Only for puja

Last Name 1

First Name Last Name

Dr. Mary Spelman

English 1223

5 September 2012

Research Journal 1

Have you ever thought about the personality difference between you and your siblings?

Have you ever imaged what would happen if you and one of your siblings switched birth order?

Will your personality stay the same? “Birth order is a fact, a given, of the child’s existence, a

location in a social structure. This location, Alder felt, leaves an imprint which is often

recognizable even in adult life; it affects adult personality” (Shulman and Mosak). Adler also

held the opinion that birth order provided a reference point for locating not only the child in

relation to siblings but also adults, which includes the child-parent relationship and the

relationship with the public society. I totally agree with those opinions.

Adler thinks even though children are born in the same family, they are not born into the

same environment, especially the psychological environment. Instead of the real birth order, the

psychological situation is the key issue that influences the personalities (Shulman and Mosak).

Shulman and Mosak share many opinions on the birth order influence; however, they do

have some different views. Shulman holds the opinion that only children who never had a rival

may be pampered and never learn to share. First-born children prefer to be the first and foremost;

second children start late and have to catch up. Middle children are surrounded by competitors

and may feel squeezed; youngest children are never dethroned by children born after them.

However, Mosak just breaks his discussion into these categories: eldest child, middle child,

Last Name 2

youngest child, and only child. He also brought variable questions related to birth order, and

suggested that we take as many variables as possible into account when we are doing our

research. For example, the second child can be the youngest one in a family with two children,

the middle child in a family with three children, and an older child in a large family (Shulman

and Mosak).

I would prefer Mosak’s opinion. We can’t summarize the typical personality of certain

children before we take into account many more variables. However, after we have considered

these factors, we may be allowed to state that birth order does affect our personality in certain

ways.

Works Cited

Shulman, Bernard H., and Harold H. Mosak. "Birth Order and Ordinal Position: Two Adlerian

Views." Journal of Individual Psychology 33.1 (1977): 114. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 5 Sept. 2012.