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The impact of birth order on personality development
The impact of birth order on personality development
The impact of birth order on personality development
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Does birth order drastically affect personalities and traits of people? Where a person is placed in their birth order will determine what kind of traits they will have. As a person matures his traits are developed and influenced by factors of birth order. For example, firstborns tend to develop leadership qualities because they are leaders in their household. The proper numerical birth order tends to be the first born, sometimes second born, middle child, and last born. Some families only have a single child and they are known as the only child. Characteristics of each and every child develop as he or she matures. Firstborns are the oldest sibling and usually the most advanced because he has the most experience with life than his younger silbling. The firstborn tends to be leaders because they have the qualities of leaders. Firstborns and only children have completely different personalities. The first born would be most likely to take on a leadership position since they have leadership traits. They are reliable, conscientious, structured, controlling, achievers, diligent, and want to be the best at everything. They often have an intense fear of failure, so nothing they accomplish is good enough. Since they want to be the best at everything, firstborns feel stressed and pressured and do not like to step out of their comfort zone. The first child has the most attention, majority of the time because many parents spend more time explaining things to them then their other children. According to today.com, the oldest children enjoy about 3000 more hours of quality time with their parents between ages 4 and 13 than the next sibling will get. Since they receive extra time with their parents, they tend to be the smartest of all their si... ... middle of paper ... ...t leaders. Birth order has a lot to do with personalities and traits of people. Where a person is placed in their birth order will determine what kind of traits they will have. Each child will not always have the traits that were described. These traits did not just magically appear. The child had to mature and develop and eventually they will develop different characteristics. Children may have some of the same characteristics, but for the most part, each child will have different characteristics. This is the conclusion of the paper about birth order and how it can determine what characteristics people will have. Works Cited "Birth Order and Personality." Parents Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. "Birth Order." Childdevelopmentinfo.com. N.p., May 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. "Understanding the Power of Birth Order." TODAY.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
The first born is usually known as the leader, the great achiever, and the hopes and dreams of the family. The first born generally has a higher IQ, which tends to lead to them working in higher paid jobs, they are more prone to playing it safe, and they thrive when they accomplish new goals (Kluger 406-407). The first born
According to Adler the first born child is usually a caring, nurturing individual because he/she most likely grew up helping his/her parents care for their younger siblings. For this same reason, first borns are more likely to be well organized and more responsible than their younger siblings. Sense there are no other children around when their parents give birth to them, first borns are used to receiving their undivided attention and affection prior to their siblings arrival, and if their parents did not prepare them for the arrival of a new brother or sister it can have a negative effect on the first born, mak...
Alfred Adler also developed the birth order theory. Under this theory Adler expresses his belief that children’s personalities develop certain characteristics depending on the order of their birth (Schustack, 2012). According to this theory, first
‘Birth order theory can help explain why children raised in the same family environment with a strong genetic relationship can have such different personalities’ (Drysdale, 2011). The birth order theory says that ‘first-borns are leaders, the drivers and the responsible type. They love to feel in control and feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook’ (Grose, 2013). The personality theory says that last-borns are majorly different to first-borns in their characteristics and traits. It states that last-borns are ‘the
There are other factors that impact each sibling such as physical circumstances that include income of the parents and the residents of their community. Emotional stability plays a large part in the development of each person, examples include well adjusted parents, parental experiences and the career of the parents. For instance, what decade and country you were born in and the economy of that country also plays an important role. All of these factors can determine what type of person that child will become. In a large part, birth order and gender determine how other people in your family react and treat you. It also determines your self-image and how you react and treat others inside and outside of your family.
There are many things that can alter the personality of an individual; some of these are voluntarily inflicted, while others are uncontrollable. Among the uncontrollable altercations, birth order is perhaps the largest influence on a person's disposition. Personality is influenced by the "place" a person has in their family as well as the family situation. It is important whether an individual is an only child, first born, second born, third born, a boy among girls, or a girl among boys, and so on.
The patterns of birth order have been seen for centuries, although it was not studied exclusively until around the 1980s. There are many factors that play into a persons personality, such as their genetics, the way they are raised, and their environment. Birth order looks at a persons place in their family—if they are the oldest, middle, or youngest child—and provides commonalities between them and others in the same location in other families. While there are many variations, the general traits do apply. Research shows that the first born is typically a leader in the family and in other areas of life. The youngest child is usually light hearted and social. The one that is hardest to put a type to is the middle child. He or she will frequently try to blaze their own path, straying from the one that their older sibling made. I believe that birth order plays a part in a person’s personality, but that the way they were raised is also a very important variable. A child’s birth order, along with the way they were raised, is a major factor in the way they interact within their family and other groups.
