Alfred Adler, one of Freud's contemporaries, focused on the effects of social interaction as the basis for the formation of the unconscious mind. As a result he became interested in the topic of birth order and the affect it has on one's personality. Read the following article from Time magazine and answer the following questions.Click here for a word doc version.
Time: The Power of Birth Order
Response:
1) List your birth order (ex. first born, 2 of 4, baby...etc)
2) Based on your birth order what characteristics are associated with your personality?
3) How accurate do you think the research is regarding birth order? Explain?
Honestly I think this study is completely biased, it isn't even that accurate in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think is inaccurate about it? Does your own family defy their assumptions, or do you predict that much fewer families follow this research trend than the psychologists suggest? While I certainly agree that the research is skewed since it doesn't account for special needs families, adopted children, etc., I would not go so far as to call the whole study bunk!
DeleteThere's a lot of research proving birth order to be significant. It would be cool to find research and stories on the exceptions to the birth order rule.
ReplyDeleteNot positive if this counts as one of my comments since there are no other comments on this? However, I do agree with some of the sterotypes/chacteristics that are associated with personality. Ive seen the same traits in many people that are the youngest/oldest etc. I do feel that it could be a bit of a long shot to say that everyone falls into the sterotypes however. I was wondering how this necessarily applies to me since I am an only child? What catagory would I fall in?
ReplyDeleteOk I understand that the first born child is more controlling and intelligent, but what if there is a situation where the oldest sibling is at an age where he/she didn't live with their younger siblings. Does that mean the next oldest child who does live with younger siblings gets the characteristic traits of a first born, and does the actual oldest have only child traits? Or will next oldest still have the traits of the middle child?
ReplyDeleteGreat Question! To the best of my understanding of Adler's research, I believe the character traits are attained through interaction between the siblings. Thus, if a much older sibling is not present for much of the life of his/her younger siblings, yes, the middle child should take the role of the eldest and be characterized as so. In fact, I have a younger brother two years younger than me and an older brother 13 years older. My older brother moved out of our house ten years ago, and as expected I seemed to take his place. I tend to have better grades than my younger brother and do tend to be more controlling, supporting this idea.
DeleteBirth order may play a part in personality, but there are so many other factors that lead me to believe it isn't very reliable. Gender, temperament, the size of the family, their socioeconomic background, and parenting techniques all shape a child and his personality, birth order is just one small contributor. I don't think the birth order research should be regarded as accurate.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to birth order, I know a family who currently has two kids, who are fifteen and sixteen, and are now expecting their third child. When born, this child will have a separation of 15 years between them and the next oldest. Because of this age difference, by the time the child is old enough to really form memories the older two will be out of the house and in college. The newborn will basically be growing up as an only child even though they will be the youngest. My guess is that the newborn will take on the traditional characteristics of an only child/oldest since they won't have the influence of the older two.
ReplyDeleteI am an only child so it is hard to say the information in this article is totally accurate, but based on friends and their birth order, I would say it does explain birth order. I find that my friends that are younger siblings are much more needy and their parents spoil them a bit more than the older child. On the same hand, my friends who are the oldest in the birth order seem to be independent and need less mommy and daddy. As an only child I get the best of both worlds. I am independent, but also get spoiled by my parents every once and a while.
ReplyDeleteI think birth order definitely has an effect on one's personality and life, but I also think that parenting can minimize this effect. If parents always tell the youngest how smart they are and how much of a leader they are, and tell the oldest how funny and outgoing they are, their kids may grow into the characteristics their parents tell them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do think that birth order does affect your personality, I think that it differ from person to person. Like with me, I am a nurturing person but I'm not very controlling over everything. Also, how do you think a birth order of a child can affect them if the age difference between two of them is greater than 5 years? Just some food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI think the birth order has some influence in average living and family conditions but in reality there are so much more things that can create a persons personality. Obviously socioeconomic bacground, parenting techniques and size of family play a role but life experiences as well. If there is a death in the family it can greatly affect a person especially a child. Even people at school can influence personality. Traumatic event at school like bullying can make a person very timid and fearful while having a ton of friends could make a person more outgoing. I don't really think birth has as much influence as some people think when you consider life experiences.
