(Developmental Psychology)
Birth order plays an important role in shaping our personality traits. The position of children in a family gives essential roles in their personality (Adler, 1946). Personality, which is the subject of this essay, contains five factors which are known as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. Why this topic is important to be elaborated because many people have not realized that birth order affects our selves today. Birth order has a direct link to our personality and it also has stronger connection than we have ever thought before. All decision we have made, our social life, and even self-esteem are the particular impacts from our birth order. Our personality in the future may have been predicted even before we were born. Although particular research on this issue still fails to provide significant answer, believe it or not, birth order still plays a major role on our personality traits and in fact, it will still affect throughout the next generations.
Each position in birth order is tied with certain personalities. From my personal experience, this stereotype certainly vindicates true. I’m the youngest in the family and known for being thrill-seeker, immature, and sensitive as well as disclosed. Nonetheless, my eldest sibling is acknowledged for being perfectionist, conscientious, reliable, and controlling. The description of ‘authoritative’ is certainly an adjective I will choose to describe him. In daily basis, he usually takes the initiative more than me and my other siblings. He can manage the situation well; however, he is less agreeable with other siblings’ objections. My second sibling is laid back, impatient, rebellious, but also tough. Apparently, she has been constantly arguing with my parents and making decisions which are contradictive with our family values. My third sibling is quiet, shy, impatient and also provocative, as well as demanding. I perceive that the 12 years-gap between him and me has influenced his personality in which he still shows an attitude of the so-called “last child’s syndrome”. This syndrome has happened since he had been treated as the last child in the family for nearly 12 years. I shall state that if I have had less than 5 years-gap between me and my previous sibling, my family will be a perfect example for the Adlerian’s birth order theory analysis.
Alfred Adler is the first person who proposed the theory of birth order and personality in early 20th century. According to his study, birth order plays a major role in someone’s personality. He believes that child position in a family can predict what personality that child will have. Adler’s theory also states that there are 4 basic types of positions, which are first-born, middle-child, last-born and the only-child. His theory was initially a breakthrough in psychology field study and it is still being used until today in recent research. Adlerian’s theory is also strengthened by Frank Sulloway. He proposes that birth order has strong and consistent effects on our personality traits. In his book Born to Rebel (1996), he states that the firstborns are less agreeable, more dominant, and more conscientious than later-born children. He argues that children in human families compete for parental resources by creating distinctive niches, just like Darwin’s evolutionary theory which was applied on other species.
Having learned about those basic theoretical notions, now I will show you each type of personality which are compounded from several references. Lets begin with first-born children. They are typically known for their leadership trait, being bossy, dominant, nurturing, and people pleaser (Mulani, R.S, 2004). First-born children, whose position has already established, tend to be responsible, competitive, and conventional (Sulloway, 1996). They may become authoritarian or strict since they feel that power is their rights, yet they can also become helpful if encouraged (Adler, 1946). According to Isaacson (The Birth Order Effect for Couples, 2004), first-borns have the confidence to dream and plan. They feel like they will be respected and supported in what they do. Thus, the high self-esteem and good leadership between first-borns might be the reason why more than a half of the United States Presidents are first-borns.
In contrast, the youngest child, or the last-borns, according to my family experience is acknowledged as ‘spoiled-brats’. They mostly come when the family is already settled in both social and economy. Therefore they often feel scared of big responsibility, because their decisions are more likely made by major influence of their parents and eldest siblings. According to Adler (What Life Could Mean to You, 1931), last-borns often have big plans that don't really work out well. As underdogs within the family system, younger siblings are inclined to question the status quo and in some cases to develop a “revolutionary personality”. In the name of revolution, later-borns have repeatedly challenged the time-honored assumptions of their day (Sulloway, Born to Rebel, 1996). Most of established researches show that last-borns traits are risk taker, idealist, humorist, immature, attention-seeker, and sensitive.
Unlike the first-borns and last-borns, there is almost none empirical study which focuses on middle-borns. I assume that it happens because the middle-born children are declined to find their niche of position in the family system in which they are unable to stand out among their other siblings. Middle-borns are often seen as the ‘worst child’ and often neglected. These statements are made based on several researches in which the middle-borns present less achievement compared with first-borns and last-borns. There is no inherent uniqueness in the position of middle-born child, whose role in the family is consequently less well defined (Kidwell, 1982). However, according to Adlerian’s theory, middle-borns are mediator, have good sportsmanship, great competitor, but also have high risk to becoming neurosis when losing.
There is an exception of birth order between the only-child and twins. The only child personality traits are more likely the combination of the first-borns, and the last-borns. The only-children are often seen as high-achiever, motivated, and successful (Brophy, 1989). Because of lacking of other siblings, they usually lose their immediate availability of others of their own age. In absence of that, the only-children interact with grownups more often, and learn to develop more vocabulary and difficult words faster. They are easy to get along with older people and they are also responsible, mature, as well as perfectionist. Being the only child in the family, they also have difficulty in sharing with others. In addition, the twins traits can be any of other birth order type. Usually in normal twins, one plays the role as first-born while the other plays as later-born. So there are common leader or follower traits among twins. Twins may also feel not unique, suffer from identity crisis, and lack of privacy.
Judith Rich Harris, in her book The Nurture Assumption (1998), argues against the effects of birth order. Instead of family, Harris states that peer group plays the most important role in shaping personality. She perceives that children reciprocally identify with their classmates and playmates rather than their parents, and they also modify their behavior to fit with their peer group. This ultimately helps them to form their character. However, she ignores the main point of how child choose peer group itself is influenced by personality traits on their typical birth order.
Many people say that they are not fit into their typical birth order. If it happens, then it is really normal. Because there are many variables which could impact the birth order process. They are identified as genetic influence, parent’s marital status, parenting style, parent’s birth order, gender, age gap, adoption, and also mental as well as physical condition. The other reason why the birth order does not apply on some cases is the death of parents or other sibling.
In conclusion, the birth order role in shaping personality traits, are still being either opposed or proposed until now. In general, birth order still gives the largest contribution in human personality. Yet, though the birth order plays the major role, it also has to be combined with other variables like genetic influence and parenting style. There are advantages and disadvantages in every typical birth order position. To some extent, we can still manage our personality traits, especially the ones which caused by birth order’s impact.
REFERENCES
- Adler, A. (1931). What Life Could Mean to You. Boston: Little & Brown.
- Adler, A. (1946). Understanding Human Nature. London: Gearge Allen & Unwin Ltd.
- Eischens, A.D. The Dilemma of the Only Child. Retrieved from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/eischens2.html. (2010, December 25).
- Harris, J.R. (1998). The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do. Free Press.
- Isaacson, C. & Schneider, M. (2004). The Birth Order Effect for Couples: How Birth Order Affects Your Relationships – and What You Can do About It. Fair Winds Press.
- Kidwell, J.S. (1982). The Neglected Birth Order: Middleborns. Journal of Marriage and Family, 44(1), 225-235.
- Mulani, R.S. (2004). A Statement of A First-Born Child: “Born First and Wants to Stay First!”
- Sulloway, Frank J. (1997). Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. New York, NY: Pantheon.
No comments:
Post a Comment