William Rivera Psychology Professor Fleet April 10, 2014 Correlation between Birth Order and One’s Traits Every human is born with a unique set of characteristics that sets them apart from others. For example one’s fingerprints or DNA. No two humans are exactly alike, even identical twins differ in physical features. People also differ in other traits like personality. Diverse personality traits have attracted the interest of many psychologists since the turn of the century. Specifically, birth order has been the source of many debates. It is already believed that there is a direct correlation between birth order and one’s personality, but it is not known which traits it affects. Birth order affects traits like maturity, intelligence, and even growth. Everyone is affected by birth order, leaving us to accept that your family has a major impact on who you become. It doesn’t matter if you are an only child or one of many brothers because everyone has a birth order. For example, I have a younger brother has told me that he is known around school as my “little brother” even though he is already taller than me. This shows that there will always exist a perception of one’s “place” in the family’s birth order. Unfortunately, you can not control when you are born leaving you feeling vulnerable towards these perceptions. Even if you notice it or not, birth order will affect your personality and other traits. Birth order and how it affects one’s traits was first examined by Alfred Adler. Alfred Adler came to the conclusion that birth order greatly affects personality traits. It affects the way people react to different stimuli and situations. The oldest child tends to be the most confident and independent when... ... middle of paper ... ...fter the sibling before him was born. Since there is such a huge gap, the youngest sibling may take the role of the first born. This means that he may have traits characteristics that resemble the first born and last born. Another issue associated with birth order is intergenerational parenting. These theory states that that the behavior exhibited by parents’ when treating their kids, will later be seen when a new generation of children is born. From 1975 to 2010 R.B Zajonc did a study to find out the correlation between the effect of family size and personality traits exhibited in children. He concluded that the larger the family, the more likely the children where to exhibit immature behaviors and less intellectual capacity when compared to children who come from small families. This raises the question, “Is this a reason for parents to have less children?”
Gennetian, Lisa A . “One or Two Parents? Half or Step Siblings? The Effect of Family Structure on Young Children 's Achievement”. Journal of Population Economics , Vol. 18, No. 3 (Sep., 2005), pp. 415-436. Published by: Springer . Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20007969. Web. November 10, 2014
The achievers, the gamblers and visionaries, and the undefined, this is how Jeffery Kluger describes the oldest, youngest, and middle child in his article “The Power of Birth Order” (409). The birth order is a phenomenon, studied by many scientists, that has been impacting the way siblings think and act for years. The birth order classifies the oldest child, who is the achiever; the middle child, who is a hybrid of the oldest and youngest; and last but not least, the youngest child, who is the adventurer of the family. The fact that the birth order affects the personalities of siblings is becoming more and more evident and the classifications of the firstborn, middle child, and youngest child have been proved to be very accurate.
...n individual. The result can also be the same, though there is a variability among personalities. Both Kohlberg and Erikson have strong theories about how personalities are formed in early ages with direct focus on the parents.
Children in large families are always forced to share. Children in smaller families believe that they are the center of attention because their parents have only one or two kids to support. Only children are often anti-social because they haven’t always been exposed to other children. Children who are not exposed to other children will become loners.
‘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
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.
A layman would define personality as an individual’s characteristics in terms of how they think and behave. Many theorists, however, interprets personality differently resulting in various personality theories. Personality is determined by traits which are behaviours displayed by a person in most given situations. How a person reacts to common circumstances may also be used to foresee future behaviours. Traits are then categorized into types that allow easier comparisons to be made between each individual’s attributes. The focus of this paper would be on the biological aspects of personality whereby traits are thought to be inheritable through genetics and associated with the central nervous system. Behavioural genetics are research that makes use of results from studies done on family, twins and adoptions. The findings of how both genes and environment influences personality from the studies will be discussed. Some researchers found possible issues with the representativeness of such studies. The outline of Eysenck’s biological model of personality and arousal, Gray’s BAS/BIS theory and Cloninger’s biological model of personality will further explain the biological effect on personality.
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...
There are many factors that make your personality. One that is usually overlooked is birth order. Scientists have given traits to every child based on when they were born and most of them are correct. In The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman stated,” Your birth order-whether you were first, middle, or later in the family-has a powerful influence on the kind of person you will be, the kind of person you will marry, the type of occupation you will choose, even the kind of parents you will be.” (3). Birth order is what makes someone who they are; these characteristics apply to almost every child depending when they were born in their family, but in rare cases, the child doesn’t act like the personality given to them by science.
Hartshorne, Joshua K. “How Birth Order Affects Your Personality”. Scientificamerican, 22 June 2002. Web. 30 April 2014.
The Biological approach to personality places emphasis on the genetic influences related to the development of an individual’s personality. Some may believe that children and their parents can have very similar personalities, for example a young boy having his father’s anger (Stelmack, 1990). Though this approach has often been questioned by psychologists, it is not disregarded all together. Some believe that genetics do have a role in an individual’s personality development; however environments, as well as personal experiences all work in forming personality.
An only child and a child with siblings are different in many ways. It all depends on the character of the child. A lot of the differences have to do with how the parents raise the child. If a parent lets their child tell them what to do then obviously the child will display negative traits. This doesn’t just go for an only child it goes for a child with siblings also. Whether you are an only child or a child with siblings, your life can be happy. As long as you feel loved and you give love it doesn’t matter how your family is made up. It is how you choose to live your life.
Sulloway, F. J. (September 1997). Birth order and personality. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 14, 5-7
Parents’ age has a significant effect on the child's growing, according to recent psychological studies on children. In the last half-century, it has increased dramatically that people are waiting longer to procreate, to well settle in their life. It may be surprising to know that about 20% of women are choosing to have a baby after the age of 35; In fact, a large number of women are giving a birth into their 40’s. Even though it is common to think that old age is positive, it does not necessarily mean better parents. In contrast, it seems to be reasonable assumption that many people think that it is a negative development for the family. The reality is that late parenting is not a positive trend and such parents would face many issues and challenges in raising children.