The Birth Order Theory

     One long controversy among behavioral scientist is the existence of a sibling position effect. Birth order research and theories can be criticized because of differences between parents, sibling positions of the parents, size of families, socioeconomic status, and culture. The conclusions drawn from research studies on sibling position are also often contradictory. However for some reason children with certain birth order roles grow into adolescents and adults with similar qualities.

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.

So, what is birth order? The term birth order refers to the rank of siblings by age. Birth order is believed to have significant and lasting psychological effects on an individual. The effects of birth order on the overall development of a person have continued to have an existence in both personal and professional life. What is personality?

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

Sibling rivalry is not the only issue that was triggered by birth order, child’s personality and his or her intelligence is also involved. Some researchers say that first-borns are smarter because they are pressured to set-up the boundary for the younger siblings. They are more enthusiastic in their education for them to be role models of their other siblings. As for the younger ones, life may be or may not be easy, depending on how they will view it. They may view it positively by keeping in mind that since their older sibling get through it, they also can. Otherwise,

As senior Sociology majors at Augustana College, our final project involves effects of birth order, first generation students and Autism awareness among college age students and we would like your participation. As an Augustana College student, we are inviting you to participate in this research study by completing the survey.

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

Whether you are the first-born child, middle child, youngest child, or only child, you each have individual traits that make you who you are. According to birth order research, the order at which you were born in your family determines your characteristics. I happen to be the only child. The majority of the birth order research on only children describes me, however there is one characteristic that does not accurately describe me.

With the results of the quiz, my birth order personality is of a firstborn. I am actually the first born of my siblings, with my brother being the second child. With my personality, I am a natural leader who tries a to keep the existing way things need to be done. For a while, my parents told me that I developed jealously of my brother due to not being the center of attention. The older I got, the more I got used to having my brother around and had fun no matter who had the attention. After all, being the first born gave me insight on how my parents reacted when they get angry.

I am first born in my family which mean I should be cautious, controlling and an achiever. I do not see myself as any of these, in fact my brother fits this description more than me. I think I have more traits of an only child last born. In my opinion I feel the rolls would be flipped. The oldest is more of an attention seeker because they are use to having all the attention, they had to find friends rather that being born into having a friend making us outgoing and it is not like the oldest has never manipulated their younger siblings into thinking that they were adopted. The youngest is more cautious because they have seen the consequences the oldest has gotten from doing something bad, which would also make them the achiever of the family after seeing what their sibling have already done they have the chance to one up the

I believe that think that the birth order theory is false because I believe that life experiences are what affects the way our personality is what shapes a person’s persona. In class, we learned that birth order determined our personality in the case of my little brother, I find this to be completely false. For example, in the PowerPoint that was given in class we saw that if you were the older brother you were more of good role model to he or she’s younger siblings and more scholarly and the youngest brother was shown to be the brat of the family being spoiled, blames other etc. From how I perceived my brothers and I’s identity I would say that this is false because in my family we were both treated equally and raised in a similar fashion

Parent’s own birth order can be a problem if there is a replication between the family they were raised and the family they are raising, and it is believed that youngest parents can be of great help to their youngest and oldest children thanks to features they had as youngest children, however,biases can occur irrespective of their own birth

Adler placed an emphasis to ordinal position one takes within a family, which he believed that influenced an individual’s relationship with one’s parents, interactions with family members and specific feelings of inferiority complex a person experience in life. Adler emphasized the lived experience oressence of interpretation of family position (or perceived place within the family), as the lensfrom which children view the world. Bitter, Roberts and Sonstegard state the following: “It is theactions and interactions within the family and the interpretations that each person assigns tothese that give initial meaning to children’s lives and to the family as a whole.” (as cited in El-Beshti, 2014)

Birth order and personality traits are very negotiable because the past and present life situation have a big role in how an individual will turn out, but if it’s an average Joe family then I wouldn’t be surprised if they were like what has been studied and concluded for obvious reasons. All of the traits one can have are unlimited depending on the type of parents, environment, and there intelect. These things can either be good or bad, still depending on the person and their thought process.

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