Birth Order And Personality Essay

Great Essays
Investigation: The influence of birth order on personality
Report
Introduction
Birth order is defined as an ordinal position of a child’s birth in relation to their siblings. A firstborn is a child who is born first within the family, and a later-born is a child born after the first child. Personality is defined as a pattern of thought, feelings or behaviour that makes an individual unique.
The big 5 personality traits are five main domains or dimensions of personality used to represent human personality. The theory is based on the five factor model encompassing conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Openness to experience is appreciation for emotion, ideas and new varieties of experiences. It reflects the
…show more content…
The Effects of Birth Order on Personality Traits and Feelings of Academic Sibling Rivalry
This research was done by Julia Badger and Peter Reddy in 2009. They wished to see the influence of birth order’s effect on personality traits and sibling rivalry. The participants were Firstborns and Lastborns completing an online questionnaire on sibling rivalry and a personality test.
The results and conclusion from this research was that Lastborns felt a lot more sibling rivalry with their elder siblings, especially when they feel like they have to “Catch Up” to them. However, Firstborns are discovered to be more conscientious, and while they also felt sibling rivalry, it was at a lesser extent that that which is felt by younger siblings.
As a general summary, the research has shown significant differences between Firstborns and Lastborns in terms of birth order affecting personality and sibling rivalry, but claims more research must be done before results can be
…show more content…
It was stated that the results from this research are not very encouraging of further analysis due to the negative result.
Birth Order, Family Structure and Personality Variables
This research was conducted by Edgar Howarth June 1980. The research aimed to discover any possible relationship between birth order, parenting style and personality traits such as sociability, anxiety, dominance and such. 170 female and 142 male undergraduates were tested with the Howarth Personality Questionnaire.
Results and conclusions drawn from this research would be multiple significant relationships found on specific personality traits. Anxiety was reported as lesser in younger siblings, superego (self-critical conscience, reflecting social standards accumulated and assimilated) was higher in elder siblings, and persistence was higher when not oppressed or dominated by an elder sibling in younger siblings, self-pride being higher in elder siblings.
As a general summary, it could be concluded that birth order may very well have a big influence on personality traits that are also influenced by their

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    What Is Birth Order?

    • 215 Words
    • 1 Pages

    What Is Birth Order? Birth order denotes the order a child is born, for example first born, second born etc. Different birth orders depict different characteristics and personalities. It also answers the question “Why You Are the Way You Are?” Birth order is believed to have a fundamental and long-lived effect on psychological development.…

    • 215 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Future studies should examine the different family dynamics that go into play. Single moms or dads, blended families, same sex marriages, adoption, death and divorce can have a huge effect on the child’s personality regardless of their birth order. Adler did not address birth order effects in blended families, because they were uncommon in his time. However, they are much more common now.…

    • 211 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bowen’s Family Systems theory (BFST) attempts to explain human behavior as it relates to family dynamics and its complex interconnections. Reading Genesis chapters one through four, I identified four of eight BFST concepts that can be applied to “The First Family”: (a) triangles concept, (b) nuclear family concept, (c) emotional cutoff, and (d) sibling position. According to BFST, the triangle concept refers to three individuals that are in some way connected to each other, be it biological family or not, as this concept can apply to any relationship, and the triad can be extensive. Additionally, according to the theory, dyad is weak to withstand stress on its own and thus having at least three individuals in the family makes it stronger. We…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Summary and response. In the essay, “How your birth order influences your life adjustment”, author Lucille Forer points out the role that a child plays within its family group, and how its birth order determines the adjustment to its reality. Forer explains that family members have diverse expectations towards the identity and attitudes of a child; and how each child reacts to certain situations depending on how he might think of himself or how capable he might think he is because of the effects that its birth order has on its personality and behavior.…

    • 94 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My mom 's oldest child (my dad 's third child) Dontreze always remind me to make better decisions than he did. During Dontreze senior year he was home-bound because of behavioral issues, and he is always on me about school to make sure I succeed. Next, "children who grow up with an opposite –sex siblings can be incredibly advantage" (Lyon, 2009, para 11). The author and I agree on this claim because I feel as if I do have an advantage because of my older brothers.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Essay On Randall Pearson

