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Birth Order Theory: Adler's Research
‘Adler's desire to understand how social factors influence personality extended to child development. His birth order theory described how the family environment shaped a child's thoughts and behaviors. Tiffi looks over the list of traits for the first born and last born. She does recognize a lot of those first born traits…
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Traits of birth order
Over at Elsa’s house, she remembers studying Alfred Adler when she was in college so she decides to do some googling to help Tiffi. She finds an article that breaks each birth order down. ‘The following traits are general examples of how birth order and personality are related. Of course, many other factors could impact…
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Traits of middle and youngest child
Middle Child - Many have heard of the "middle child syndrome" and the difficulties these children can present. Considering the significant changes they deal with early in life, it's no wonder they could become frustrated or resentful. Not only do they lose their "youngest child" status, but they also have to share their…
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Research says that birth order can shape your personality
Tiffi now tries to look for images to go along with the story. She finds the cutest hand drawn picture breaking down the birth orders. She decides to read the article. ‘It’s a general assumption that the order of birth in a family can somewhat determine your personality and intelligence, but how much of this is exactly…
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The Oldest-Child Syndrome
Elsa is still looking for articles to help Tiffi. Suddenly the idea of creating a story about birth order comes to her mind. What a great idea! ‘Opposite personality poles – A firstborn child can be either strong willed and independent or a compliant people-pleaser, according to psychiatrist Alfred Adler, founder of the…
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Middle Child Syndrome
‘Is Middle Child Syndrome A Real Thing? It is difficult to determine whether or not middle child syndrome is a real thing, but the fact remains that many middle children share the same experiences and feelings. Dr. Alfred Adler’s theory is the closest we can come to proving the existence of middle child syndrome, believing…
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What Is Youngest Child Syndrome?
‘In 1927, psychologist Alfred Adler first wrote about birth order and what it predicted for behavior. Over the years, a number of theories and definitions have been put forward. But by and large, youngest children are described as: • highly social • confident • creative • good at problem solving • adept at getting others…
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Why first borns fuss, seconds are resilient and last borns like to laugh
‘How can two or three children in the same family be so different? They are brought up in the same broad social environment, under a similar set of rules and an identical family value system. They also come from the same genetic pool yet they can be so different in personality, interests and achievement. While they may be…
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The middle child
‘The middle (and in all likelihood the second) child is influenced by his elder sibling. The one rule of thumb about birth order is that children are directly influenced by the sibling above and will differ from that sibling. Frank Sulloway, the author of Born To Rebel, puts it succinctly, when he says that the first rule…
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Last borns, the youngest
‘Youngest children in the family are typically charmers and manipulators. They love to get their own way - and they invariably do. They are in the fortunate position of having a sibling break their parents in for them and they don’t have the pressures of the first born. Their birth is not the big event as was the first…
