First borns experience being the youngest child in the family and last borns eventually experience being the only child remaining in the family; middle children never have any of the benefits of only children or youngest children. As a result, middle children tend to seek attention more than either first borns or last borns, even to the extent of criminal deviance (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008; Kluger, 2007).
The Theoretical Basis of Birth Order Influence
The three main explanations for the influence of birth order on human personality development are (1) physiological factors, (2) better access to parental resources, and (3) the cognitive effects of their experiences as only children first and then as surrogate parents (in many respects) to their younger siblings (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2007). According to physiologists, mother's milk is richest in nutrients and beneficial growth factors after their first pregnancy and their testosterone level highest during gestation. Behaviorists report that first born children receive greater parental attention...
Once I went to school, I became more comfortable around other children my age. Still, all through school I remember my peers saying I talked like an adult and knew many words they had never heard of. This was not deliberate because I preferred to fit in with my peers, but, as Adler points out (in Stein), an only child will often talk more like an adult because he
" e) Develops abilities the first child doesn't exhibit. f) if the first child is successful, they may feel uncertain of themself and their abilities. g) May be rebellious. h) Often doesn't like their position. i) Feels "squeezed," if a third child is born. j) May push down other siblings (Birth, 5). Laterborns tend to use low-power strategies, such as whining, pleading, humor, social intelligence, offers of reciprocal altruism, and, whenever
In a within-family design, 96 undergraduate and graduate students rated themselves and their siblings on a 12-item extraversion scale taken from the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory. One-sample tests revealed, as predicted that first-borns rated significantly higher than later-borns on the facet of dominance and later-borns rated significantly higher on the facet of sociability." (2006) The work entitled: "Tracking the Elusive Human, Vol. II: Reading: Type and Genetics from Chapter 13" states the
Birth Order and Juvenile Delinquency Psychologists have long studied the effects of birth order on a person's personality. Sigmund Freud, for example, believed that "the position of a child in the family order is a factor of extreme importance in determining the shape of his later life" (cited in Sulloway 1996: 468n). The rest of social sciences, however, have been slower to accept such a sociobiological approach, preferring instead to explain social
Birth Order on Such Factors as Personality Several people are aware of the expression "birth order" but they have not comprehended what it really connotes, hence allow us to begin with a fundamental description. (Understanding Birth Order: Part I: An Overview) Birth order is a theory that has been deliberated since the last so many years and it is believed to contribute in the manner in which individuals act. A
Psychology Theories of personality focus on inner traits of individuals, which may or may not be viewed as static. The most important schools of personality psychology include Psychodynamic Theory, Freud's Theory of Personality, Humanistic Theory, B.F. Skinner's Theory of Personality, Social Learning Theory, and Evolutionary Personality Theory. While all these theories share in common their goal to explain, analyze, and understand human behavior in terms of personality explanations, there are important
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