Alfred Adler Personality Influence Personality

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During the 1920’s Alfred Adler began research into a topic that would forever impact the behavioral sciences; he studied the role of one’s birth order and how it influenced personality (Eckstein & Kaufman, 2012). This concept arouses my interest because of how personal it is to me; I come from a larger family and witnessed the very traits they discuss in the article in my siblings and myself as well. Indeed I am a firm believer that birth order is significantly related to presence of certain personality traits in a person because of the different experiences and parenting styles each child grows up with. Additionally, I have devised my own type of principle relating to middle children, like myself, in larger families with lengthy age gaps. …show more content…

There was an emphasis in the article on older children being one of the first models of socialization in the eyes of their younger siblings (Eckstein & Kaufman, 2012). I found that observation very accurate as my other brothers and I would look to our eldest brother for the “right” way to do something or assistance with tasks. Our mother would always communicate important matters to only the eldest brother and that also contributed to his leadership qualities and sense of maturity. Where this ties in with my own principle of having middle children experience more than one role, especially with a lengthy age gap, is with my specific childhood. Once my three eldest brothers moved out and on with their lives, I assumed the role of the eldest child after my three younger siblings were born. That adjustment period from being the baby for 10 years to being the role model came with various challenges. My mother also regarded me in a different way than before because of the new firstborn type of role I was beginning to undertake and that ties in with how parenting is adjusted with each child, as stated in the insight. I realized the traits I possessed as the baby of the family slowly molded into firstborn traits. To appeal to a broader sense, I would conclude that middle children in larger families could have …show more content…

Studying the correlation of birth order and personality is a topic important to me because of the relevance to my personal family life. I have witnessed the reported characteristics with my siblings, which has also led me to further investigate my siblinghood and develop my own principle. I do consider exceptions to the proposed principle because of how specific it might seem. Despite exceptions and alternatives, there is no denying that birth order plays a role in how children interact with parents, siblings and everyone else in their

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