Name: Esrah G.

Macalagay Section: 2PSY-A

Birth Order and Personality

Purpose: To apply Adler’s theory of birth order to students’ own lives.

Instructions: Please create a table on this document. Across the top, list the names of five people
that you know very well (friends, family, etc.). Under each name, list five to ten adjectives that
best describe the personality of each individual. Finally, at the bottom of each column, list the birth
order position of each individual (first born, middle child, etc.).
Using the information from the “Birth Order and Personality” in the chapter, discuss the extent to
which your personal observations are consistent with the research findings on birth order.

REMINDER: Make this pdf before submission.

Beatris Von Rexce Rizza Hadassah

➢ Goal ➢ Thoughtful ➢ Brave ➢ Friendly ➢ Indecisive
oriented ➢ Responsible ➢ Kind ➢ Loving ➢ Friendly
➢ Generous ➢ Considerate ➢ Competitive ➢ Quick- ➢ Patient
➢ Caring ➢ Agreeable ➢ Reliable tempered ➢ Sweet
➢ Easy-Going ➢ Observant ➢ Bright ➢ Honest ➢ Hardheaded
➢ Loving ➢ Neat ➢ Anxious ➢ Dependable ➢ Unpredictable
➢ Smart ➢ Humorous ➢ Understanding ➢ Creative ➢ Pro-active
➢ Competitive ➢ Straight ➢ Fair-minded ➢ Passionate ➢ Warmhearted
➢ Tidy forward ➢ Witty
➢ Adaptable ➢ Hard-
working

First Born Child Only Child Second Born Child Second Born Child Youngest Child

Alfred Adler was an Austrian and a psychiatrist who framed an image of human nature that did
not portray people as victims of instincts, biological forces, or childhood experiences. He was
recognized for founding the individual psychology approach that focused on the uniqueness of
each individual and denied the university of biological motives and goals ascribed on Freud’s
Theory. In Adler’s perspective, each human is primarily a social being. Personalities are shaped
by unique social surroundings and interactions, not by attempts to satisfy biological needs. He is
more focused on human consciousness, the core of personality, than the driving forces that an
individual can’t control or see.

One of Adler’s contributions was about the birth order, which indicates that it has a major social
influence through human childhood in which a person’s lifestyle is created. According to him,
being the older or youngest child and being exposed to differing parental attitudes create different
childhood conditions that help to determine the different kinds of properties.
Beatris was one of my childhood friends, she’s a first-born child, and based on my observation
she’s smart ever since we were younger. She was easy-going to the point that I get jealous before
because she played to other kids. Therefore, honestly, we’ve never talked for almost 8 years
because we decided to have our own way to live, and we are shy to approach each other even
though their house was near to ours. But then this last school break we’ve spent time together
almost twice or thrice a week we spend our time we did some cardio exercises and some days
we’ve spend was for our valid id’s application. Moreover, when doing those things, we share some
things that we learned about our lives, funny stories like we were young, and stories that we went
through. To those times I spend being with her I can tell that she’s still the friend I know the one
who is afraid to fail her parents, competitive not with her youngest sister but it is her strategy to
survive her life. She able to cope up easily in this kind of situation, unlike me who spend almost
2 years before I really accept this kind of situation we have been experiencing. She dreamed to
be a doctor and currently she’s taking the program of medical technology.
The first-born children in Adler's birth order are in a special and privileged position, at least
temporarily. When they had their first child, they gave it all their focus and time. As a result, first-
born children usually receive their parents' full and immediate attention. According to Adler's
description of the first-born, first-born individuals are often oriented toward the past and
pessimistic about the future. The first-born child will be preoccupied with power for the rest of their
life once they understand its advantages. First-born children are better able to develop cognitively
since their parents expected them to be the model, teacher, and disciplinarian for their younger
siblings. Additionally, he considers that first-borns are more likely to show an extraordinary interest
in upholding authority. They have a conservative and authoritarian outlook and are well-
organized, careful, and detail oriented.

