Arguments Against Birth Order

Among the first psychologists to consider the effect of birth order on personality was Alfred Adler. Adler espoused that birth order was determinative of the amount of attention that children garnered from their parents (Adler, 1964). The first perspective on birth order thus stemmed from a belief that individuals competed for attention and for areas of strength as a response to parental expectations.

After reading “That Elusive Birth Order Effect and What it Means for You” by Susan Krauss Whitbourne and “How Birth Order Effects Your Personality” by Joshua K. Hartshorne, I have come to the conclusion that both authors view birth order differently. Whitbourne was against the idea that birth order affects a person’s life. She does not believe that myths about birth order should be accepted as fact. Hartshorne, on the other hand, was for the idea that birth order affects a person’s life.

The first journal article I found is called “Birth Order Impacts: Real or imagined? A Review of Literature Past and Present” and this article is very interesting because it details how research has proven that this in fact it is true. “Even Charles Darwin, the revolutionary biologist who proposed the theory of evolution based in natural selection, took a stance that birth order must impact how an organism travels through life” (Govek, 2012). The author also states very good points of research that has been done with infant temperament. “Starting as early as infant temperament, researchers have posed that a child’s later personality can be determined. Where birth order is concerned, it can have an impact on personality, as it has an impact on

In Birth Order, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, Matthew D. Healey, and Bruce J. Ellis set out to test specific personality traits that were potentially affiliated with the firstborn and second-born siblings within the same family, and whether birth-order effects existed, and based it off of a proposal that was presented by Frank Sulloway. Sulloway claimed that personality is influenced through certain alcoves siblings obtained to acquire parental resources. Because of this, he stated that a significant developmental challenge that the younger sibling had to overcome was finding a niche that was not already occupied by the older sibling. As a result, Healey and Ellis tested Sulloway’s claim that firstborns are more achieving

For centuries, one of the most curious stereotypes that have compelled most people is the role birth order has on their personalities and lives. Is birth order necessarily important? Does it honestly affect our personalities? Birth order has been controversial issue since biblical times for example Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau. Psychologists have a lot of assumptions about how that individual behaves and responds to life whenever a person is a first born, middle child, youngest child, or only child. The questions remains, what difference does birth order make, and how true is it that birth order can even have an impact? Theorist has looked at the various studies regarding birth order most of which have used the example of the Adlerian concept of birth order to suggest intelligence and personality type the following paper will work to better understand if birth order makes a significant difference in the outcome of an individual’s life. Leman believes the key to sibling personality discrepancies lies in birth order and how the parents treat their children due to it. However, there are numerous psychologists responsible for the stereotypes of birth order, and how it contributes to various personality types in the study.

Birth Order, as in the order a child is born in their family, has been a popular topic for researchers and the general public for decades. Originally it was claimed that personality was determined by birth order and even now there are many stereotypes of the firstborn being mature and driven while the youngest child is often described as wild and rebellious (Bleske-Rechek and Kelley, 2013). Nowadays researchers find birth order and personality are unrelated. Whether or not intelligence is related to birth order is not completely clear as there have been many studies supporting both sides. However, based on the newest research the prevailing attitude is that intelligence is linked with birth order. Last of all an individual’s health seems

In the study done my McGuirk and Pettijohn, they looked at how birth order not only affects personalities but as well as relationship attitudes and styles.

Through different studies like the General Social Survey, it’s clear that birth order does influence personality development and in turn social behavior. This paper explains the factors within the studies and how they proceed to showcase the correlation between birth order and personality development. These results help affirm that a person’s birth order does affect how their personality develops.

The birth order effect has proved to be a highly debated topic among psychologists and scientists for many years. Magazine pages are flooded with articles about how your birth order can help you pick a spouse or a career. Hundreds of books have been written about the way that birth order affects your personality and intelligence levels. There are many articles written on parenting websites suggesting the best parenting styles to use depending on the birth order of a child. Is the birth order effect a significant factor in who we are or just an elaborate, long-standing hoax? Birth order is the numerical order you are born in relative to your siblings (Moore and Cox, 1990). When a couple has a child, that child will be considered an only child until another child is born. When this second child is born that couple now has a firstborn and a baby of the family. If that couple goes on to have yet another child the first child remains the firstborn, the second child moves to the position of middle child, and the new child is now the baby of the family. The birth order effect emphasizes

For the purpose of this précis an account of the research completed by Julia Rohrer and her team will be discussed. To begin with, this study examines how birth order impacts personality and intellect in humans. Rohrer investigates the main problem based on the question “Does a person’s position among siblings have a lasting impact on that person’s life course?” This quasi longitudinal study is based the independent variable on families and where the child order lies form

When an individual comes into this world they are unable to choose their race, eye color, socioeconomic status, and much less which order they are born into a family. However, much research has gone into the topic of birth order and its effects on the personality traits of individuals.

Distinguishing its study from previous research Marini and Kurtz (2011) intended on possessing the advantages of conducting the largest sample size, having access to background measures, focuses on birth order, and intelligence. Researchers proposed that Sulloway’s predicted outcomes on the personality traits regarding first born and later born children will be displayed. For instance, first born children will exhibit characteristics high in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism, whereas later borns will score high in Extraversion and Agreeableness. In addition, first borns are predicted to score higher on intelligence measure than elder siblings. Researchers used data from Project Talent, a sample a 440,000 students from high school administered several personality and intelligence assessments. A Project Talent Personality Inventory, Mature Personality Scale, Culture Scale, Leadership Scale, and Tidiness Scale were administered to measure personality and intelligence. Participants were told to identify the number of siblings and to classify each sibling. For instance, biological, half, step, or foster siblings. To measure family background participants identified caregivers and general demographic information. Results indicated first borns children scored high in Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. While later born children scored high on Extraversion and Openness to Experience. In addition, findings concluded that first born children display a higher

Birth order is a commonly discussed topic inside the realms of psychological research. Many studies have been organized to show the differentiation of personality concerning birth order. Characteristics of a personality, absent of birth order, play a monumental role in how a person reacts to social influence. A principle examination will occur concerning the view of the first-born child in comparison to the later born child for the purpose of illustrating how their susceptibility differs from one another. A related yet separated analysis will be done encompassing the characteristics of personalities of the first-born individual, as well as the later born individual focusing on the Big Five Personality Dimensions.

The debate between whether there is a correlation between familial birth order and specific personality traits, such as intelligence, success, and social skills, has been discussed and argues since 1874, where Francis Galton started to first look at the subject. The birth order’s impact on the individual is a subject that still is questionable on whether it exist or not to this day. There are plenty of studies that argue for and against this correlation, but the real question is which is right? Through this study I will look to try and reassure a reassure a correlation between birth order and personalities traits, through examining the main focus question, how does birth order influence the personality and learning styles of an individual?

Debates on the relationship between birth order and intelligence have been remaining controversial. Birth order is considered as a person's ranking by age among his or her siblings. There have been numerous researchers studying about this subject to find whether firstborns generally have a higher IQ scores than their siblings. Some scientists conclude that birth order strongly influents intelligence; however, others oppose to this, claiming that birth order has no effect on intelligence. In this paper, my study deals with the birth order effects on intelligence.