Birth Order Argumentative Analysis

In “that Elusive Birth Order Effect and What it Means for You,” the author, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, explains that she does not believe your “actual birth order,” really affects your behavior or position in your family. “Your actual birth order need not have the same impact on you as the birth order you believe you have,” (Whitbourne ll 25,26). “Actual” birth order, or ABO, is the numerical rank order in which you are born into your family or origin and “psychological birth order, or PBO, is your own perception on your position in the family.

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.

For example, the birth order theory suggests that the firstborn is the one that is more responsible, confident and a natural born leader. The middle child is supposed to have a time of rebelliousness, and they are the ones that are competitive and can bring people together. The youngest child is the one who is charming, and spoiled. They often rebel to show others that they are not like their older siblings. Only children are confident and socially mature.

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

A good example of “The Power of Birth Order” are the Lee siblings. The Lee siblings are, going from eldest to youngest, Katana, Roman, and Samantha. Katana is a first-born; being the eldest of her siblings she was the first to graduate high school ranking 26th out of 2100. She strived for good grades and worked very hard to help her mother support their family. She is currently attending Trevecca Nazarene University studying to be a teacher. Her brother Roman, the second oldest, is the complete opposite of her. He is smart, but doesn’t like trying in school that much, so his grades suffer. He also prefers to slack-off rather than work. The youngest sibling Samantha is the third-born. She is always trying something new. Samantha is also an artist and likes to express herself through her work. These three siblings are a real-life example of Jeffrey Kruger three

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.

I first was drawn to Adler and his theory on birth order due to the fact his focus was on personality. Understand why a person is the way he/she is, was a major driving force for me choosing to earn my Bachelors in psychology. Secondly, I have a strong relationship with my parents and siblings. I am the oldest of four siblings. I have a sister who is a year younger that I am, a brother who is three years younger than I am, and a sister who is five years younger than me. We have often had discussions before about our family dynamic. The final decision was that I am the oldest and the goody two-shoes that my parents are extremely proud of, my middle sister is the trouble-maker and is my parents least favorite (in her eyes), my brother is the only boy therefore he is spoiled, and my youngest sister is the baby and is treated like a princess. As I began to read Adler’s theory I could not have agreed more. Adler describes the first-born as a rule follower and a leader. In addition, I also tend to conform in order to please others, which was also a trait found in the first-born child. The middle born, my sister, often felt she did not have a place in the family because she felt the spot light was on her older sister and her younger sister. Now that she has grown up she has found her role and is most often the peacemaker connecting all of the siblings. I do disagree with the middle-born child when relating the theory to my brother. He is also technically a middle child, but I tend

Birth order refers to the order in which children are born into their families. Common examples of this include the first-born, second-born, youngest and the only child. Birth order is considered to have profound lasting effects on the psychological and behavioural development of children. For this reason, it is essential to study birth order and its impacts on children within families in Canada because it reveals more about the individual in society. A child’s birth order is incredibly influential in regards to their upbringing, shaping their personality and how they grow up to be as individuals. First-born children generally have a great amount of pressure and responsibility placed on them. The youngest children of families

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

Typically, the idea of a functional birth order focuses on a particular sibling’s role within the family in comparison to other siblings (Healy, 2008). The age gap tends to be the driving force behind these birth order effects (Healy, 2008). The role that the sibling adopts is all impacted by the parental investment, family niches, sibling perceptions, and family identification (Healy,

Investigation about the birth order effects first started in the late nineteenth century. Several researchers have claimed that the relation between birth order and intelligence

Adler was one of the first theorists to suggest that birth order plays a part in personality traits. These character traits develop from development issues; birth order being one of them. The first born or the oldest child becomes “dethroned” when another sibling is born. The first born have a strong need to regain approval from adults and they have a need to be right. The second oldest tends to be the exact opposite of the first born. They tend to be competitive and aggressive, possibly because of “avis complex” (always trying to overcome the first born). The middle child tends to believe that life is unfair because they do not receive the benefits of being the oldest or the youngest. They are good listeners and problems solvers. The youngest child is often babied. They tend to receive the most attention. This results in them being socially aware. Lastly, the only child has a lot in common with the first born. They have a strong awareness of right and wrong. They also prefer small groups and alone

Sigmeund Freud was the first psychotherapist to say: "a child's position in the sequence of brother and sisters is of very great significance for one course of his later life" (Richardson 12). One's birth order position (whether born first, second, last, etc.), one's sex (male or female), and the sex of one's siblings affects the kind of person one becomes. People often say they can't understand "how people from the same family can be so different". What they do not realize is that each sibling is born into a different family. Each new child needs to create a unique identity separate from the others. However this new identity is created within the context of those who are already there. The people in a family change in

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

The purpose of this journal was to show that birth order has a direct relationship with psychological outcomes. Dunkle, Harbke, and Papini show how they performed an analysis and discuss their findings regarding birth order. Their focus of this research was to explain if the outcomes support the Null Hypothesis or if their findings contradict the hypothesis. In their research they find