How Birth Order Controls How You Live And Prosper?

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

Some say that people are just who they are, that a person no matter their origin or upbringing will end up exactly how they are and ultimately who they were meant to become, but what if they were wrong? Why am I loud and vivacious, yet my younger sister is quiet and shy, and my brother is more protective over my youngest sister and ignores me? What makes anyone the person that they are? Sure, the things that happen at school mold people, but the real developments happen at home. An individual's personality is solely based upon the order and the timing of birth in relation to their siblings, if any. A well renowned psychologist, Dr. Kevin Leman employs effective elements of rhetoric in his book, The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You

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

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.

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

I definitely agree with Dr. Mulloway’s findings. I had no clue that the order of birth could affect each child's personality. I definitely believe in younger child always being the spoiled one. And plus there is a big space in age difference between us and my younger sister she is 8 I'm 23 and my brother is 20. My brother was always the spoiled one being that he was younger than me but after our little sister came she became the spoiled one. We all shared different personalities. I was always the one that kept to myself. While my brother and sister are very outspoken. I remember when my sister was younger she would always follow me around wanting to be like me. I do believe the middle child sometimes feels rejected at times because there have

Birth order seems to matter a lot, at-least according to earlier psychological studies. There are stereotypes about the elder child, the middle child and the youngest one. Some even suggest that it could actually even be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You really do not understand what the birth order actually means, until you really think about from psychology kind of way. That is how this article really is based off of, like how he starts the article. “Perhaps you’ve come to believe the myths both in your family and in psychology as a whole that your character, values, achievement strivings, and life

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

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

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,