How Does Birth Order Affect Psychological and Social Development? Birth order and its effects on psychological and social development is a controversial topic that has been studied by many researchers (Skinner & Fox-Francoeur, 2010; Dunkel, Harbke, &Papini, 2009; Hartshorne, Salem-Hartshorne, & Hartshorne, 2009; Iacovou, 2007; Holmgren, Molander, Nilsson, 2006; Baer, Oldham, Hollingshead, &Jacobsohn, 2005; Rodgers, 2001; Sulloway, 1996; Kessler, 1991; Galton, 1874). Researchers have hypothesized that birth order affects many features of development such as personality (Skinner & Fox-Francoeur, 2010; Dunkel et al., 2009; Sulloway, 1996), intelligence (Iacovou, 2007; Holmgren et al., 2006; Rodgers, 2001; Kessler, 1991), creativity (Baer et al., 2005), and relationship formation (Hartshorne et al., 2009). Trying to find support that birth order can be used to predict future traits is common in studies of birth order effects, but because many factors other than birth order may affect personality, intellectual, creative, and relationship development (Santrock, 2011), it is difficult to study birth order effects. Confounding variables are common in birth order studies, which makes it a debatable topic (Hartshorne et al., 2009). How Does Birth Order Affect Personality? Personality is a consistent, yet flexible pattern of behavior and emotion that varies from person to person (Comer, 2010). An individuals personality, or temperament, is apparent from the time they are an infant, and continues to expand and develop throughout their life (Santrock, 2011). Personality may be influenced by a number of factors, such as genetics, learning, experience, or a combination of these (Comer, 2010). Birth order and its effects on personali... ... middle of paper ... ...1), 67-77. doi:10.1207/s15326934crj1701_6 Rodgers, Joseph Lee. (2001). What causes birth order-intelligence patterns? The admixture hypothesis revived. American Psychologist, 56(6-7), 505-510. doi: 1O.1O37//O0O3-O66X.56.6-7.5O5 Sulloway, Frank J. (1996). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics, and creative lives. New York, NY, US: Pantheon Books. Kessler, Daniel. (1991). Birth order, family size, and achievement: Family structure and wage determination. Journal of Labor Economics, 9, 413-426. Galton, Francis. (1874). English men of science. London: Macmillan. Santrock, John W. (2011). Life-Span Development (13th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Comer, Ronald J. (2008). Abnormal Psychology (7th ed.) New York: Worth Publishers. Kirton, Michael J. (2003). Adaption-innovation: In the context of diversity and change. New York, NY: Routledge. ID: 278229
The theory that Zajonc and Markus proposed was that the birth order of children was closely related to their intelligence ranking. Through their research they began to decipher and support this theory. Zajonc and Markus also presented the idea, “that as family size increased, the average intellectual climate of the family decreased.” In other words, the subsequent children are influenced differently than a first born, so their intellectual stimulation is more lacking, causing a decrease in the overall family confluence score. The researchers organized an experiment to explain this concept. The experiment consisted of two parents who each started out a value of 100 and each infant received a value of 0. As more babies were born, the family’s average intellectual value went down up until the fifth child where it picks back up again because the cognitive value of each child goes up as they get older.
There are many theories about how an individuals’ personality develop or how different characteristics and traits are formed in people. Psychiatrist Alfred Adler was the first person to suggest that the order a person was born in had a profound effect on the development of his/her personality. He called his idea the Birth Order Theory. Adler’s work on this theory cover the oldest child, commonly referred to as the first-born, as well as, the middle, youngest, and only children. The work of other experts in the field have expanded on his theory to include multiplies (twins, triplets, etc.), step-siblings, siblings with disabilities, and siblings with more than a five years gap. So according to the Birth Order Theory, how does a person’s order of birth contribute to their personality, and what are the commonly shared characteristics in each birth position? Are there other factors that can contribute or influence an individual’s personality development in relation to the Birth Order Theory that needs to be considered? If so, than how accurate is the theory really? I will attempt to answer these question.
