Sibling Birth Order

The purpose of this research is to discuss sibling birth order, its effect on personality, and normal and abnormal and intellectual behavior.

Birth order is the position into which a child is born within the framework of a specific family. Birth order influences how one copes with people and society, on an individual and on a group basis.

Studies and experiments tend to prove that birth order, or ordinal position in a family, is useful in gaining insights into human behavior and patterns of behavior. The birth order factor is also useful for teachers and counselors dealing with adolescents, particularly in a classroom situation since birth order and sibling interaction also effects motivation, achievement, social skills, career choice and life style.

Theories of the birth order factor apply not only to Western, or American society, but to all cultures throughout history. Mythology and history contain many examples of the favored child based on birth order as well as sex.

In her classic study of primitive adolescent girls, anthropologist Margaret Mead pointed out the importance of birth order in primitive societies, and how this affects functions and prestige in the family and larger society as well as personality. Although birthdays are of little account in Samoa, the birth itself of the baby of high rank is important, she wrote. "Relative age is of great importance, for the elder may always command the younger--until the positions of adult life upset the arrange

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erned and anxious about their health and future. Many of these first-borns, postulates Zimbardo, feel they have not measured up to the goals set by their parents. First-borns, in general, have lower self-esteem than later children do. These feelings of inadequance, present in both shyness and birth order of firstborns, forms the key to Zimbardo's theory concerning birth order and shyness. If feelings of inadequance are common to each, then perhaps more first borns are also shy than are later borns. Sore support for this idea comes from our evidence that significantly more preteen first borns are shy, while a significantly greater percentage of later borns are not shy. Another way to look at the relationship between birth order and a child's popularity with peers is in terms of the power disadvantage of later-born siblings. Later-born children may learn to develop more effective interpersonal skills (negotiation, persuasion, compromise, for example) because they can't rely on the kinds of power their older siblings enjoy . . . later-born children should be both more popular and more liked by their age mates . . . These findings point to another possible explanation for the development of shyness in first-born child

Category: Psychology - S