The Birth Order Effect On Personality

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

Several theories on birth order have been established dating back to the time of Freud and Jung. Freud himself a first-born child was known to exhibit characteristics typically associated with first-borns. Two significant theorists who have helped to build up the credibility of the study of birth order will be introduced here. The first provided the basis for the discussion regarding birth order and the second revived the said discussion after critics had caused the temporary disbelief to prior studies.

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

Birth order can have many effects on a child’s future. Studies show a significant amount of data that proves that birth order can affect a child in more ways than previously thought. Birth order can determine what a child’s future occupation will be, how smart they will become and how responsible they are. There is a lot of evidence to prove that birth order is more than just a number, and it can have a lot of influence over children.

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

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.

Does being the eldest child make people highly intellectual, people pleasing, perfectionists? Are the middle children always impatiently competing for parental attention by rebelling against the rules? Are all last-born children the spoiled, selfish, favorites? Birth order, a highly controversial topic, is defined as the dynamics of an individual’s place in the family compared to that of their siblings. Birth order has been in a fiery discussion for over one hundred years; some say it’s the very foundation of each one of our personalities, while others claim that the margin of error is just too wide for these coincidental patterns to bear any meaning.

Society can influence your identity by birth order. Oldest children or firstborns like taking charge and are bursting with confidence. The author writes that firstborns often become perfectionists and over-achievers due to the desire to mirror their parents. The author states that older children are more motivated to achieve because they have no older siblings to compete or be made fun of by(is the oldest child likely to be president)(13-15).This passage shows how most firstborns.

The topic of this report is the birth order theory. This report will attempt to determine if the birth order of siblings can affect a person’s personality, ambitions, and future activities. This report will focus on how parents treat their children according to birth order and how people react to everyday decisions by either being a first born child or second born child. This paper will try to determine if and or how someone is affected by the order he or she was born and how this mentally changes them. This report will benefit teenagers, parents and teachers. Teens can benefit from this study because they can change their attitude about life choices and to understand why they think the way they do. Parents can benefit from

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

Paulhus, Trapnell, and Chen (1999) researched, “Across four diverse data sets first borns were nominated as most achieving and more conscientious later borns were nominated as most rebellious, liberal and agreeable.” (482). The different treatment of children by their parents varies on the order the child was born i.e. first borns must deal with a new competitor entering the family, with an addition of a sibling they are no longer the center of their parent’s attention, they no longer receive the praise they were given unwarrantedly, now first borns must protect their position and priority in the family. This motivation by the first born that begins in childhood, or rather when the knowledge of an addition to the family is acquired, results in a drive to achieve success. For this study (Paulhus et al., 1999), a within family data set was used with four families, family

Nowadays, the birth order is considered as the one factor that affects someone’s personality. Even though the birth order is important, but there are still many factors that also affect someone’s personality and habits such as the environment condition, gender, and education. However, the birth order still has a big impact for a person. The birth order affects someone’s personality and habits in some ways. There are 4 types of children in this world which are the only child, the first child, the middle child and the last child. However, the most differences usually come from the first and the last child. In fact, the first and the last child differ in terms of their weaknesses and strengths, the story of their love lives based