreement was more implicative for the psychological functioning of boys than for girls and was related positively to the development of ego control in boys but was related negatively to the development of ego control in the sample of girls.

350 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A complex interplay between the diabetic adolescent's psychological and physical functioning, metabolic control, and the family environment is suggested.
Abstract: This research compares the family environments of diabetic adolescents in good (HbA1c less than 10), fair (10 greater than or equal to HbA1c less than or equal to 14), and poor (HbA1c greater than 14) control. Fifty-eight adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and their parents (mothers) were independently assessed with structured interviews, the Moos Family Environment Scale, and adolescents also completed the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. As compared with adolescents in poor control, those in good control reported fewer diabetes-related symptoms and had less anxiety and a more positive self-concept. Well-controlled youths also reported more cohesion and less conflict among family members. More parents of well-controlled youths stated that family members were encouraged to behave independently. In addition, more parents of poorly controlled adolescents believed that diabetes had negatively affected the child's personality, physical well-being, schooling, and participation in activities away from home. These findings suggest a complex interplay between the diabetic adolescent's psychological and physical functioning, metabolic control, and the family environment.

325 citations



Book
01 Jan 1981


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the results of a longitudinal investigation of victim reactions to rape were reported, finding that victims were significantly more anxious, fearful, suspicious, and confused than non-victims for at least a year after their assaults.
Abstract: After reviewing previous work on psychological effects of a rape experience, this paper reports the results of a longitudinal investigation of victim reactions to rape. Adult victims (N = 20) were assessed at 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year postrape, and a group of matched non-victims (N = 20) were assessed at similar intervals. Findings were that victims were significantly more anxious, fearful, suspicious, and confused than nonvictims for at least a year after their assaults. However, there was significant improvement on those as well as other measures of personality and mood state over time, particularly between 1 and 6 months. Implications of these findings with regard to both social learning and feminist theory and therapy are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Personality disorder was significantly more common in un bipolar nonmelancholic depressed patients than in unipolar melancholic or bipolar depressed patients, and was related to earlier onset of depressive illness and worse outcome within the unipolar nonMelancholic group.
Abstract: The authors examined the relationship of personality traits and personality disorder to depressive subtype, descriptive characteristics, and outcome in 160 depressed inpatients. Personality disorder was significantly more common in unipolar nonmelancholic depressed patients (61%) than in unipolar melancholic (14%) or bipolar depressed patients (23%). Personality disorder did not affect symptom manifestation but was related to earlier onset of depressive illness and worse outcome within the unipolar nonmelancholic group. Obsessive traits were most common in the unipolar melancholic patients, while histrionic, hostile, and borderline traits predominated in the nonmelancholic patients. The authors discuss the usefulness of a multiaxial diagnostic system and the importance of separating trait and disorder in personality assessment.

Book
01 Jun 1981
TL;DR: Early Social Development - Play - Concept Formation and Development - Language - Intelligence - Creativity - Learning - Personality - Values and Moral Development - The Self - Social Behaviour and Social Skills - Educational Guidance and Counselling - Class Control and Management - Teacher Personality and Characteristics.
Abstract: Early Social Development - Play - Concept Formation and Development - Language - Intelligence - Creativity - Learning - Personality - Values and Moral Development - The Self - Social Behaviour and Social Skills - Educational Guidance and Counselling - Class Control and Management - Teacher Personality and Characteristics