As stated in Adler’s approach to birth order, second-born were characterized as competitive and
ambitious about their future. Competition with the firstborn serves to motivate the second child,
who tries to catch up to and surpass their older sibling. Rexce and Rizza are second-born
individuals but have different personalities. From my perspective, not all middle child personalities
are accordingly to Adler’s theory. For instance, my friend Rexce grew up without the guidance of
her parents. Her mother died when she was in 3 rd grade, and her father was busy working and
died when she was in junior high. As a result, she became anxious about her future, but she's the
kind of bright person who wants to give light to other people. She's also kind of competitive, but
her competitiveness has a place. When I was with her, she always reminded me that she’s all
ears, whenever I hate something, she tries to comprehend to it with a fair judgment. While Rizza
grew up with her parents, there was a time I went to their house to do some physical education
activities, and sometimes I went there just to spend time with her. And I notice that her parents
are strict but fair. She has a mother who’s willing to understand their children, give attention and
guidance to their children, and has a loving and hard-working father. And I can tell that she gets
those personalities from her parents because she sees it and feels it. She’s passionate about the
things that she’s doing. In my conclusion, these two may have been the same second-born
children, but their personalities were different since they grew up in different kinds of
environments. At this case, I can tell that she’s more independent than Rizza because she lives
her life without the guidance of her parents. There might be problems while she’s developing or
at a young age, but she has already gone through some phases of her life that changed her
mentality to mature and, at that point, when she ever encounters some problems in her adulthood,
she will easily surpass them.

Hadassah is my youngest sister, as stated above, and her characteristics were inclined to Adler’s
theory. The youngest children are more likely to be the parents’ babies, while last-borns never
face the shock of dethronement by another child or sibling. As I have observed, my mother was
not that strict when it comes to her. Maybe that is the reason why she makes decisions without
thinking them through. She has an extroverted type of personality where she enjoys being around
other people and excels at it. Therefore, she’s somehow unpredictable when she wants
something. She will strive for it on her own. Regarding Adler’s approach, there are two paths when
the youngest child is developing their personalities. The first path is a clear journey to success,
where they try to excel in every way, often becoming the go-to person in the family. Young children
can also become avoidant if they lack the confidence or drive to excel. The good thing about the
personalities of last-born kids is that they are high achievers in whatever work they undertake
when they become adults. However, as they grow older, some children may retain the
helplessness and dependency of childhood. Since they are being babied, it could be difficult for
them to adjust to adulthood.

According to Adler's theory of birth order, only children never lose the position of primacy and
power they hold in the family. Children who are the only children tend to get much more attention
from their parents, compared to children with siblings. As a result of spending more time
surrounded by adults than the children at their age, the children often mature early and manifest
adult behaviors and attitudes. This theory was interesting and accurate to what I have stated
about my cousin’s personalities. Von was my cousin. He’s 8 years old, and at this age he’s such
a kid who likes being surrounded by adults and acts like an adult. He usually played with other
kids his same age as him and bonded with our cousins. Thus, there’s a time that he enjoys the
company of being with the adults and listening to what they have talked about. That is why he
asks questions. He is willing to learn and curious, which is why he has this kind of personality.
He’s highly focused on achieving something that his parents told him he should like, like
maintaining being a top student in his class. At a young age and since he was his parents' only
child, their attention was focused on him. He had this pressure holding him and pushing him to
go through. Children may experience problems when they find that in some areas of their life
outside their home, they are not the center of attention. In addition, according to Adler’s theory,
only children have learned to neither share nor compete.

References:

Brennan. (2021, June 28). Birth Order: What You Should Know. Retrieved from
https://www.webmd.com/parenting/whattoknowaboutbirthorder#:~:text=A%20researcher%20na
med%20Alfred%20Adler,in%20shapin%20a%20child's%20personality.

Dean. (2022, September 1). Birth Order Theory: Insights into Your Personality | BetterHelp.
Retrieved from https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/family/birth-order-theory-insights-into-your-
personality/

Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2008). Theories of Personality. Adler’s Birth Order (11th ed., pp.117–
120).