Birth Order And Personality Development

Birth order is a unique experience that is commonly thought to affect multiple aspects of personality development. One of the first theorists to propose a connection between the influence of birth order on a child’s development was a man named Alfred Adler. In his work, Adler outlined many traits which best described an individual's place in the family. He believed that each child in a family will develop their own unique personality based off of their position in the birth order. According to Adler, firstborns usually take up more authoritarian roles such as a teacher and leader for their younger siblings. They have more power and authority over the younger siblings, but they are also more likely to submit to the authority of their parents.

They are often stereotyped as being pampered, immature, irresponsible, and dependent on their parents. The youngest child receives a lot of attention and as a result becomes very adept at manipulating others into doing things for them. Finally, the only child receives and maintains the power of the first born since there is no other child to dethrone them. Because of this they mature quickly and are more comfortable spending time with adults rather than their peers. Only children are characterized as independent, responsible, and mature as a result of all the attention they received from their parents growing up. It has been a long time since Adler first proposed his theory on birth order, and since then an exhaustive amount of research has been conducted on the topic. Much of this research focuses on the specific traits that are exhibited by children without much focus on the development of their personality. As such, the purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the research associated with the impact that birth order might have on various areas of personality development.

Review of the

The results of the study found that there was a consistent decline in IQ scores from first to last borns amongst multiple families. They reported that older siblings had a higher IQ than their younger siblings 60 percent of the time (6 out of 10 cases on average). These findings suggest that birth order has a significant effect in regards to intelligence which also plays an important role in the child’s personality and development. However, other scientists have conducted the same kinds of research and concluded that there is no relationship between birth order and intelligence (Rodgers, 2001). They argue that the research showing a significant effect between birth order and intelligence are generalizations based off of a small sample size, and as such require further