Birth Order and Personality

Whitbourne explains the stereotypes surrounding sibling roles, such as the first-born is most likely to take on the leadership position, and tend to “stick to rules and order, and strive toward achievement

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.

There are many things that effect a person’s personality and future success. Things like gender, race, ethnicity, and economic stability are all examples of what can affect a person’s development, but what about someone’s birth-date? Can a person’s birth-order really effect someone’s future? In “The Power of Birth Order” Jeffrey Kluger writes about how birth-order can determine a person’s personality and success; throughout “The Power of Birth Order” he established three categories: first-born, second-born, and third-born.

When an infant is born determines in large part the emotions of his or her parents and relatives. Moreover, whether or not the infant is the first child,

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

For centuries, one of the most curious stereotypes that have compelled most people is the role birth order has on their personalities and lives. Is birth order necessarily important? Does it honestly affect our personalities? Birth order has been controversial issue since biblical times for example Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau. Psychologists have a lot of assumptions about how that individual behaves and responds to life whenever a person is a first born, middle child, youngest child, or only child. The questions remains, what difference does birth order make, and how true is it that birth order can even have an impact? Theorist has looked at the various studies regarding birth order most of which have used the example of the Adlerian concept of birth order to suggest intelligence and personality type the following paper will work to better understand if birth order makes a significant difference in the outcome of an individual’s life. Leman believes the key to sibling personality discrepancies lies in birth order and how the parents treat their children due to it. However, there are numerous psychologists responsible for the stereotypes of birth order, and how it contributes to various personality types in the study.

Personality development is a relatively new research area that many sociologist have devoted many studies to in trying to identify the different factors that influence an individual’s personality development. The topic of birth order is important when considering personality development. This paper attempts to show that birth order is indeed an influence in personality development. The research question that the paper seeks to answer is: “To What Extent does Birth Order affect Personality Development?”.

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

Birth Order is defined as a chronological order of siblings’ birth in the multiple birth of a family (Birth Order, 2009) Birth Order lets people know how to feel about others’ behaviour, reveals why people do what they do and shows the strategies people use (Clifford) Birth Order helps people to be able to cope with obstacles of the world and discover

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.

Birth Order Personality Traits It is easy to wonder how two children from the same family can turn out so differently, with completely different personalities and ways of solving problems. Recognizing the immense influence of family dynamics on young children can clear up a lot of the confusion. For example, eldest children look to their parents as role models for their behavior, and may become perfectionistic as parents expect them to act like little adults. Middle children may become more dependent on peer approval and their friends because they tend to get relatively less attention within their families.

This article examined the development of personality from childbirth. Furthermore, it highlighted how childbirth affects the parents than in turn affects the new born. Childbirth shifts perspectives, responsibility, roles, and identity for those in the family (Galdiolo, Roskam). The article goes on to explain a five-trait structure of personality. These five traits include; neuroticism, Extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. Next the authors discuss the nature verses nurture in light of personality development. Without a doubt personality is greatly influenced by both. While biologics have a foundational role in personality development, the environment, social influences, and life events continually shape

One thing is for sure about eldest children: They are nothing like middle born children. Middle children are dubbed as the outgoing, friendly, and loud sibling. All too often do they get lost in the madness of the family dynamics and, in turn, develop a competitive nature. They are eager for their parents’ approval and praise, but feel as if their older sibling received too much credit and their younger sibling receives too little discipline compared to them (Neal). “They are both teacher and student, babysitter and babysat, too young for the privileges of the firstborn but too old for the latitude given the last” (Kluger).

The family environment in which an individual grows up, has substantial effects on the kind of person they become later in life. It has even been argued, that the functional birth order, which is affected by the environment one grows up in, plays a bigger role in moulding them into the people that they become later in life than the biological birth order (Sulloway, 1996). Courtiol, Raymond and Faurie (2009) investigated the significance of birth order on trustfulness and reciprocation of individuals, with their hypothesis being that birth order would influence adults’ behaviour towards non-kin. The results of the experiment speak for themselves, as they indicate that a distinct trend can be seen in the characteristics of people depending on their birth order. According to Sulloway, it has been argued that the characteristic differences the birth order forms, are the consequences of sibling competition for parental investment

Some parents often wonder, what, if any, effect birth order will have on their children's personalities. Genetic factors and other influences play a significannot