For hundreds of years, psychologists have been trying to understand what affects a person’s personality and social and behavioural skills, as well as what causes the individual differences between people. One of the earliest defining characteristics of a person is their position in their family, and more specifically their ordinal position of birth. Some people argue that one’s position in sibling birth order does not have an impact on the persons social and behavioural skills, instead other, non-birth order related factors affect the person’s personality and social and behavioural skills. Yet, by exploring various studies, it becomes clear that he differences in personality and social and behavioural skills in people are largely influenced
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Richards and Goodman (1949) compared children of various birth order and family composition who were referred to a psychiatric clinic (p. 753). They found that only children and children from small families were more similar than different (Richards and Goodman, 1949, p. 756). This led them to believe that because only children and children from small families received similar amounts of attention and over-protection by parents, that family size was the cause of differences (Richards and Goodman, 1949, p. 756-757). Family size could only be considered the differentiating factor is, by adding the single person would have the same effect no matter the size of the starting family group. Yet, studies have shown that this is not the case because as more children are added, parents resources decrease exponentially, dropping suddenly after the first child, but then staying relatively stable as each child is added after that (Downey and Condron, 2004, p 333-334). Additionally, if individual differences were not dependent on birth order, then children in a large family would be similar not matter what order they were born in. Yet, studies show that there are substantial differences between middle children and last-born children; middle children value adult attention and praise (McGurk and Lewis, 2004, p. 336), where as later-born children prefer a similar amount of peer and adult interaction (Baskett, 1984, p. 1031). These differences show that one’s specific location in birth order has more of an effect than family
Richards and Goodman (1949) compared children of various birth order and family composition who were referred to a psychiatric clinic (p. 753). They found that only children and children from small families were more similar than different (Richards and Goodman, 1949, p. 756). This led them to believe that because only children and children from small families received similar amounts of attention and over-protection by parents, that family size was the cause of differences (Richards and Goodman, 1949, p. 756-757). Family size could only be considered the differentiating factor is, by adding the single person would have the same effect no matter the size of the starting family group. Yet, studies have shown that this is not the case because as more children are added, parents resources decrease exponentially, dropping suddenly after the first child, but then staying relatively stable as each child is added after that (Downey and Condron, 2004, p 333-334). Additionally, if individual differences were not dependent on birth order, then children in a large family would be similar not matter what order they were born in. Yet, studies show that there are substantial differences between middle children and last-born children; middle children value adult attention and praise (McGurk and Lewis, 2004, p. 336), where as later-born children prefer a similar amount of peer and adult interaction (Baskett, 1984, p. 1031). These differences show that one’s specific location in birth order has more of an effect than family