Abstract
The qualitative study explored parents perceptions and attributions
of personality differences among their children. Twelve parents
were interviewed using Interpretative Phenomenological
Approach. The analysis revealed that the parents attributed the
siblings‟ personality differences to a combination of biological vs.
psychosocial factors. It revealed meaningful insights as reflected
by the themes that revolved around nature vs. nurture,
psychosocial influences, parental identification and role modeling,
gender, birth order and role expectations. Interestingly, despite
sharing the same genetics, living in similar environmental
conditions, children tend to display diversity in their behaviors and
overall personality. Parents sometimes describe their children as
opposite as „day and night‟ which raises a question to investigate
the factors that cause such extreme diversity in their personalities.
There is a need to further explore parental expectations and criteria
for an ideal child as well as knowing about the relative
contribution of nature vs. nurture factors in determining
personality differences.
Fatima Kamran. (2016) Are Siblings Different as ‘Day and Night’? Parents’ Perceptions of Nature vs. Nurture, Journal of Behavioural Sciences, Volume 26, Issue 2.
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