“Most people have an intuitive knowledge that birth order somehow has an impact on development, but they underestimate how far reaching and just how significant that impact is.” Birth order describes not only what order a child is born into a family but also has an effect on an individual's personality, social skills, and success in life. If you are a first born child, does that mean you are a perfectionist, tend to be a natural leader, and are more successful than your younger siblings? Does being born last make you less able to compete in life?
The study of birth order began over a century ago with Sir Francis Galton. A nineteenth century British anthropologist, geographer and statistician--- who believed that human species was ultimately improvable. In his research, he concluded that first born and only born children become well known scientists (Kluger, 2011). His findings resulted from the the fact that the nation still followed Primogeniture, when the first born son inherits the family’s fortunes. In today’s society, several families still put most, or all of, their first born son on a pedestal compared to their other children. Shortly after Galton’s discovery, Alfred Alder and Frank Sulloway came along and decided to take a deeper look into the relationship between a child’s birth order and their personality.
Since I am interested in birth order, and the differences between my brother and I, I chose to read an article entitled What Parents Learn From Experience: The First Child as a First Draft? Shawn D. Whiteman wrote this article, with corresponding research by Susan M. McHale, and Ann C. Crouter. This particular article explains the differences in parenting between two children within the same family that are about two years apart in age. The words describe what many parents learn the first time around with their first-born child, and how their parenting styles change with the second child. Parents tend to be more easy going with the second child, and therefore discipline is seen less towards the younger child compared to the older child. Also, this article explains that most parents are less worried about the older child when they are out of the house, compared to the younger child one. Younger children tend to be checked up on more then the older kids, but older children tend to have less opportunities then the younger ones do.
Many factors can shape a persons a personality, it could be their environment, peers, family, siblings, but one wouldn’t think that their birth order can too. The last factor will be the one topic I will be getting into more depth in this essay. Either being born first or last it will have a huge impact on your personality (Parents magazine 2006). The first to introduce the theory of the impact birth order has on personality was psychologist Alfred Adler in the early 20th century. This started a new interest in many on this research (Lesley Ogden 2013). His theory suggest the common personality traits each first, middle, and last borns have. Let me start off with the first born of the family and work my way down. The first born is the child the family “practices” on you could say. First time parents have no experience on parenting, and they want to try their best on raising a good child which causes them to be stricter. This causes them to put more pressure on the first borns to do better at everything they do. Which can make them become perfectionists and high achievers. But they want to be noticed and praised by their parents when they do well. This too however develops them to become leaders, especially if they have siblings their parents want them to set an example for (Brooks 1984). Independence, reliability, and respect for authority are other traits that this group may has. They are highly intelligent and get high qualifications in school. They can also be serious and very mature for their age. Because of this nature, this group tends to get along really well with their elders. The pressure of carrying responsibilities (and at times even being forced upon) at an early age can bring negative factors. For the reason that it c...
A study done by A. P. MacDonald Jr. in West Virginia University about Birth Rate and Personality in 1969, investigated for birth order differences in 2 sample of undergraduate students, the first sample of students in the first investigation were 786 students from the university, with 339 males & 447 females, the sample contained 86 only child (36 males & 50 females), 294 first born (145 males & 149 female), 406 later born (158 males & 248 females). After collecting the sample, subjects were ask for short personal history which include birth order, and were measured
As I said, I do not believe birth order has very much to do with the personality of a person. If a last child grows up penniless and has a lousy home life, he will not act like a last child who has a rich family and a marvelous suburban home. However, multiple of the things that many people said about how birth order affects the personality do describe me. The one that relates to me the greatest is definitely the fact that I am easy going. I never really let anything get too serious and I let things go once they are in the past. Also as Jocelyn Voo claims the middle child is very social, I would have to agree with her. I would rather be out with my pals having a wonderful time than be stuck at home doing nothing. Another quality that describes be excellently is the middle child takes pleasure in having a great time. If there is chance I can have good time, I will take that chance and expect for the best.
I don’t know what birth number you are but I’m the second or last-born. I don’t know if birth order is factual or not, but its weird how most of them fit me. I’m supposed to be a self centered person but I’m not or maybe I am and that’s why I think im not self centered I don’t know but there are a lot of things I agree with and don’t about birth order traits.
In what order children are born in also relates to the size of their family. Someone might be an only child, or have multiple siblings. All that depends on how many children their parents choose to have. Having more children means that money, time, and attention have to be divided between the children (Hartshorne, Joshua). The first born child is likely to receive more attention from their parents, as apposed to a second born, who’s parents are likely to be less attentive the second time around. Kevin Leman said, “Every time a child is born, the entire family environment changes. How parents interact with each child as he or she enters the family circle determines in great part that child’s final destiny.”