nformity, popularity and fearfulness.
Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler is considered the "father" of the birth order theory. He wrote that "the position in the family leaves an indelible stamp upon the style of life. Every difficulty of development is caused by rivalry and lack of cooperation in the family" (Forer, 1976, p. 6).
In Understanding Human Nature (1927), Adler placed emphasis on the struggle for power between the oldest and the next oldest child.
The oldest child is usually the one whom one accredits with enough power and common sense to be a helper or foreman of his parents (White, 1972, p. 101).
Birth order research and theories in the 1920s to the 1960s were concerned mainly with the area of eminence. The best-known findings of this "first wave of birth order studies" was that first born children come out best compared with other sibling positions. In the category of eminence, first born children did come out best.
They're more likely than later-born siblings to become scientists, professors, physicians, composers, Rhodes scholars, and to appear in Who's Who. Almost 40 percent of the 40 United-States Presidents have been firstborns (a considerably higher proportion than would be expected from population data) (Weiss, 1981, p. 51).
In his classic book on child care, based on years of systematic research at the Gesell Institute of Child Development, Dr. Arnold Gesell cites the importance of a child's order or birth on development:
We have come to feel that certain characteristics have been linked . . . with order of birth. The first child, we have often found, is well endowed, acquires speech early and shows early gross motor abilities. His speech is clear, he repeats accurately what he hears, and is less apt to indulge in or simulate 'baby talk.' He may be interested in books very early and often teaches himself to read long before he enters first grade.
It is in the emotional realm w...