‘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
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Personality is characterized by many dimensions of a person’s overall being. The belief that personality stems from one origin is small minded and on many levels, unsupported. If the scope of personality is expanded, it suggests that there is not a single explanation determining a person’s personality and how it is formed. Personality Theories have been generated for centuries by individuals who desire to identify what distinguishes a person’s personality and how it affects their behaviors. What is it that comprises all the unique characteristics about a person?
Does birth order really affect who we are? Sigmund 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." The type of person that we become stems from many things including birth order position, gender and the genders of the other siblings. Although personality is affected by many different factors, such as heredity, family size, the spacing and the gender of other siblings, education and upbringing, birth order plays a very important role and gives many clues as to why people are the was they are. Dr. Alfred Adler, a renowned psychiatrist, wrote that a person's position in the family leaves an undeniable "stamp" on his or her "style of living."
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.
Leman, Kevin. The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are. Old Tappan, NJ: F.H. Revell, 1985. Print.
Personality is a branch of scientific discipline that studies temperament and its variation among people. It is a dynamic and a set of characteristics possessed by their atmosphere, cognitions, emotions, motivations and behaviours in various things. Personality conjointly refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments and behaviour consistently exhibited over time that powerfully influences one’s exceptions, self-perceptions, values and attitudes. It also predicts human reactions to different folks, problems and stress.
Personality can affect many things in a person’s life. This includes how a person will react to a situation. One can attribute different personality traits to different dispositional or learning theories, such as linking the dehumanizing of a victim to social cognitive theory. One can make an association between interpersonal relational aspects and some of these theories. Personality is an aspect of the self that people often think about but most never truly contemplate the meaning or depth of personality.
The distinctive characteristics and qualities of any one person is one way to define personality. According to Feist & Feist (2009) personality is described as a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior. These traits are the precursor of behavior as per individuality, and that of behavior that is consistent throughout life. Although a person can argue the fact that traits is a disposition of genetic predisposition of certain characteristics, the pattern in which these are characterized are different. Each person’s anatomy, intelligence, and temperament are differently and each owns a unique personality, different from parents, grandparents, and any other individual on this planet. Personality theorists’ however may not concur.
Our personalities are what distinguish us from each other beyond our appearance; without them, we would all behave and react in the same way. Personality is the reason we are outgoing or introverted, persistent or blaze, and anxious or calm. We each have different levels of these competing characteristics that make us unique. But why are personalities so varied? Personality is determined by an array of factors from genetic and biological to the personal experiences and decisions we have faced from the day we are born. The complexity of our personalities cannot be simply explained, and for this reason there exists many different theories of how it’s developed and personality is still deeply under study. I went into this subject with an open-mind
Personality is the study of an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time and across situations and it is what distinguishes one individual from another. In the past changes in personality were thought to have only occurred in the developmental stages of childhood and solidifies in adolescence. After the teenage years it was thought to be set like plaster or the change seen to be inconsequential or absent( Srivastava, John, Gosling, and Potter, 2003). However, recent studies have suggested that changes in personality traits continue to occur throughout an individual’s lifespan due to multiple reasons.
Personality is the unique characteristic patterns of thinking, feelings and behaviours of a person. Each person has different personality which distinguishes a person from another. In our life, we have to make decisions every day. The decision-making process is influenced by our logical thinking as well as our personality.
Personality is the expression of a person’s traits according to ones feelings, mentality and behavior. It involves understanding individuals’ traits such as withdrawal and willpower and how various parts of an individual link together to form personality. Personality expresses itself from within an individual and is comparatively regular throughout in an individual’s life. Different people have different personalities dependent on factors such as environment and genetic composition. Our personality is dependent on the success or failure of our development in the eight stages of life. This is proposed by Erik Erikson. Success in the development stages lead to virtues while the failure leads to malignancies.
The concept of personality has numerous definitions (Fatahi, Moradi, & Kashani-Vahid, 2016). Schultz and Schultz (2009), define personality in its broad sense as the manner of an individual’s behaviour in different situations. This essay explores the nature of personality, with the intention of highlighting its flexibility. The results of numerous empirical research studies are examined in order to investigate if, and how personality changes over time. It will be argued that an individual’s personality has the ability to change throughout their life.