The Importance Of Birth Order

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.

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

This study explored the influence of birth order on personality and academic sibling rivalry and also emphasised the interaction of the three variables. Badger & Reddy, 2009 recruited a total of 46 psychology students, range 18 – 25. There were 22 firstborn participants and 24 last born participants and all of these participants had only one sibling. Personality was measured using the IPIP – NEO, which is an online personality test that consists of 120 items with each item relating to one of the five factors – Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience. Academic sibling rivalry was tested using Academic Sibling Rivalry Questionnaire, (ASOR) that was devised for this study with the help of focused group responses. The results of this study revealed that firstborn were more conscientious and dutiful and last born were more likely to experience sibling rivalry in

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

The object of this experiment was to determine whether or not birth order actually affected personalities and to see if oldest/youngest stereotypes were true. Oldest children are said to be bossy and rule followers while youngest tend to be ambitious and outgoing. To find out whether or not these assumptions were true, ten people were asked a series of questions about oldest and youngest children and what it was like growing up.

If researchers hypothesis are supported and birth order affects first born children then, they will score high in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, low in Openness to Experience, and Extraversion. Middle children score low in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and high in Neuroticism. While youngest children will score high in Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion and low Conscientiousness. Current research will support the fact that birth order certainly plays a role as it pertains to personality and findings by Saroglou & Fiasse (2002) as well as Healy & Ellis (2006) supports the fact that parents expectations and treatment shape a child’s temperament.

Many people believe that sibling in the same family often have personalities, abilities, preferences that differ depending on their birth order. Moreover, some people feel that the birth order also affects the health, intelligence and personality characteristics of children. Many studies have been conducted to investigate this secret and scientists have discovered some interesting correlations, but also there are many controversial. Many external factors revolve around this theme such as the age of the people in the family, age distance, the total number of children, the sex of each child, environmental nurture and economic conditions social.

The purpose of the study was to provide support that birth order affects one’s personality, and to challenge theorists who argue that the home environment has no lasting effect on behavior outside of the home .Data was collected by a survey of 900 undergraduates, in which their own birth order order, their best friend’s birth order and the birth orders of their parents were collected.Both romantic and platonic relationships were studied. The study concluded that firstborns, middle children, youngest children, and only children alike, are all more likely to associate with their own kind (eg. firstborns with firstborns). The study also found that family size may account for a linkage between birth order and personality. They concluded that the smaller the family, the less competition each child has for resources, the more successful the children will

Through different studies like the General Social Survey, it’s clear that birth order does influence personality development and in turn social behavior. This paper explains the factors within the studies and how they proceed to showcase the correlation between birth order and personality development. These results help affirm that a person’s birth order does affect how their personality develops.

Birth order studies are an attempt by contemporary psychology to explain how our personalities are fundamentally shaped by “family position”, and how this consequently “affects an individuals’ experiences and development” (A. Phillips and C. Phillips 474). Since psychologist Alfred Adler first published his birth order theory, countless studies have been conducted to corroborate his claims. Frequently, research has focused on specific traits of first-born and later-borns, as well as specific case studies into self-attributions and leadership potential.

The birth order effect has proved to be a highly debated topic among psychologists and scientists for many years. Magazine pages are flooded with articles about how your birth order can help you pick a spouse or a career. Hundreds of books have been written about the way that birth order affects your personality and intelligence levels. There are many articles written on parenting websites suggesting the best parenting styles to use depending on the birth order of a child. Is the birth order effect a significant factor in who we are or just an elaborate, long-standing hoax? Birth order is the numerical order you are born in relative to your siblings (Moore and Cox, 1990). When a couple has a child, that child will be considered an only child until another child is born. When this second child is born that couple now has a firstborn and a baby of the family. If that couple goes on to have yet another child the first child remains the firstborn, the second child moves to the position of middle child, and the new child is now the baby of the family. The birth order effect emphasizes

For the purpose of this précis an account of the research completed by Julia Rohrer and her team will be discussed. To begin with, this study examines how birth order impacts personality and intellect in humans. Rohrer investigates the main problem based on the question “Does a person’s position among siblings have a lasting impact on that person’s life course?” This quasi longitudinal study is based the independent variable on families and where the child order lies form

He believed that even though siblings were raised in the similar environment, that because of their birth order they received different parenting styles which shaped their personality in distinctly different ways (121). Although, the study by Nyman did not mention the reasons behind the distinct traits, his study did acknowledge, and seemingly find, that individuals in different birth orders did have distinctive personality traits. Alder’s theory for the first born states that this child will have more leadership traits such as teaching younger siblings (123). He also said that they are more concerned with having authority (123). This matches up to the results of the study because the male eldest born was seen to have a dominant aggressive trait which could be paired up with seeking authority and leadership. Also the eldest female in the study was seen as a nurturer which would go perfectly with leadership and teaching. Adler believed that the second born are competitive and ambitious (123). The study did not have the element to choose second born but they did have middle child which is equivalent to Alder’s theory of the second born. The Middle child male child for the study was given the traits of ambitious/achiever and the female middle child was given outgoing and friendly (58). Both traits given to the middle birth order line up perfectly with the ambitious personality that Adler suggested for the second born. The youngest child, according to Adler are typically over achievers (124). However the reverse can be true if the youngest child is too pampered and they can become dependent on others (124). The results for the study for the youngest child in the birth order did not seem to match up as well as the others. The results for these were that the male was outgoing and friendly and the youngest female is caring and

After reading many articles over birth order of siblings I find that the relationship between siblings and the personality of the siblings differ from whether they were born first or later. Jeffrey Kluger’s “The Power of Birth Order” states many ideas and facts on the future and personality development of the siblings. While “The Sibling Effect” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman give a good example on how birth order causes one sibling to act in a certain way. I find it intriguing on how much birth order impacts sibling relationships.

Research revolving around the effect of birth order on personality is simple to find, given the multitude of papers on the subject. Despite this birth order literature is considered ambiguous and teaming with conflict. Due to the ease of access to these controversial birth order theories, first time, second time, third time, etc. parents can be influenced by these theories, and thus influence their children. Rarely is there a study that researches the effect of these birth order beliefs on children and their progression into adulthood. Nicholas Herrera, R. Zajonc, Grayzyna Wieczorkowska, and Bogdan Cichomski, address this concept in their empirical study, Beliefs About Birth Rank and Their Reflection in Reality.