ReplyDeleteWhile the research on birth order is interesting, I don't think that it is completely accurate. Many families and children are not going to fit in the stereotypes posed in this article. For example, my siblings and I do not fit into many of these stereotypes. My older brother did not get higher test scores than my sister and I despite being the first born. My older brother is also not the largest of us despite the research saying that first borns are generally larger. While some of the stereotypes fit, many do not.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Adler's study was really accurate in terms of my family. But that may be because I'm the oldest child. My sister is wild, but she is nine years younger than me. My brother and I are evenly matched in intelligence, and we are only two years apart. I think that birth order's relevance would be much lower if parents raised each child the same way, no matter the age difference. My sister's rules are much more relaxed than mine were at her age, and I think that freedom has shaped her personality.
ReplyDeleteI think birth order does play some part of personality, but I also think gender of siblings and who your siblings are influence personality. For example, in my family I am the youngest with two older siblings and like the statistic that first borns are more intelligent than later borns isn't true. We are all smart, but naturally my brother and I are smarter than my older sister who is the oldest. But we are also so competitive with each other which has greatly influenced my personality. This is why I feel that in my family who I have as my siblings has influenced my personality more than our birth order has.
ReplyDeleteI think this study was pretty unique and interesting. Although it may not have been completely accurate, I think there were some findings that were appropriate to my personality. Being a first born I definitely exhibit more controlling and responsible traits than my younger brother. I think this stems from my genetics more though. My mom is more caring and my dad is more care-free, so my brother and I could have gotten different traits from there. Also, I think being older puts pressure on me to teach things to my brother that a parent may not be able to teach as well as me, adding to my care characteristic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with pizza4life that there are so many other factors that make up a person's personality. I do think it plays a part however. Alfred Adler was the second child of seven, so i am curious if his own family life influenced his theories.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with the accuracy of the birth order research. The stereotypes of the wild younger child and the studious and docile older child exist, but I think we should keep "correlation does not equal causation" in mind, the stereotype could be exaggerated and a number of other causes could be the reason for the birth order traits. Additionally, parents could be influenced by this stereotype in raising their children; being more lax in the punishment of younger children and pushing the younger child to pick more creative paths.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Adler's ideas aren't very reliable. Some of the personality traits are accurate, for example my oldest brother (the first born) fits almost every one of the traits Adler talked about but I (the last child) feel as though I barely have any of those traits for being the last. Personalities are determined by so many factors other than just birth order and I believe that birth order plays a somewhat insignificant role in personality.
ReplyDeleteI think the article is completely biased. Based on my personal family, the characteristics are completely opposite based on my family. In the article, it describes that the oldest child is the more smarter and brighter child. They are basically golden. In my family its the complete opposite. i love my brother, but he is the more lazy one. he didnt really focus in school when he went to high school. I believe that the way you were raised determines how smart you are. Studies show that if you read to your child everynight, they will get smarter. The research was probably not accurate, but i think the way your parents raised you, determines alot. The article is biased, and i disagree with the study.
ReplyDeleteI think the article is completely biased. Based on my personal family, the characteristics are completely opposite based on my family. In the article, it describes that the oldest child is the more smarter and brighter child. They are basically golden. In my family its the complete opposite. i love my brother, but he is the more lazy one. he didnt really focus in school when he went to high school. I believe that the way you were raised determines how smart you are. Studies show that if you read to your child everynight, they will get smarter. The research was probably not accurate, but i think the way your parents raised you, determines alot. The article is biased, and i disagree with the study.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of this information seems quite biased, but I do think that there is some truth to the youngest child in a family being the "clown" of the family. It seems that as the older children are doing their grown up things like school plays or concerts, going to college or getting married, the younger child needs attention somehow. To fill this need, they make people laugh.