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The findings of this study are seen to support a triaxial assessment and classification of non-psychotic psychiatric disorders, with symptoms, personality and social state being rated independently.
Abstract: One hundred patients, selected to be representative of those attending general practitioners with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders were followed up for one year. Standard assessments of mental state, personality, social stresses and supports were carried out for each patient at the outset and after a year. The outcome for this cohort determined both by the level of psychiatric morbidity at interview after one year and by the pattern of the psychiatric morbidity during the year has been analysed with reference to the assessment measures. Discriminant function analysis indicates that the initial estimate of the severity of the psychiatric morbidity and a rating of the quality of the social life at the time of follow-up are the only factors that significantly predict the psychiatric state after one year. Social measures also predict a pattern of illness characterized by a rapid recovery after the initial assessment. Patients who reported continuous psychiatric morbidity during the year were older, physically ill and very likely to have received psychotropic drugs. Receipt of this medication during the year was associated with initial assessments of abnormality of personality, older age, and a diagnosis of depression. The findings of this study are seen to support a triaxial assessment and classification of non-psychotic psychiatric disorders, with symptoms, personality and social state being rated independently.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The addition of two extra descriptive types to the schema of ICD Section 301, the anxious and the self-conscious personalities, is found to contribute usefully to a taxonomy of personality in two series of patients investigated with the SAP.
Abstract: A standardized assessment of personality (SAP) based on interview with an informant has been developed to classify a patient's premorbid personality in clinical terms for use for research purposes in or out of a hospital setting. Three preliminary investigations of its use are reported. These indicate that an informant's account of personality can be rated reliably by psychiatrists and is consistent over time. The addition of two extra descriptive types to the schema of ICD Section 301, the anxious and the self-conscious personalities, is found to contribute usefully to a taxonomy of personality in two series of patients investigated with the SAP. Further investigations are indicated to determine the accuracy of an informant's account before epidemiological studies with this instrument can be considered.






Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was shown that enduring personality disposition antedate and predict measures of personal adjustment to aging and that "Thinking Introversion" was related only to positive attitudes toward religion.
Abstract: Personal adjustment to aging as measured by scales from the Chicago Attitude Inventory (CAI) was examined longitudinally in a community-dwelling sample of 557 men aged 17 to 97. Concurrent and predictive relations between this age-appropriate measure of well-being and personality were examined by correlating the CAI variables with three factors from the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey identified as Neuroticism, Extraversion, and "Thinking Introversion." As hypothesized, Neuroticism was related negatively and Extraversion was related positively to most concurrent measures of well-being in both younger and older subsamples. "Thinking Introversion" was related only to positive attitudes toward religion. Predictive correlations between personality and subjective well-being over two-to-ten (M = 5.3) and ten-to-seventeen (M = 12.6) year intervals confirmed earlier research, and showed that enduring personality disposition antedate and predict measures of personal adjustment to aging.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between the two commonly distinguished personality variables of extraversion and neuroticism and the choice and avoidance of specifically social situations, and found that extraverts have a significantly and meaningfully different pattern of activity preferences from introverts.
Abstract: Previous research in different fields has indicated that people choose various jobs, learning institutions and leisure-time activities in terms of their personality structure, and to satisfy various needs. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between the two commonly distinguished personality variables of extraversion and neuroticism and the choice and avoidance of specifically social situations. Subjects were requested to indicate how much time they had spent in leisure situations over the past week; to rank order their preference for activities which reflected Murray's major needs and presses; and to rate their choice or avoidance of other abstractly described, and then stressful, anxiety-provoking, social situations on a five-point scale. It was shown, using two-way analysis of variance on factor scores derived from the factor analysis of different but related scales, that extraverts have a significantly and meaningfully different pattern of activity preferences from introverts. This finding was also true of high and low neurotics but not to the same extent. The results are discussed in terms of a major criticism of the methodology and conclusion in the person–situation debate, subject assignment in laboratory experiments and social skills training, and assessment.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the construct validity of the revised Short Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) with respect to measures of psychological well-being, and the validity of androgyny conceived as an intrinsically interactive (rather than simply additive) concept, endowed as such with "surplus" meaning.
Abstract: The objective of this study (N = 176) was to evaluate (a) the construct validity of the revised Short Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) with respect to measures of psychological well-being; (b) the validity of the concept of androgyny conceived as an intrinsically interactive (rather than simply additive) concept, endowed as such with "surplus" meaning; and (c) the validity of the traditional assumption that it is the masculine male and feminine female who typify subjective wellbeing. The three hypotheses were tested concurrently by employing a hierarchical multiple regression analysis with interaction terms. Results across measures of well-being, stress reaction, and alienation taken from the Differential Personality Questionnaire (DPQ), provided only partial support for Bern's scales as markers of subjective well-being, but no support for androgyny as a concept in its own right with predictive properties distinct from femininity and masculinity. Finally, the results of a factor analysis indicate that the M and F scales of the BSRI occupy quite different locations in the space defined by certain higher-order personality dimensions. Implications for further studies of androgyny and other "fulfillment" or "self-actuali zation" concepts are also discussed.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: The excitation-inhibition hypothesis as discussed by the authors was proposed by Eysenck in 1957 to explain individual differences in personality dimensions, including extraversion and neuroticism, in a comprehensive personality system.
Abstract: The personality dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism, which are defined at the descriptive level of Eysenck’s system, have been linked to constructs at an explanatory level which are common to hypothetical deductive models in perception, learning, motivation, memory and emotion. As a comprehensive personality system, it is commendable for the attempt to relate personability dimensions to the biological foundations of individual differences in those fundamental psychological processes. The excitation-inhibition hypothesis which was proposed by Eysenck in 1957 referred in particular to the hypothetical constructs of excitation and inhibition which were drawn from those concepts as they were employed by Pavlov (1927) and Hull (1943). Excitation and inhibition were conceived as hypothetical neural processes upon which the acquisition and extinction of behaviour depended. If introverts were characterized by higher levels of cortical excitability and lower levels of cortical inhibition than extraverts, they would be expected to display enhanced sensitivity and efficiency in the processing of sensory stimulation and in conditioning. It was also proposed that such constitutional dispositions may account for individual differences in the social and psychiatric behaviour of introverts and extraverts. The excitation-inhibition hypothesis provoked a good deal of controversy, much of it still unresolved, but the proposal served an important discipline-bridging function and provided a useful and necessary framework for the exploration of the foundations of individual differences in extraversion and neuroticism.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is some evidence that high levels of neuroticism or trait-anxiety are associated with more distress and slower recovery from surgery, but the links which have been found between personality and clinical outcome measures can be explained in terms of effects on subjective distress.
Abstract: Studies concerned with the influence of personality variables on recovery from surgery are critically reviewed. There is some evidence that high levels of neuroticism or trait-anxiety are associated with more distress and slower recovery from surgery. Evidence concerning other personality variables is less conclusive, and those positive associations that have been found may be attributable to overlap between the assessments used and trait-anxiety measures. Further research should involve patient groups that are more homogeneous in terms of sex and type of surgery. Progress in the field would also be furthered by the use of factorially grounded personality measures and standard recovery variables such as pain ratings, respiratory complications or resumption of normal activities. The links which have been found between personality and clinical outcome measures can be explained in terms of effects on subjective distress, or on the patients' involvement in behaviour which may promote recovery, or on physiological and immunological mechanisms.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: Eysenck et al. as discussed by the authors found that the anxiety dimension lies within the two-dimensional space defined by introversion-extraversion and neuroticism, correlating approximately +0.3 to + 0.4 with the introversion end of introversion extraversion dimension.
Abstract: There is a tremendous volume of research concerned with the effects of individual differences on learning and memory (see M.W. Eysenck 1977 for a review), and the individual-difference variables investigated include cognitive factors (e.g. intelligence), motivational-emotional factors (e.g. anxiety) and purely motivational factors (e.g. need for achievement). The emphasis in this chapter will be on personality factors of the motivational-emotional kind, especially those that appear to constitute major, consistently replicable, personality dimensions. There is very substantial evidence (e.g. H.J. Eysenck 1967) that the orthogonal personality factors of neuroticism and introversion-extraversion fulfil these criteria, as does anxiety. It is reasonable to assume that the anxiety dimension, as measured by tests such as the Manifest Anxiety Scale (Taylor 1953), lies within the two-dimensional space defined by introversion-extraversion and neuroticism, correlating approximately +0.3 to +0.4 with the introversion end of the introversion-extraversion dimension and +0.6 to +0.7 with the neuroticism end of the neuroticism-stability dimension (Eysenck 1973).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article found that only children are educationally and occupationally achieving and prefer to have smaller size families than do respondents from any other sibsize, and they also prefer having smaller families.
Abstract: Being an only child is popularly regarded as a handicap. During the 1970s analyses appeared showing an intellectual advantage for only children relative to those from most other family size/birth order statuses. As for whether only children are spoiled and maladjusted research by Claudy Farrell and Dayton finds strikingly positive personality and adjustment values for single children as well as clear intellectual superiority. The authors own analysis using adults of all sibsizes in the General Social Survey indicates that only children are educationally and occupationally achieving count themselves happy and satisfied with important aspects of life are not politically and socially alienated do not have disruptive family lives and are unlikely to require public assistance. Only children also prefer to have and do have smaller size families than do respondents from any other sibsize. The performance of only children belies the prejudice. (Authors) (Summaries in ENG FRE SPA)