Birth Order Research Paper

After Frank Sulloway published his popular studies on how birth order affects individuals (1996 & 1999), many researchers delved into the field to determine how personality is affected by birth order. General hypotheses state that most first-born children are more intelligent than those born later, and that the youngest children are more social. Many more similar hypotheses exist in the field, and through several researches, more information on the actual relationship between birth order and personality is available. These researches and experiments give insight into the psychological significance of birth order.

He called this struggle a striving for superiority, and like Freud's Eros and Thanatos, he saw this as the driving force behind all human thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (All Psych and Heffner 2011). Adler believed that the order in which you are born to a family inherently affects your personality. Alder believed 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. Middle born children may have it the easiest, Adler believed that middle children have a high need for superiority and are often able to seek it out such as through healthy competition. The youngest children, like the first born may be more likely to experience personality problems later in life. This is the child who grows up knowing that he has the least amount of power in the whole family. This could leave the youngest child with a sense that he cannot take on the world alone and will always be inferior to others (The Science and Practice of Clinical Psychology, 2007).

A sibling position can impact a person’s personalities of copying mechanisms. People who grow up in the same position have the same characteristics. Characteristics in the same position does not mean that one is better than the older. One article that I found very unique to the sibling position was from JSTOR named The Journal of Human Resources and it stated, “many studies have concluded that children raised in larger families tend to have lower IQs, leave school earlier, and end up in lower-status, lower-paying jobs other things equal. This result is usually interpreted as showing that larger family size strains parents' ability to devote time, energy, and money to each child. The strain-on-family-resources interpretation seems to receive further support from studies of the consequences of birth order. First-borns seem to have higher IQs and achievements than middle-born or last-born children, for any given family size. The last-borns tend to stay in school longer than middle-borns, though they have no IQ advantage” (JSTOR). An example that would demonstrate sibling position concept would be when Mrs. Skeeter gets her nickname from her older brother Carlton. When she was born he said, “It’s not a baby, it’s a Skeeter!” (Stockett,2009 66). She also stuck with that name because she felt that it fit her character. “and from there the name stuck. I was long and leggy and mosquito- thin, and record- breaking twenty-five

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

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

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

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

Many firstborns feel like they are greater than other children and therefore become controlling in order to make sure that they remain superior. When the next child joins the family, the oldest feels neglected and unloved. The child will try to hold on to the parents attention by being extra responsible and trying to be helpful, but if he's not successful, the child will get very discouraged and misbehave for attention (Birth order, 1978). Due to the firstborns perfectionist personality, when something doesn't go right he will have a hard time admitting he's wrong. Middle born children tend to turn out to be the opposite of the oldest.

Alfred Adler who was a psychologist known for his theorization of how birth order can affect your personality. He stated, “since the oldest receives responsibility and the youngest can be spoiled, children in the middle can feel like they don’t receive any attention at all. They fight for significance and privilege”. The middle child or the second born often develop the competitive nature, making natural entrepreneurs later in their lives. For me, Alfred Adler’s theory is one hundred percent correct. Reasons of the theory of birth order being correct is me being born the second child in my family has changed my personality to be less of a caring person and to only work in order to succeed. My parents became a bit more lenient with me after my sister went on to college.

     Also, your birth order can affect the kind of parent you are and the kind of relationship you have with your children. "If you are an oldest or a middle child you probably either had some experience or witnessed caring for a younger child" (Richardson 28). Therefore for an oldest and a middle child parenthood may come easily to them and be most fulfilling. These adults may be inclined to take too much responsibility for or be too controlling with their children, however, they may simply be good and nurturing caretakers. On the other hand, if the child is an only child or a last born, the child has not had the chance to observe any parenting other than their own. Therefore these children may feel overwhelmed by the responsibility

In the order of which you are born are so important in some families. In some cultures, the most important order to be in for a child was to be the oldest. Being the oldest, you could be first for the throne or first as a prince or princess. Different spots of birth order create certain differences between children belonging to this or that spot inside the family. These differences show why siblings are not alike. The term siblings are used to identify children who are brothers and sisters coming from that same mom and dad. The commonly known words “sibling rivalry” may be understood as a phenomenon caused directly by the order in which you were born in. From the research of Alfred Adler, the birth order of a child is the predictor of his future characteristics. Adler said that, “the firstborn children are “dethroned” when the next child comes along and that they may never recover from that.” Adler believed that the true reason for the differences between siblings is the desire to be different and have different characteristics, to be individual and not compared to their other sibling, and to stand out from the crowd of other children. Siblings ranging in age are always competing for the love of the mom and dad. Also, the oldest and the youngest always seem to have to fight for power over one another to gain control of the situation. “I’m the oldest, so I’m going to be in charge! “Or you hear the youngest one say, “I’m going tell mom you’re being bossy! You’re not the boss

Siblings who have spent most of their early lives together have common values and perceptions. Consequently, they are expected to live harmoniously together, as they hold common values, ethics, and beliefs. However, a common upbringing and shared values does not always imply coherent relationships. According to de Pontent, Aronoff, Mendoza, and Ward (2012) the order of birth, exposes children to different circumstances depending on their parent’s prevailing economic conditions. Firstborns may arrive when the parents are not financial established. Consequently, they may adopt different viewpoints from their siblings born when the parents are more affluent. Moreover, birth order creates sibling rivalry; a cause of tension that may continue into adulthood.

Psychological birth order is defined as the way a person sees or perceives his or her position in his or her family of origin. Alfred Adler believed that birth order was the way a child interpreted his or her perceived positions in the family, which is the most important to him or her. (Kalkan, 2008) In 1874, Francis Galton— the youngest of nine siblings— analyzed a sample of English scientists to find that first born were over represented and find that eldest sons enjoy special treatment by their parents, allowing them to thrive intellectually. Half a century later, Alfred Adler (1870-1937), the second of six children, suggest that birth order influences personality. According to him, the oldest, middle and the youngest child are due to their positions in family have different social experiences of coping which may form different

Some of the traits seen in first born children include: perfectionist, reliable, list maker, well-organized, critical, serious, scholarly, seek approval, conservative, and law-abiding (Lehnardt). They are also typically bad at delegating. Researchers suggest that firstborn are more highly motivated than other or later-born children (Lehnardt). Firstborns are also more likely to seek help and are self-critical. “Firstborns are more likely to make at least $100,000 more annually than their siblings” (Lehnardt). Researchers say firstborn are generally higher motivated than others. In addition, “firstborns tend to score higher on IQ tests and typically get more education than their brothers and sisters” (Lehnardt). However, in life, there are exceptions to these characteristics and features seen in children born first. For example, younger siblings tend to take on a firstborn role if an