ReplyDeleteFor my family, this research is not accurate. Younger siblings are supposed to be less educated, "looser cannons", likelier to live an exhilarating life. I'm the youngest and I have one older brother. I have done a lot better in school than he did, I'm calm, and he's living in exciting life right now in England.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this birth order research is very accurate when applied to humans. It's understandable that birth order would have a large role in nature, however, because species live in order to pass on their genes, and first born children could be at a huge advantage. When it comes to humans, though, I think there are just too many confounding variables. Not all parents treat their first born as the most successful of their family, and not all parents baby their last born. These may be common outcomes due to birth order, but I don't think it's proof enough to generalize it for every family. For example, my parents care most about taking care of my older brother because he was the first to leave the house. Also, my brother and I are completely opposite from what this article predicts. I was the second born, and I am in no way more wild or likely to take on riskier activities. I know my one situation doesn't prove this research wrong, but I feel like there's a lot of situations that contradict or challenge what the article has to say, especially when it comes to complicated families with half brothers or sisters. For these reasons, I just don't think the research should be considered completely accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe theories expressed definitely correspond with me and my birth order. I am the "smarter" one out of me and my younger sibling and also achieve more, etc. To me, birth order definitely plays a role in personality if the siblings have grown up together under "normal" circumstances. Only time will tell if the research is accurate, using longitudinal studies and case studies. That way we can more objectively say these correlations between birth order and personality characteristics aren't based on cultural/historical settings.
ReplyDeleteI think birth order does play a part in who you are but only if you buy into what it says about you. There are so many exceptions to the supposed traits of people from different birth orders that it is hard to really see a lot of credibility in what the article says.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am not completely sold on the accuracy of these traits I do find it enjoyable that I can tell my parents I am not as smart as my brother because they spent more time teaching him when he was little. I question the accuracy only because there are many factors that aren't addressed. I would like to know how they could possibly predict the personality of children in a large family such as the Duggars
ReplyDeleteBeing the first born, I think this is accurate for the most part. It seems like the oldest always has to lead the way and the parents are usually more strict with them. My younger siblings seem to have it so much easier than I do. For example, everything I had to wait to get and look forward too such as a cellphone or TV in my room, they all got at least 4 years earlier than I did. My parents are more lenient on what they get to do and not nearly as controlling as they were with me. I guess they just didn't know what to expect, but I am jealous of them. I wouldn't call myself a genius, but I do also think I'm smarter or at least more driven than my younger brothers.
ReplyDeleteI think the birth-order theory makes a lot of sense. Some of the characterisics apply to my family and some do not. However, I do feel as if younger siblings tend to look up to and want to be like their older siblings in most cases. And if they cannot live up to this standard then sometimes an inferiority-complex can develop in the younger sibling. I also think that older children will have a tendency to be more protective and younger children will maybe tend to be a little more wild, but I can't say that I agree with the older child being smarter or having a higher-paying job. Some of the characteritics listed for the birth-order theory makes sense, while others are completely ridiculous. It is hard to say whether or not I agree with Adler's theory completely.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that alot of the research by Adler is correct like how the first born is usually smarter and the youngest is usually crazier. I do believe however there are alot of other factors that can contribute to personality on birth order. Like if you see your siblings on a daily basis or have step siblings. I alway belive genetics and how the parents raise you connects more to a persons personality then just birth order.
ReplyDeleteI'm stuck in the middle on whether or not I believe this article is reliable or not. I agree with pizza4life above when he/she said there are handfuls of other factors that play a part in personality, not just birth order. Then again, I am the youngest in my family out of four and the article's description of the youngest personality fit my personality to a tee. However, I do not believe all babies of the family fit the articles description. Size of the family, social life, gender, and parenting styles may also play a part in personality.
ReplyDeleteI think a major factor that the article does not discuss is the age differences between siblings.If the oldest child is basically out of the house during the younger siblings childhood, can that make their characteristics be more like an only child or the oldest child?I think they could have provided more research to prove these birth order characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe birth order plays any role on personality. All the information provided in the document was a little biased, but the big problem I have with this document is that no one family is alike, so how can you base all this information on some family research? My older sister taught me a lot of valuable information, so I believe I had a leg up going into school. So in my case and maybe many others, it could be that I gained intelligence before my sister. She also helped me get through a lot of situations that I needed help with, so the information may be true that older sibilings have more intelligence, but I think it is just because she has two and a half years on me.
ReplyDeleteI feel theres a lot of flaws to this research. This research doesn't match my family very well. As the last born I'm not a risk taker, and my older sisters aren't controlling. Its backwards in my family, I feel as though I'm the eldest. I see flaws with other familys also. My cousins don't follow this research. I'm not saying its completly wrong I just don't feel its very accurate.
ReplyDeleteEven though the article's statement about how birth order affects personality seem accurate, there really are not any type of evidence. Most of what the article said about being first born was actually true for me. It also was true for my siblings, they are over 10 years younger than me, so it would be difficult to measure the accuracy of the statements. I am just one sample of the whole world, meaning that the rest of the world may not have the same results. There is not enough data to support their claims, so this article is not very reliable.
ReplyDeleteWell I thought that the article we read was interesting, so I figured I would comment on this. I find it true that the older sibling is usually smarter. Within all of my friends families this seems to be true, as well as mine. I also think that some of the points in the article were incorrectly, but most of it I could identify with.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the notion behind this subject because while we are growing up, we really don't think to much about how our arbitrary birth order may affect who we are as people. Based on the article and despite the outliers, the data seems fairly valid or at least it is within my family. I was always the higher achiever between my sister and me and she was always more willing to go with the flow and just do things as they come along. Further research might lead to some eye-opening discoveries on how birth order does or does not in fact affect who we identify ourselves as.
ReplyDeleteHmm, there are so many confounding variables. I believe there should be a large scale controlled study that uses statistical tests to conclusively prove or disprove the correlation between birth order and success in life.
ReplyDelete@Melvin, I believe that in some ways the next oldest will receive some traits of the oldest child, such as leadership skills and dominance. However, since they are still not the oldest, the parents do not treat them as the oldest, therefore, they may still feel second-best or inadequate.
ReplyDeleteI agree that birth order plays a part in personality and characteristics, but I think its a very small part. like they can be a base line on which to compare people but it's not always right.
ReplyDeleteFor my family's comparison to the families used in the article, the same was true. But one thing that is very different is that my older brother, the oldest out of us 4, is not the scholar or the highest achieved one, it's more like myself and the youngest sibling. But what I find interesting is that what the article said about the second born and how they tend to be the opposite of the first born is true, in that my brother did poor in school while I strived to be better and get good grades. With that being said, he still has the independence, responsibility, and maturity that the oldest child usually possesses.
ReplyDeleteI agree with pizza4life(awesome name) many contributing factors could be outside the family, like friends with their different behaviors and morals.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to pizza4life, I believe other factors, besides birth order, can contribute to one's personality. A family's culture and socio-economic status can very much impact the role of the first child. In some cultures where the education of a male son is considered more important than that of the female daughter, the daughter might not possess the typical traits of a first born outlined in this piece even though she is the first born.
ReplyDeleteI think this article has some merit but of course these labels and stereotypes can not be applied to everyone. For example i have an older sibling who exhibits none of the typical first child traits. On the other hand i have a younger brother who follows the younger sibling traits to the letter. I also found it interesting that the next child will try to be opposite of the child before them in order to show their individuality.
ReplyDeletethe traits associated with birth order in the article we read DEFINATLY apply to my family. My oldest sister definitely acts like she is responsible for everyone else because when we were younger she was our teacher. The middle sister in my family always seeks attention because she was never an only child. She has always been the loudest and had the most drama (because drama gets attention). I, as the youngest, am definitely the risk taker in the family. Both of my sisters in comparison to me are fairly conservative in their actions. It is interesting, though, to look at larger family models like my mom, who is the only girl of nine children. The roles are definitely still there, but they pertain to groups of children rather than one individual child.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think birth order determines your level of intelligence. I am the middle child and have always received better grades than my older sister. I think your level of intelligence or skill is dependent on how hard you work and practice.
ReplyDeleteThis research is the complete opposite of my family - and maybe it has to do with the fact that we were all raised by a single mother, but my sister who was first born had the least amount of goods and played the only sport out of all three of us. My brother who is in the middle was more favored, and I, being the youngest in the family, don't take very many risk.
ReplyDeleteWhat is said in the article may seem to be right in some circumstances, but no always. What about the youngest child that outshines the older siblings simply because they took a bad path? Or what about the youngest sibling that does not get spoiled, but instead on pause because the first born is showered with the unconditional love? I partially believe what the article says about birth order, but in reality I believe who each sibling/child becomes is based within where their environment sits.
ReplyDeleteThis field of study is really interesting to me. The results of the study do not match the characteristics of my family, but it is interesting to think about all the different factors that make up our personality just because of our upbringing. It would be fascinating to see more of these studies, even if the information is not accurate.
ReplyDeleteI read this article in class and the article was completely different from what I've experienced from being the first born. They say that those that are first born are more intelligent when it comes to IQs, bigger in size and are closer to the parents and the rest of the family. I would consider my younger brother to be more intelligent then I am and more family oriented than I am. & although he's younger, he's much bigger than I am.
ReplyDeleteI'm a third child by technicality, but I was raised as a single child since my sisters and I are only half-siblings. I can't help but imagine how much different I would have been if we lived together. I also wonder if the gender of these older/younger siblings plays, because I feel that an older brother/sister would have a different affect on younger counterparts.
ReplyDelete--Jordan Shepherd.
I think some of the results of the study are true and some are not. The fact that the oldest kid is more responsible is most of the time true and can agree with that. I also agre with the fact that most parents give more attention to the first born because it is a brand new experience and I could see how that might affect the other children differently.
ReplyDeleteBeing the oldest, I cant help to beleive this is false. I mean, I understand how in someways being the oldest would have its advantages i.e. you would have more one on one time with your parents before they split their time amongs two kids or that you would have the experience in being a role model for someone. But in many ways, these external factors have its limits as to what advantages they give the oldest child. with the younger children, parents would already have some trial and error experience for what works and doesnt work in child rearing which could serve as a significant advantage for the younger children.
ReplyDeleteAs far as genetic differences would go, since these are in alot of ways random, I fail to see how they have a significant effect on the personality of a person in relation to their birthorder
As the oldest child, I feel many of the article's findings are not entirely accurate because of my own personal experience. I think I have taken on a personality that somewhat lends itself to being a leader, but I'm no smarter than my brother and sister, proportionally speaking. There is some validity in that the personality traits are pretty accurate, but performance in school and intelligence level are not as affected by birth order in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhile I believe this study must have valid credentials and information accurate enough for a strong correlation, it just happens to not be true for me and my family at all. I'm the second born, the baby of the family, and am (arguably) "smarter" than my sister (I mean, who's to say how we should measure intelligence, right Skoog?). From a purely academic viewpoint, I am more likely to succeed than her, and am also not "rebellious" or less-nourished or shorter or anything that the article describes; however, it does bring up the interesting notion of family dysfunction skewing the results. What I'd like to know is what the criteria is to label a family as "dysfunctional". While my family may have its ups and downs, I wouldn't say that it's chaotic... But it seems to be the only viable explanation and makes me wonder where the line is drawn between "normal" and "dysfunctional".
ReplyDeleteThe birth order effect for the most part is correct; however, stating that the first born gets most of the emotional nourishment depends on many factors like if other kids were born into the household at the same time (twins, triplets). Attention would then have to be shared between the multiple siblings and they could develop differently and become competitive with each other.
ReplyDeleteI think birth order is reliable. If there are so many cases they study and most oldest children have the same characteristics, and youngest have the same characteristicsI think there is something to that. I think the rold you play in your family, and how you act in your family is based on birth order and preconcieved notions on how that child should act and be.
ReplyDeleteI think that birth order plays a part in personality, but not something general. For example, in my family,i achieve better grades than my older brother, which contradicts the findings of this article. I think that intelligence, risk taking, need for control, etc. develop differently for each child, no matter the order.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that birth order makes that much of a difference in personality. In my family, my brother and I have very similar personalities, yet he is two years older than me. Maybe the birth order rules don't apply when there are not very many kids. My parents treated us very similarly though, I don't think either of us had an advantage. - candiceswanepoel6
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