Birth Order And Sibling Rivalry Essay

What causes sibling rivalry can be many different things. I know firsthand about sibling rivalry. I have a younger brother name Christian. He is seventeen and a junior in High school. We fight like cats and dogs. Even though he is six foot one, we still try to wrestle. When I come home from college on the weekends, my brother and I will go out and do something. Most of the times we go out to eat. Christian and I have a connection between the two of us that no matter where the other person is we will still fight with each other. Then we will be best friends the next day. No matter what we are doing, we both have our own opinions about things. However, coming from a divorced family puts a strain on my brothers and my relationship. Neither of us wants to hurt either of our parent’s feelings in anything we say or do. So instead of our fighting with our parents, my brother and I take it out of each other. There are three things that cause sibling rivalry. First off, fighting for the parent’s attention is something that happens with all siblings. Secondly, fighting with the other sibling. My brother and I fight all the time, but at the end of the day, we both love each other. The last thing that causes sibling rivalry is comparing one another.

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

Sibling rivalry is not the only issue that was triggered by birth order, child’s personality and his or her intelligence is also involved. Some researchers say that first-borns are smarter because they are pressured to set-up the boundary for the younger siblings. They are more enthusiastic in their education for them to be role models of their other siblings. As for the younger ones, life may be or may not be easy, depending on how they will view it. They may view it positively by keeping in mind that since their older sibling get through it, they also can. Otherwise,

First born children who later have younger siblings may have it the worst. These children are given excessive attention and pampering by their parents until that fateful day when the little brother or sister arrives. Suddenly they are no longer the center of attention and fall into the shadows wondering why everything changed. They are left feeling inferior, questioning their importance in the family, and trying desperately to gain back the attention they suddenly lost. The first born child can become “problem children, neurotics, criminals, drunkards, and perverts” (Cloninger, 2008). However, on the flip side, the first born usually are the peacemakers of the family even though they are a pampered and spoiled child.

Though, birth order illuminates a majority of our personality traits and decisions such as, career and romantic relationships. Parents get wrapped up in the ‘firstborn haze’ and overlook how much pressure they put on older siblings. By creating a pressure to be the best and ‘in control’ the older sibling takes on the leadership role and often becomes more aligned with doing better in school than younger siblings. Determination and intelligence correspond with higher level of career, and that is just what the older sibling strives for. In fact, “100% of astronauts who’ve gone into space were either eldest children or eldest sons” (State). Relationships work better if partners differ from each other and aren’t in the same birth order. The competition can be detrimental and problematic. Alfred Adler’s birth order theory provides us with useful information to reflect our decisions and explain how you think about things. By becoming aware of it we can become more familiar with ourselves and get out of the all too familiar comfort

The object of this experiment was to determine whether or not birth order actually affected personalities and to see if oldest/youngest stereotypes were true. Oldest children are said to be bossy and rule followers while youngest tend to be ambitious and outgoing. To find out whether or not these assumptions were true, ten people were asked a series of questions about oldest and youngest children and what it was like growing up.

Surprisingly, birth order can play an even larger role than the parent-child relationship in causing rebellion. For a long time in human history, the status and fate of a person would be determined by when he or she was born. The eldest son would inherit the family name as well as obtain most of the estate while the later-born children would receive none or less land. Although the modern society places less emphasis on such laws like primogeniture and ultimogeniture, birth order still affects how one is perceived and treated by others. According to research done on families with several children, “firstborns are rated by siblings as more self-disciplined, organized, and deliberate than younger brothers and sisters. They are the ‘achievers’ in the family” (Sulloway 170). These generalizations set high expectations for firstborns, but sometimes, firstborns shy away from the excessive pressure. Not only can unnecessary stress hinder a teenager’s emotional growth, but also can cause the teenager to reject social norms. The world unfairly expects more success out of firstborns than laterborns. However, the first child is actually not considered the most rebellious one. Surveys similarly conclude that “laterborns reject tradition…[and are] twice as likely to describe themselves as the “rebel” of the family” (Sulloway

If researchers hypothesis are supported and birth order affects first born children then, they will score high in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, low in Openness to Experience, and Extraversion. Middle children score low in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and high in Neuroticism. While youngest children will score high in Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion and low Conscientiousness. Current research will support the fact that birth order certainly plays a role as it pertains to personality and findings by Saroglou & Fiasse (2002) as well as Healy & Ellis (2006) supports the fact that parents expectations and treatment shape a child’s temperament.

