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...of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.
—Mary Antin
Many people today do not know how birth order can affect someone; most psychologist who study the topic know that birth order can affect a person's personality, career decisions, and intelligence. According to one source, “birth order refers to the order in which siblings are born into a family” (Stewart 1). In addition, birth order can affect each child differently by the environment that the child becomes susceptible to when born. Many psychologists have studied birth order. One of them an Austrian psychologist, Dr. Alfred Adler, became the first psychologist to hypothesize and confirm that a child’s birth order personality traits become fully developed by the age of two (Effects 1). Studies have shown that the way the parents treat each child can effect how the child’s personality develops. Adler thought parents treated each child differently depending on when he/she was born (Stewart 1).
In the 1920’s, Adler emphasized the great role birth order plays on personality and character. He thought that to be accepted and valued were a basic necessity for children. His theory simply stated: “Children in any given family each strive for their parents love, attention, and resources.” While Adler’s theory remains genuine, psychologist Frank Sulloway’s theory contrasts his by saying that children compete for these same values (1 Birth 1-2).
While these theories—the two psychologist have came up with—are true, some characteristics of each child’s birth order can affect how they go about “striving” or “competing” for his/her parents’ attention, love, and resources. With this in mind, birth order consists of four main...
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