Birth Order Effect Research Paper

Parents’ own birth orders and children experience can impact family dynamics, such as, firstborn parents getting into “raging battle” with a firstborn child, youngest-born parents not having high expectations on their kids or seeing their children’s abilities, biases based on their own birth positions, sticking up for the children with the same birth order, and birth order affecting the children’s personalities.

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

Almost all of us are familiar of the Birth Order theory that Alfred Adler presented almost a century ago. Adler theorized that our personalities are hugely influenced by our chronological place in the family because

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

Though there are specific temperaments and personality traits commonly found in each birthplace, it does not signify that each characteristic perfectly fits a single child or adult in that order. Many variables interfere with the general traits found in each birthplace and can easily change the personalities of that specific order. A complete change in birth order characteristics can also result from these specific interferences. Both circumstances in the outside and inside world take effect and are called the variables of birth order. These variables are very important to keep in mind while looking at this subject. Dr. Kevin Leman, an internationally renowned psychologist, and New York Times Bestselling Author, lists some of the major variables found in many children and adults in his book The Birth Order Book. The spacing of up to five years or more, gender, physical and mental disabilities or difference, deaths in the family, and also spacing will interfere and alter the personality traits found in each birth placement. This list of variables can continue on, but looking at these can provide insight to those dealing with doubts towards their specific birth order or where they may fit

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.

Many people believe that sibling in the same family often have personalities, abilities, preferences that differ depending on their birth order. Moreover, some people feel that the birth order also affects the health, intelligence and personality characteristics of children. Many studies have been conducted to investigate this secret and scientists have discovered some interesting correlations, but also there are many controversial. Many external factors revolve around this theme such as the age of the people in the family, age distance, the total number of children, the sex of each child, environmental nurture and economic conditions social.

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

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

Alfred Adler, a psychologist, proposed the idea that has been experimented and ultimately has been proven correct. The order in which children are born has an extreme effect on the children in a household. The youngest child is often showered with affection, which leads to the child becoming overly dependant on his parents. The eldest child however, learns responsibility at a young age, and learns self sufficiency. This is because when a new member of the family is introduced, the oldest child is forced to fend on their own in terms of attention. They learn how to clean up after their siblings, and also care and respect for younger children. An older child may feel jealousy and possibly depressed when the attention is suddenly divided unevenly towards them and their younger sibling. At times, the oldest child is even neglected. Although the order of birth has been proven to have effect on children, there are no specific patterns as to how a child will definitely turn out. Zane A Maus conducted an experiment. In his experiment he wanted to figure out if birth order did indeed have an effect on personality: “According to Adler, middle-borns have attributes and needs that are much different from that of their first or later-born siblings. Middle-borns tend to have the need to “dethrone” the oldest born by beating the expectations set for by their parents and to eventually become the dominant

Have you ever thought about if your mom treats you differently than the oldest or the youngest kid? If you are the youngest or the oldest have you ever thought that the middle child was treated better than you just because it's the the middle child like everyone always thinks and everything is just easier for them. Well it just might be true in another way. The birth order does affect things that happen to you. In many ways such as allergies, ADHD, and PTSD. Birth Order of when kids are born can have effects on them for the rest of their lives.

Birth order is believed to influence many aspects of one’s personality. By research birth order it give an idea how I feel every day. For example me being the middle child. I feel like I'm independent, secretive, and being ignored my others and many more.

Birth order seems to matter a lot, at-least according to earlier psychological studies. There are stereotypes about the elder child, the middle child and the youngest one. Some even suggest that it could actually even be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As there have been many research conducted in order verify Adler’s theory. In modern times, this had led to conflicting results. With various methodologies used, such as controlled experiments, studies, literature reviews, the findings all spread across the board. Some researchers such as Angst and Ernst believed that birth order does not impact personalities traits. Through extensive reviews and after conducting their own experiment, deemed that there is no correlation between the two topics. Others have disagreed and support Adler’s claim that birth order influences an individual’s personality. Frank Sulloway claims that birth order directly affects the Big Five Personality traits such as conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion. Many researchers attribute personalities to various other social factors other than birth order such as family dynamic, socioeconomic issues, cultures

Although there are a number of scientists supporting for the idea of being the firstborns is beneficial and advantageous, recent studies assert that the effects of birth order no longer are significant. The children’s intelligence depends on many factors such as family size, child spacing, prenatal factors, gestational factors, not only birth order