Birth Order Research Paper

They could feel pampered by their parents and even siblings. Because of this, the younger could “develop social skills that will get other people to do things for them, thus contributing to their image as charming and popular,” (Whitbourne ll 36,37). And lastly, an only child has their parents undivided attention, which could lead to feeling, “scrutinized and controlled,” (Whitbourne ll 42).

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

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.

Only children, though they have some of the same characteristics as firstborn, will at times be self-centered from the outpouring of undivided attention received by parents. Also, because only children do not grow up in environments with other siblings, they usually never learn to share or overcome family conflict. Most become unforgiving of themselves and others and also develop selfishness and anger from being the only kid in the family to please parents. Very high expectations do usually come from parents, which put extreme pressure and stress on an only child's life. Along with first-borns, only children are seen leading in the outside world and succeeding in

People have distinctive traits that could be perceived of first, middle, youngest, and only children. These distinctive traits are potentially affective in relationships with friends, spouses, etc. The first born tend to have characteristics of being

You are connected to your family by more than just blood. The way you think and act is largely based on the unnoticed bias your parents give during childhood. Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler was the first to explore the ideas of birth order and how it affects personality due to family ordinance. Adler was a world renowned psychiatrist and philosopher who formed the idea of individual psychology. “He was a colleague of Sigmund Freud and helped establish psychoanalysis, and was a founding member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society” (Cherry). Associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Redlands Catherine Salmon says,“Adler’s work led to an explosion of birth order studies examining the relationships between birth

The treatment is also different based on the order the child was born in children that are born first get better treatment then the youngest one. Sometimes the youngest gets a better treatment if the parents waited to have the youngest child. According to lecture 4 states,"Adler emphasized the importance of psychological birth order and sibling relationships in each individual's development. He suggested that oldest, second, middle, youngest, and only children have distinct personality characteristics and coping styles, even as adults.

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.

Adler’s idea on birth order has conjured up some questions. Can a person’s birth order be a good measure of a child’s personality? How does birth order determine a person’s personality? Sometimes, birth order does predict some lifestyle of a child. Does the birth order idea have some truth about a person’s personality?

Birth order can have an effect on many personality traits and even a child’s future occupation. First borns are more likely to become managers because their order in the family trains them to have more responsibility. This responsibility allows the child to have more managerial and leadership skills. For example,

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

The role of birth order is still taught and preached around today. People still follow this theory and made this theory the benchmark for sibling attributes. However, the Individual Psychology can be misleading in some aspects. This theories main criteria is the superiority and inferiority complex and unfortunately it doesn’t go into more nurture aspects such as environment, which can also shape up an individual’s attitude. Alfred Adler was an interesting psychologist to pick due to his past, and how that affected his theories as an adult. It is also unique to see how Adler’s disagreement with Freud led to his theories on individual and their personalities. Overall, Adler had a big influence on psychology and his contribution as a Neo-Freudian caved many other theories that explain

In home, they should know what is the significant and important to their parents and siblings before they locate their own specialty in the family and make a spot for themselves. According to Romeo, there are no two people precisely similar, even identical twins are not exactly alike (1994). It means everyone is unique, and it is on the individual's mental advancement to interpret certain events or things. According to Alfred Adler, the birth order of each person provides an impact to his or her personality development. Each position of an individual in the family has diferent characteristics, attitudes and choice of interests. He stated that the eldest are socially dominant, highly intelectual, and extremely conscientious. However, they tend to be less open to new ideas, prone to the idea of perfectionism and often like to please people, as a result of losing of what they thought as undivided attention from both parents on their eraly age and striving hard to gain it back. The middle ones are flexible member of the family. They are often competitive because they feel the need to surpass their other sibling. The youngest according to the birth theory, tend to be dependent and selfish because they are used to theie parents providing everything for them. Lastly, the only child are coined as "spoiled" because they are

With the second child, the parents tend to be less attentive thus leading the child be more of a people-pleaser and diplomatic (Connor, 2007) thus creating a follower style type. The last born child is thought as rebellious and displays a spoiled attitude not typically a leadership trait. As the family size increases, the parental resources are divided more sparsely among all children. Many factors such as birth order, siblings, genes and circumstances all unquestionably play a greater role in the development of a child’s personality (Healey, 2007) thus impacting the type of leader displayed.