Many researchers have questioned whether or not birth order and sibling structure play a role in dictating one's success in education. Research shows that firstborns tend to exceed their siblings in intelligence and achievement levels (Cheng, Wang, Sung, Su, & Li, 2012; Boomsma, Beijsterveld, Beem, Hoekstra, Polderman & Bartels, 2007; Cho, 2010; Bu, 2014; Akgeyik, 2013; Karwath, Relikowski, Schmitt, 2014; Horner, Andrade, Delva, Grogan-Kaylor & Castillo, 1998; Rammohan & Dancer, 2008) starting at the age of eight. (Boomsma et al., 2008). This may be due to several factors including the uneven divide of familial resources (Cheng et all, 2012; Harkonen, 2014; Rees, Lopez,

Something I learned about birth order is that many people have different personality because of birth order. Discussing with my group we agree that the first born child is the most responsible . In my group no one was the first born child but we do have our big brother/sister and we all agree that they are responsible and their personality is more matured. On the other hand , some of us didn't agree about the middle child of how they are rebellious and are the black sheep of the family ;but we do agree that the middle child wants attention and whatever to get that little attention from their parents. Also, they are creative to do things as projects and many more. I do rely to this because I'm the middle child and I dislike it because

Is there a “personality tag” for each child, depending on their birth order? Does the family size, or even the parents’ life styles, affect anything? Birth order is more than just an old wives’ tale about predicting the personalities of each child in every family. “Birth order, put in its proper context, is a key that can unlock personalities and give you a new perspective on human nature.” (First- born?,1). Every child of every family has a personality tag, just because of their spot on the immediate family tree. Family size and birth order are factors that make the “personality tag” for the first born, middle child, last born, and only child of each family.

The purpose of the study was to provide support that birth order affects one’s personality, and to challenge theorists who argue that the home environment has no lasting effect on behavior outside of the home .Data was collected by a survey of 900 undergraduates, in which their own birth order order, their best friend’s birth order and the birth orders of their parents were collected.Both romantic and platonic relationships were studied. The study concluded that firstborns, middle children, youngest children, and only children alike, are all more likely to associate with their own kind (eg. firstborns with firstborns). The study also found that family size may account for a linkage between birth order and personality. They concluded that the smaller the family, the less competition each child has for resources, the more successful the children will

Bleske-Rechek & Kelley (2014) have noticed that past research on the link between birth order and personality seems to be biased in that data has been collected by only self-raters, which forces the single member to compare other members of family in relation to themselves. Bleske-Rechek & Kelley argue that birth order effects on personality operate within the family-rearing environment, thus individual differences in personalities between firstborn and laterborn siblings must be measured in responses to the environment according to each member.

There have been many studies conducted regarding the impact of birth order in multi-children families, whether it affects creativity, future success, intelligence, and overall happiness and satisfaction in life. It is popularly believed by laypeople that birth order and family size plays a strong role in the development and eventual personality type and success of each adult; however, while many studies have found positive correlations between older children and success, others have been inconclusive (Carballo, J. et al. 2012). While birth order may play a role in a child’s development, there are many other factors to consider such as socioeconomic status, parental favouritism, parental involvement, and socialization at an early age to name a few. We can go back to our ancestral days to look for clues as to why birth order may have a significant impact on the future success of a child. In ancestral humans, the most important thing was survival; there were high infant mortality rates and people were driven to pass down their genes, so parents were often left to allocate efforts to the child that would most likely survive to have their own children (Daly, M. Wilson, M. 1987, pg 93). This is especially important for fathers, whose paternity is not necessarily guaranteed, as is the mothers. Even today it is still very common for a man to leave a newborn child and the mother if it is even speculated that a child may not be his own (Schmitt, D. 2005, pg 250). Following this, we

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.