Birth Order and Empirical Studies Indicating Significant Birth-order-related - Essay Example

There are strong stereotypes that people try to attach to the birth order of siblings and most of these are considered to be quite accurate in many respects. However, it must be cautioned that this is not an exact science. There are many variables that can affect an individual, from inherited genes to the family environment, school and the workplace, eventually. Sibling science, as it is sometimes referred to, is just beginning to catch the serious attention of scientists from being considered a fringe science before.

The present trend should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. For all its scientific research work so far, all that can be said is there are as yet no definitive answers to whether birth order really is a strong factor that influences individuals' core personality development. There is a comment that sibling science is much like reading a horoscope; one can impute anything to it (Kluger, 2007, p. 1). With this in mind, this paper nevertheless still explores some of the more interesting findings so far but the reader is advised to keep an open mind about this topic.

Discussion There is not much doubt that people exhibit certain predictable personality attributes or characteristics based on their birth order. For example, first-borns are generally considered to be assertive of their social status, implied authority over their younger siblings, with strong motivation to succeed and has generally a higher IQ and EQ. Personality of First-borns – according to the journal article compiled by Eckstein, the scientific evidence so far points to a significant correlation between birth order and the people personality which they observed in their study subjects.

Two researchers found a total of 26 different personality characteristics to an oldest child, with about six of these attributes quite recurrent or re-appearing and these are: the highest achieving, highest IQ, greatest academic success, highest motivation, over-represented among learned groups and lastly, also the most affiliative under stress (ibid., pp. 482-483). Personality of Middle Children – most researchers on sibling science found out at least six common personality characteristics with three attributes frequently most appearing which are: fewest “acting out” problems, sociable and greatest feeling of not belonging to any group of people (ibid.); there is also a matrix on birth order (Isaacson & Radish, 2002, pp. 27-28). Personality of Youngest Child – two researchers had likewise attributed a total of 14 different characteristics to the youngest child, with three attributes appearing most frequently.

These three are the following: the most number of psychiatric disorders, more empathetic and also exhibits a greater tendency towards becoming an alcoholic. Single Children – researchers were able to correlate at least about 13 characteristics that are attributable exclusively to being a single child. Out of these 13 personal attributes, about 4 of them are very prominent, which are the following: the most need and driven for an achievement, generally higher achievers compared to their siblings except for the first-borns, most likely to go to and finish college but has the most potential for behavioral problems.

Single children are often of the same personality chara