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ABSTRACT
The present study was conducted to measure trait anger, anger expression, anger control and emotional intelligence in young adults who have no siblings and those who had at least one sibling. The sample consisted of boys and girls between the age group of 17 to 24 years (N = 160). Spielberger's State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) was used to measure trait anger, anger expression and anger control, while Thomas and Sushama's Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EII) was used to measure emotional intelligence. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-test. No significant differences were found between young adults with siblings and those without siblings, indicating that there are no major personality differences between the two. The findings have been discussed in the light of recent research findings and psychosocial context.
Key words : Emotional Intelligence, Anger Expression, Anger Control.
INTRODUCTION
A sibling is a brother or a sister i.e. any person who shares at least one of the same parents. There are different types of siblings such as full siblings, half siblings and step siblings. Siblings are an important part of a child's life, both because children may spend at least as much time with their siblings as with their mothers and more time with siblings than with their fathers.
Only children are people who grow up without siblings. They have been stereotyped as "selfish," "lonely," and "maladjusted." Early in the twentieth century, the emerging discipline of psychology portrayed only children as inevitably pathological (For e.g. attention seeking, selfish, throwing tantrums, etc). However, the maturing discipline of psychology no longer views only children as inevitably pathological (Falbo and Poston, 1993). One of the concerns about only children is that their lack of sibling relationships might lead them to have less desirable personalities than those who grew up with siblings. As a result, the only child is stigmatized. When asked to describe personality characteristics of an only child, many people will respond negatively, indicating the presupposition that only children are spoiled brats. Adler believed that only children are deficient. He also believed that because only children have no rivals for their parent's affection, they may be pampered and spoiled by their parents. (Falbo and Poston, 1993).
However, when any differences in intelligence and personality...