    • 1805 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Adler’s theory of birth order mainly focuses on the dynamic of only children, first-borns, second-borns, youngest children, and only children, but she also does have some research on multiples and adopted children. She took each of these children and describes them by their characteristics, struggles, and likely outcomes. Adler says that the position of a person’s birth order has an impact on their personality development throughout childhood and into adulthood. Adler describes the youngest-born children as the ‘pet’ of the family and can potentially be dependent on caretakers as they have the tendency to be “babied”. They are said to develop at a fast pace and surpass the other children.…

    • 1805 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Birth Order "The one thing you can bet your paycheck on is that the firstborn and second born in any given family are going to be different," (Voo 1). Doctor Leman, a psychologist that has been studying birth order since 1967 has noted this throughout his years of research. Whether first born, middle child, or the youngest in a family, there are going to be certain personality traits that are commonly found in a person depending on the order of their birth. For an example, usually it can be quite difficult to find a comedian that is a first born child (Cowley 17) because usually the youngest is the more of the out going person and not as much of a conscientious and structured person.…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    D1/D2/A1/A*2 For the theme Children and young peoples development I will be focusing on how different factors can effect a child's social and emotional development. I have chosen two key issues to talk about regarding children's development. The two key issues I will be discussing are how family structure can effect children's social and emotional development and how day care can effect children's social and emotional development. I have chosen these two key issues to talk about as I feel that they are vital factors than can have effects on children's social and emotional development in positive and negative ways.…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Firstborn Children

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The first born child is usually the most athletic and good looking child. They put the firstborn child under a lot of pressure to succeed. In addition to parental behavior, the firstborn child is often shocked by the introduction of a competitor into the family. This may lead to sibling rivalry. On the other hand, younger siblings often idolize the first born, putting the first born in a position of leader of the children of the family.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Genogram Reflection

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After concluding the genogram, it dawned on me that my family didn’t necessarily have many issues regarding emotional relationships. I think most of it has to deal with the recent transition of a laid-back household to a religious household where my parents are very much involved with the church alongside my younger siblings. With that being said I did notice that my paternal family had a higher chance of dying young whereas my maternal family had a much longer lifespan. I also took into consideration that the marriages that occurred where between individuals that where only a couple of years apart from one another. I can’t claim any educational patterns that have occurred within the household since I’ve been the only one who’s attended college.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The observation dealt with the impact of development and behavior of sibling position. Overall people who grow up together are held in the same sibling predicament with mutual…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you ever wonder why the older siblings usually get better grades and the younger siblings are usually more independent, and carefree? After reading many different sources, it is clear that birth order has an effect on how kids act and what their personalities are. “The Achiever, the Peacemaker and the Life of the Party: How Birth Order Affects Personality” by Dr. Gail Gross, and “firstborns get intellectual advantage over younger siblings, study finds” by A. Pawlowski, all give numerous pieces of evidence that supports why each kid is treated differently by their parents, and why their parents have different expectations in school. These are only a couple reasons why birth order affects how kids do in school and affects their personalities.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When trying to figure out where most of the issues we face as adults stems from there is often one common denominator. Most of these issues can be traced back to how your family functioned. The values that were emphasized, the roles each member played and the interactions that occurred all play a significant role in how we function as people. At the core of most of our distress and accomplishments is our family dynamic and ultimately what occurred within your family has the ability to impact your future. How can we ensure that parents or guardians are making the right choices when it comes to the best way to raise a child?…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Birth Order Theory

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Adler, along with other psychologists, argue that the psychological birth order of a child plays a larger role in the development of an individual’s personality (Adler, 1956; Manaster & Corsini, 1982; Campbell et.al., 1991). Since Adler’s initial identification of the relationship between birth order and personality, which he called birth order theory, dozens of psychologists have further investigated the correlation. This paper will review relevant studies and come to the conclusion that birth order does in fact play a critical role in the development of personality among the various social positions of the…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “The New Science of Siblings,” Jeffrey Kluger tells us some interesting factors of having siblings, and which it is the impact of these could cause in the life of a child. Kluger says, “Siblings are our scolds, protectors, goads, tormentors, playmates, counselors, sources of every objects of pride.” Also the older we get, we have a closer relationship with our siblings. As adults in the end, we finally start to feel love for our siblings after years of fights, and competing for our parents’ attention. He also says “our siblings could contribute to our emotional and psychological health.”…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays