Running Head: BIRTH ORDER AND ITS IMPACT ON PERSONALITY

Birth Order and its Impact on Personality

Meleigha Bailey

Grand Canyon University

PSY 255: Personality Psychology

Topic: Birth Order and its Impact on Personality

Thesis Statement: By stroke of luck a person is born in a particular place into a family, which will surely impact the way in which their sense of purpose, behavior, and perception of self are all developed.

1st Main Point: That Serves to Prove Your Thesis: Parental Interaction varies from first born, to middle, to last born children, and has a great deal to do with the sense of purpose that a child feels.

  • 1st piece of research That Supports this Main Point (citation)( Adler viewed the first born children as being dethroned from the place of honor (only child in the home) when the second child came along, consequently driving the sense of purpose in a previously ignored direction. Middle born children spend more time with parents and have less responsibility than the first borns, and last born children are often more reliant on parents and have little to no responsibility, and parents relaxed parenting style can allow the last born more freedom of expression. (Course textbook – Adler)
  • How does this article support this main point (key ideas)
  • This removes the first bornchild from a coveted status
  • This fosters jealousy in the first born, creating a desire to please the parents even more than before – often done through academia
  • Middle borns and last borns often demand more of the parental attention and can become spoiled and feel indulged – sense of purpose therefore becomes more rebellious
  • 2nd piece of research That Supports this Main Point (citation)( Sibling interaction and conflict between siblings can also work to shape the development of purpose. (Meta-Analysis – Darwinian Logic)
  • How does this article support this main point (key ideas)
  • Jealousy between siblings can foster a sense of competition between them all. Younger siblings often feel inferior to their older counterparts and feel as though they are forever standing in their shadow, unable to keep up with the older siblings accomplishments
  • Comraderie that might develop between siblings can create the sense of responsibility and the loyalty towards certain causes that are important to the other siblings.
  • Siblings observing parental interaction with other siblings and with themselves will compare the interactions and can then feel a drive to either push away/attract parental attention and praise.

2nd Main Point: That Serves to Prove Your Thesis: Because the child’s birth order they naturally feel an inclination to achieve a certain status because of it (first borns seek to earn high praise from mom and dad, and thus adapt behaviors that will advance this goal, while middle born children will seek to achieve the same sense of grandeur as the older siblings, adapting behaviors of their own).

  • 1st piece of research That Supports this Main Point (citation)( World leaders, top educators, many lawyers, high-profile political positions are often first born children – seeking to hold the highest status, middle children become the negotiators, and youngest children are often the revolutionary’s or rebels of the family, avoiding competition by forging their own path.
  • How does this article support this main point (key ideas)
  • World leaders – often first borns or only children that have, for a time, had all of the parents attention and have held the most responsibility of all siblings
  • Caring professions, mediators, peace makers – often middle children that have learned through lack of parental attention/competition with siblings how to seek friendship elsewhere and/or dissolve conflict amongst family
  • Performing arts, non-conformist work – last born children that rebelliously seek their own path, due to lack of parental expectation and competition for spotlight from siblings
  • 2nd piece of research That Supports this Main Point (citation)Behavior in the classroom according to birth order – elementary to middle school teachers speak out regarding how to identify birth order in their children and how to deal with them and their behaviors accordingly. ( - will find scholarly article as well to substantiate) (
  • How does this article support this main point (key ideas)
  • First born children are leaders – outspoken and driven to be most powerful in the classroom – lay out precise boundaries and consequences for disruptive behavior
  • Middle born children are often quiet and tend to be more of a wallflower – acknowledge often and give responsibility/power to them
  • Last born children are most affectionate and low-pressure, low-maintainence – encourage participation in responsibility as they will shirk it at all costs and offer praise/affirmation

3rd Main Point that Serves to Prove your Thesis: The child’s place within the family has a good deal to do with the way that a child perceives themselves. Older children feel favored, authoritarian, and prideful, while middle children often feel lost – not connected to older sibling or parents, and seek to lessen the conflict in the home while seeking affirmation and friendship/sense of belonging elsewhere. Youngest children often have a sense of ‘all is well, everything will be taken care of’, spontaneous attitude about themselves, seeing themselves as low maintenance and low-stress.

  • 1st piece of research That Supports this Main Point (citation) Psychology today – birth order and the effect on behavior – parental attention and sibling rivalry foster a sense of self in each place
  • How does this article support this main point (key ideas)
  • First borns feel secure with themselves and are self-confident due to abundance of parental attention and affection – parental expectation placed fully on their shoulders until second child arrives making the first born view themselves as little adults rather than children
  • Middle born children often idolize older siblings and then find themselves caught mercilessly in the older siblings shadow, coupled with the older siblings jealousy of parental attention being directed toward the younger middle born, often causing feelings of inferiority or inadequacy. Can cause the middle born to feel less secure about themselves, invisible to others and often feels as though they will always be striving for unachievable goals.
  • Last borns have the least amount of parental expectation, with the most sibling rivalry, often seeing themselves as the littlest, slowest, and least accomplished. They often see the achievements of older siblings as totally out of reach and therefore have a laissez-faire attitude toward life, tending to see themselves as an adventurer, with many friends and seeing themselves as most important.
  • 2nd piece of research That Supports this Main Point (citation) Academics among siblings tend to go down as each child is born – older siblings often have the best grades all the way down to the youngest siblings having the worst grades, even though they might have similar IQ.
  • How does this article support this main point (key ideas)
  • First borns are surrounded by adults and bear the brunt of parental expectation – they seek to please the parents by achieving the highest scores and earning the top achievements
  • First borns are exposed to adult language and thus learn a larger, more sophisticated vocabulary
  • More time from parents is devoted to first borns to reading and educational pursuits
  • The more children a family has could contribute to the lesser amount of time the parents spend with the children pursuing academic goals
  • Tutoring of younger siblings allows the older siblings to rehearse a repeat the information learned, thus they are able to retain greater bits of information

Conclusion What Have You found in your research and how does this apply to your thesis: Birth order has a lot to do with how a child’s personality develops, and with what sort of person this child will become, if for no other reason than the parental attention and expectations are adapted to each child, and because sibling interaction can influence behavior and emotion.

References

Phillips, A. S., & Phillips, C. R. (2000). Birth-order differences in self-attributions for achievement.The Journal Of Individual Psychology,56(4), 474-480.