Birth Order Psychology

BY: CALLIE SARIC

Birth Order Psychology

History

The Marvelous Middle Child

The Outstanding Only Child

The Lovely Last Born

The Ferocious First Born

Thanks to Alfred Adler, we now know about theories that state that our place in the family impacts our personality traits.

Alfred wanted to prove his theory correct, so he studied families and any behavior you could think of. He found out that birth order is not influenced by a shared environment. He discovered that parents deal with their family environment based on birth order.

Birth order is based on how you are raised or if you are born with these traits genetically. Even though many critiqued Alfred's theory and made their own, we know so much more about birth order thanks to him.

The middle child has a combination of many unique features:

• Stable
• Have many sturdy relationships with friends and are outgoing, humorous, and friendly
• Good team players and partners
• Rebellious and free-spirited
• Argue successfully
• Exact opposite traits as their older sibling
• Peacemakers
• Competitive
• Attention seekers

The youngest child has many sides to their personality:

• Target of many jokes and attention during childhood
• Do not take responsibilities into their own hands
• Some work well with others and are entertaining and influential
• Sociable, charming, outgoing, humorous, creative, an idealist, and loving
• Sensitive and secretive
• Opinionated

Only children are a mix of the first born children and the last born together. They have these general features:

• Responsible
• Independent
• A perfectionist and critical
• Controlling with high standards
• They mature fast and get along well with people older than them
• Leader and driven
• During adolescence, the ages 13-19, the only child experience changes in growth to reveal who they are. They build cooperative skills with friends during this time.

Here are the qualities of a first born child:

• Driven
• Organized
• Seek Attention
• Leaders
• Perfectionist
• Do not deal well with failure and criticism
• High standards for themselves and others

Darry Curtis

Dallas Winston

The First Born

The Outsiders Relations

Ponyboy Curtis

The Only Child

The Last Born

Sodapop Curtis

Johnny Cade

In the book, The Outsiders, Darry is the first born child. He has many aggressive first born character traits. He takes charge and has high standards for himself and others, especially Ponyboy. He is organized and driven to sustain a productive lifestyle for his brothers. He is dependable, logical, and focused. He sometimes goes overboard when he gets uptight, but those are general first born qualities. I know he means well, and is doing a good job handling his family in my opinion.

The Middle Child

The characters in The Outsiders follow along with the birth order psychology in my opinion. Each character is unique in his own way, and has many great features to their personalities. The Curtis brothers consist of: Darry (the oldest), Sodapop (the middle child), and Ponyboy (the youngest). Dally and Johnny are both only child characters.

In the book, Dally did not have supportive parents at all as an only child. He has his gang to rely on though. During adolescence he did not have parents to support him and made some decisions that were not wise involving stealing and drugs. He also uses adult language quite often. He always wants things his way, and got it when his decisions led up to a unfortunate ending in Dally's life.

The Only Child

In The Outsiders, the last born child in the Curtis family is Ponyboy. He is not much of an attention seeker like the theory states. He also does not get any ease from his parents and is not spoiled, because his parents died. In fact, his older brother Darry is very strict on him and thinks he is careless, a last born quality. Ponyboy is charming and works well with his gang and his buddy Johnny. He is independent and stereotypical about life as a greaser compared to a "Soc's" life. He is a risk taker who wants to find his place in the world. He is outgoing and does things for himself. Lastly, Ponyboy is an idealist. He made the book intriguing when telling the story, because he told everything through his own mind through idealism.

In The Outsiders, I loved the character Johnny Cade. He did not get any parental support at all, in fact his parents actually disliked him. He faced many troubles and had to make many important decisions in the book, and handled them independently and wisely. Thank goodness he had his gang in his life to support him. He tried to reveal himself and the world during adolescence and I have a feeling he would have made an impact on the world if he was given a second chance.

Sodapop reminds me of the more easygoing type of firstborn. He is a spirited character that has a great social life. He has is gang by his side and girls who wish to be by his side. According to Ponyboy, he is a fun and great brother and is exactly the opposite of his uptight older sibling, Darry. He does not care so much about little things, but is sympathetic and shows affection to his brothers more than the theory says a middle child would. He is a patient, peacemaker during Darry and Ponyboy's fights. Sodapop always tries to help them make up. I think he is a total middle child in many great ways.

Real World Examples

Real World Examples

Real World Examples!

Sources

What do Jim Carrey and Rosie O'Donnell have in common?

What do George W. Bush and Mrs. Ball have in common?

What do Tiger Woods and Alicia Keys have in common?

What do Susan B Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, and Madonna have in common?

1. Anthony House, Susan B. "Susan B. Anthony House." :: Her Story. Susan B. Anthony House, 2013. Web. Mar. 2014.

2. Ranker. "Famous Only Children." Ranker. Ranker, 2014. Web. Mar. 2014.

3. Zupek, Rachel. "Can Birth Order Determine Your Career." CNN. Cable News Network, 2013. Web. Mar. 2014.

4. News, D. D-News, 15 Sept. 2013. Web. Mar. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zw8_SQLZ-A>.This is the video I got off of youtube. It is called: "How Birth Order Affects Who You Are."

5. Images on prezi from google.

6. My common knowledge on some celebrities.

Rosie O'Donnell and Jim Carrey are both last born children. They both have entertaining and humorous personalities. They are also used to getting a lot of attention in their careers.

They are all middle children. Madonna and J-Lo are performers (friendly and center of attention). Susan B. Anthony dedicated her life for fighting for women's freedom. She is good at arguing and stands up for sociable topic such as women's rights. They are all good examples of famous middle children.

They are both first born children. We all know Mrs. Ball is a driven and smart leader, and so is George W. Bush as our old president. They are perfect examples of first born people.

They are both only children. Tiger Woods is independent in the sport he plays and is very self-centered. Alicia Keys is independent as a singer and matured fast in her career.