Birth Order Research Paper

Personality Effects of Birth Order
Margo Dominey & Peggy Hodge
Personality Effects of Birth Order
Professor Fortner
11/18/2014

“According to famous Australian psychologist, Alfred Adler, certain characteristic traits of a child depend on the birth order, i.e. whether he was the first-born or the second-born child in the family. These character traits are more evident if he has been a victim of the second or middle child syndrome” (Lalwani, 2012). This is believed to be evident on a multicultural level, the hypothesis that the order in which one is born directly effects the shape of one’s identity. Of course many other factors come into play in regards to the development of an individual’s personality such as genes, parents, location, friends, …show more content…
“…You benefited from having more family members on hand to help you out whenever you asked. Which means you probably never had to struggle with a problem on your own for very long” (Blair, 2011). The parents may be more lenient with the rules and will not necessarily pay attention to their every move, hoping that the older siblings will take on the role of playing Mommy. Although their attention may not be 24/7, with every first there comes a last. Each milestone has a particular soft spot in their hearts. As the new parents cherished their first child’s first steps, they, with the feeling of nostalgia and regret, will cherish the very last first steps of their last child with even more joy. “…because they weren’t quite ready to give up their parenting role, they tended to reward you when your behaviour was ¬dependent or immature” (Blair, 2011). The youngest child may be manipulative to others when they want to get their …show more content…
She asked them the same questions, “Do you believe that the oldest/middle/only child has any advantages or disadvantages over the other sibling.” and “If you had a choice what order you were born, which would you choose?” Gail, the first born with 6 younger siblings, felt her parents were more lenient with the later siblings. They didn’t have as much responsibilities as she did. Since she was expected to take care of all her siblings, they didn’t get a lot of one on one time with mom and dad. Gail wished to be born in any other order than first. “Being first,” she explained “added a lot of responsibilities upon me and there were high expectations towards me. I was constantly being looked up to, sort of like a role model.” Jeff, the middle child, felt everyone was more worried about the youngest of the family. Being the middle child helped him to be more level headed. When asked, he wished to remain the middle child. The only child, Rex, believed his advantages were his parents giving him undivided love and attention. His disadvantages were being alone, he had to entertain himself because he didn’t know how to make friends since making friends required sharing and that is something an only child never has to learn. Since he had no friends he taught himself how to play numerous musical instruments and he expressed himself through art and

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