Birth Observation Essay

My freshmen year in my child development class, I studied birth order. Each week I observed the 3 – 4 year olds in the nursery. In the beginning of my study Ms. Mason was able to tell me the birth order of each child in the class. In addition, I also read studies about birth order. I found that the eldest child tends to be the most organized; they tend to be structured and conscientious. Whereas, the last born is outgoing and fun-loving. And the middle child tends to be people-pleasers and thrives on friendships. However, when I observed the nursery, I found that some of the first-borns were structured and cautious and others were outgoing. I also found that some of the last-borns were outgoing, while others were more organized and quiet. The children that followed the criteria for their designated birth order, I ended up using in my paper. …show more content…
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions. I looked for the children that would confirm the theory of birth order. I wonder how many people want to believe in birth order and look for traits in themselves to confirm the birth order theory? More recently, there have been more studies showing that birth order does not affect personality traits. “Birth order is a bit like a horoscope, in that it presents you with vague enough traits that it’s easy to project them onto yourself” (Beck, 2015). Again, as I stated about horoscopes in my last paper, I can see how birth order and horoscopes can elicit personality traits that are important to oneself. Personality tests, horoscopes, and reading birth order traits, may help a psychologist or a teacher discover what traits are prioritized in an individual’s