Adler's Theory Of Birth Order

In the texts “That That Elusive Birth Order and What it Means for You,” and “How Birth Order Affects Your Personality,” the authors give their interpretation on the importance of birth order in siblings. The author of the first text, Susan Whitbourne, stresses the unimportance of birth order. Conversely, Joshua Hartshorne, the author of the second text, says that birth order is significant to personality, but there just has not been enough evidence until recent studies.

According to Alfred Adler, the birth order of the children in a family will largely affect how they age and the personalities which they will form. First borns enter the family as the only child. They revel in the love and full attention from their parents, that is, until the second baby comes along. Suddenly, first borns are dethroned and lose the undivided attention they are used to receiving. As a result, they tend to develop a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness over their siblings at an early age, which often leads to them becoming authoritative adults. Moreover, when there are multiple children in the family, parents will set high

A good example of “The Power of Birth Order” are the Lee siblings. The Lee siblings are, going from eldest to youngest, Katana, Roman, and Samantha. Katana is a first-born; being the eldest of her siblings she was the first to graduate high school ranking 26th out of 2100. She strived for good grades and worked very hard to help her mother support their family. She is currently attending Trevecca Nazarene University studying to be a teacher. Her brother Roman, the second oldest, is the complete opposite of her. He is smart, but doesn’t like trying in school that much, so his grades suffer. He also prefers to slack-off rather than work. The youngest sibling Samantha is the third-born. She is always trying something new. Samantha is also an artist and likes to express herself through her work. These three siblings are a real-life example of Jeffrey Kruger three

In Adler's theory, the first-born gains the exclusive attention of his or her parents for a season at least. This prompts the first-born to explore confidently his or her areas of interest knowing that any accomplishments he or she attains will give satisfaction to his or her parents (Adler, 1964). However, upon the birth of the second child, the parents attention shifts to the younger child. This causes the

For a period, birth order was refuted and phased out from serious study. However, as a result of Sulloway’s release of his own studies, birth order theories gained respect once again (Paulhus, Trapnell, & Chen, 1999). Frank Sulloway follows Adler’s theory in the sense that he also believed sibling differences attributed to birth order resulted from competition between siblings. Sulloway (1996) held that siblings utilize differences in size and strength to overpower younger siblings. These younger siblings in turn resorted to counterstrategies in order to hold their ground against older siblings. Such a discussion is certainly reminiscent to Adler’s own speculations.

Winston Churchill once said “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” Churchill was the oldest child in his family and eventually went on to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The question remains; does birth order determine who people will become? Cultural norms lead people to believe that oldest children are responsible and driven, while the babies of the family are spoiled and irresponsible; a reevaluation of this idea needs to be taken. Children are not directly influenced by the order of birth within their family, rather, the way their parents treat them individually has a greater impact on the family as a whole.

Adler was one of the first theorists to suggest that birth order plays a part in personality traits. These character traits develop from development issues; birth order being one of them. The first born or the oldest child becomes “dethroned” when another sibling is born. The first born have a strong need to regain approval from adults and they have a need to be right. The second oldest tends to be the exact opposite of the first born. They tend to be competitive and aggressive, possibly because of “avis complex” (always trying to overcome the first born). The middle child tends to believe that life is unfair because they do not receive the benefits of being the oldest or the youngest. They are good listeners and problems solvers. The youngest child is often babied. They tend to receive the most attention. This results in them being socially aware. Lastly, the only child has a lot in common with the first born. They have a strong awareness of right and wrong. They also prefer small groups and alone

I believe that think that the birth order theory is false because I believe that life experiences are what affects the way our personality is what shapes a person’s persona. In class, we learned that birth order determined our personality in the case of my little brother, I find this to be completely false. For example, in the PowerPoint that was given in class we saw that if you were the older brother you were more of good role model to he or she’s younger siblings and more scholarly and the youngest brother was shown to be the brat of the family being spoiled, blames other etc. From how I perceived my brothers and I’s identity I would say that this is false because in my family we were both treated equally and raised in a similar fashion

Sibling position, parental examples, and family atmosphere all influenced the family constellation according to Adler. This is where birth order became very popular in Adler’s work. Understanding how a child works through birth order can be very revealing in how the adult approaches life. Parental examples give children the understanding of what it’s like to be a grown-up. Children pay attention to the roles of their parents: the role of mom and dad, male and female, husband-and-wife etc. During play and imagination these roles become the foundation for later adult relationships and self-definition.

“Alfred Adler, the founding father of Individual Psychology was one of the first theorists to suggest that birth order influences personality”( Gustafson, 2010). As what is expected of the oldest is different than the middle or youngest child. Adler started with this idea on birth order and others have continued down this path of research. “Having lived through WWI, Serving as a physician, with the Austrian Army at the Russian front, and then in a children's hospital” (Adler, 2014). He was in a unique position to study people specifically children in the aftermath of war.

From the very moment a person is born, they are subject to judgment. While this unconscious social labeling may seem unwarranted, it still exists and how a person is perceived can be traced to something very specific in many cases. The specific thing is birth order and how it affects one’s awareness of their self and others. Alfred Adler was considered to be the initial researcher of birth order, with theories of how a child’s birth rank affected their development, not only physically but mentally (Franz Description). Birth order within society has a positive effect on personality development, health, and education.

Adler placed an emphasis to ordinal position one takes within a family, which he believed that influenced an individual’s relationship with one’s parents, interactions with family members and specific feelings of inferiority complex a person experience in life. Adler emphasized the lived experience oressence of interpretation of family position (or perceived place within the family), as the lensfrom which children view the world. Bitter, Roberts and Sonstegard state the following: “It is theactions and interactions within the family and the interpretations that each person assigns tothese that give initial meaning to children’s lives and to the family as a whole.” (as cited in El-Beshti, 2014)

From the perspective of modern psychology, the extent to which Adler’s theory about the order of birth is scientific is highly debatable. Many of his concepts are not measurable or manipulable, and his variable are neither physical nor behavioral. Adler did not consider measurement or an experimental approach in general as the most efficient approach to

In terms of Adlerian typology, "the firstborn child is frequently depicted as a leader and dominant personality who adheres to rules and established protocol," as one who enjoys structure and is more responsible (Alan 2004). They are also thought to achieve greater academic and professional success and to have higher self-esteem. "Parents tend to have higher expectations of the older child than they do of younger siblings. These expectations are often accompanied by investment of more parental time and attention in socializing the firstborn" (Kulik 2004). According to Adler, some firstborn children never recover from the

The birth order position can have a profound effect on the character development of the child. Within the birth order position is the only child, the oldest, and the youngest. According to Adlerian Psychology, the only child makes up the majority of the patients. They are pampered and made to believe that they are the most beautiful, intelligent, and most important person on earth. It is important to teach an only child courage in order