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Effect Of Birth Order On Personality

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Effect of birth order on achievement motivation and personality development
INTRODUCTION
Birth order:
Birth order refers to the order a child is born in their family; first-born and second-born are examples. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development and achievements. (Rodgers, Cleveland, Van Den, Rowe, 2000)
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 …show more content…

Among the general public, it is widely believed that personality is strongly influenced by birth order, but many psychologists has put forward their reservations. One modern theory of personality states that the Big Five personality traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism represent most of the important elements of personality that can be measured (John, Srivastava,1999). Contemporary empirical research shows that birth order does not influence the Big Five personality traits. (Rohrer, Julia, Egloff, Boris, Schmukle, Stefan,

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