Personality Differences Between Kibbutz Born and City Born Adults

Summary

Two hundred and thirty-two men and women students at the University of Haifa were administered a Hebrew version of the California Psychological Inventory. Half of the students were kibbutz born, and the others city born. The two samples were matched on sex, age, level of education, and economic level. Of the 18 scales, significant differences between the means were found in only two scales for each sex group: namely, Responsibility and Achievement via Independence for males, and Achievement via Independence and Intellectual Efficiency for females. The other comparisons of means for each sex group were not significant, nor were there any significant differences between the variances. It seems, then, that the differences in child rearing between kibbutz and city do not necessarily produce major differences in personality traits. An alternative hypothesis might be suggested: kibbutz child-rearing practices, different as they are from the city approach, do not create a “new” type of personality.