Altruism as a Characteristic of Individuals Who Intend to Adopt Heather Buford Hanover College

Introduction: Literature Possible link between altruism and adoptive parents; e.g, study of adoptive parents of Mother Theresa’s orphanages (Goodman & Kim, 1999) However, that study had a limited population was based on interpretation of open-ended questionnaires and interviews

Introduction: Literature, cont’ Research on the Big Five personality factors shows a positive correlation between empathy/attachment and agreeableness (Ashton, Paunonen, Helmes, & Jackson; 1998) Thus, the field of psychology is in need of research on the personality characteristics of adoptive parents

Hypotheses Individuals with an intention to adopt will be more altruistic, more agreeable, more open to experience, more extraverted, more conscientious, and more emotionally stable

Method: Participants Volunteers at adoption fair in Louisville Volunteers from faculty, staff, and students at Hanover College n=20 14 females, 6 males years (M=38.9)

Method: Materials Demographics questionnaire 1-item scale for intention to adopt included on demographics “I intend to adopt a child some day.” 5-point Likert scale; 1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree Two measures, which were counterbalanced

Method: Materials, cont’ Altruism scale 20 items, 5-point Likert scale “I have done volunteer work for a charity;” 1=never, 5=very often

Method: Materials, cont’ Big Five Inventory Measures agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and emotional stability 44 items, 5-point Likert scale “I see myself as someone who is talkative;” 1=disagree strongly, 5=agree strongly

Method: Procedure Recruited participants at an adoption fair and on campus Participants read consent form, filled out demographics and the two measures, and received debriefing sheet Data were analyzed for relationships using correlations, ANOVAs, and Multiple Regression

Results: Relationships Between Personality Factors and Intention to Adopt An Analysis of Variance indicated that altruism and the Big Five Factors positively predicted intention to adopt (F(7, 12)=2.53, p<.10) A Multiple Regression Analysis indicated that altruism significantly predicted intention to adopt (R 2 =.60, p<.10)

Discussion Study supported hypothesis that those participants with an intention to adopt would be more altruistic than those participants who do not intend to adopt Low power Future research