Learning And Development Essays - Family, Human Behavior

Learning And Development Learning and Development: Does Birth Order Affect Who Children Become? Birth order is a topic studied by many psychologists through numerous different studies and conflicting viewpoints. In respect to the order in which children are born, psychologists have labeled specific personality traits for each child. While psychologists continue to disagree on the amount of emphasis to be placed on birth order and personality, studies have shown family size can be a determining factor in a childs learning and development. First-born, middle, youngest, and only children are the common birth order positions most commonly studied by psychologists. Alfred Adler, a major personality theorist, often studied the issue of birth order. He believed that the demands of each birth order position typically, but not inevitably, structure the way the parents treat the child and help define the childs resulting personality, (Parker, 1998, p.29). Frank Sulloway, author of the book Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives, states: Siblings compete with one another to secure physical, emotional, and intellectual resources from parents. Depending on differences in birth order, gender, physical traits, and aspects of temperament, siblings create differing roles for themselves within the family system. These differing roles in turn lead to disparate ways of currying parental favor. (Epstein, 1997, p.51) First-born children are more widely studied and have been found to have higher responsibilities within the family and a greater need for achievement. Strong self-discipline, a need for approval by others, susceptibility to social pressure, and conformity to authority and regulation are also common personality traits of first-borns. Middle-born children are more focused toward social relationships rather than fulfilling task demands and are the most ambitious and competitive. The youngest children tend to be less adjusted than middle-born children, are most likely to experience feelings of inadequacy. Only children tend to desire being the center of attention, have feelings of inferiority, and tend to be selfish in regard to sharing personal belongings. Although these personality traits are widely accepted, a national sample by the Academic Advancement of Youth of John Hopkins University found little relationship between birth order and personality. However, a mild relationship betwee n birth order and perfectionism was evident, (Parker 29). Family size is more commonly accepted as a contributing factor to birth order positions. If birth order is held constant, the larger the size of a family tends to be represented by a lower average IQ. First-born, as well as only children are often believed to have superior intellectual development, which can be explained by the greater amount of attention and verbal attention given by parents. This makes sense because parents of first-born and only children are able to focus more of their time with these children. A 1997 survey discovered the impact of a sibling born during the preschool and early grade school years. The first-born child was significantly affected by the birth of a sibling, which resulted in an increase in emotional problems leading to an increase in behavioral problems during the first year. In addition, the learning development of the first-born child significantly decreased due to the substantial changes in the childs learning environment (Baydar, Hyle, &Brooks-Gu nn, 1997, p. 964). First-born children tend to speak sooner than later-born children and have a verbal style known as referential. They are able to more easily learn and speak nouns and put two or more words coherently together. Later-born children are referred to as expressive because their first words often reflect social interactions they have picked up from their parents speaking with the older children, (Graeber, 1997, p.92). A 1996 study by Oshima-Takane, Goodz, and Deverensky concluded that although later-born children and first-born children did not differ in language development, the later-born children had a more advanced speech production (621). The combination of child-directed speech and overheard conversations between the parent and siblings account for this advancement. According to Pfouts 1980 research, first-born children achieve at a higher level than later-born, even when the later-born children are more intellectually gifted. Little difference has been concluded between only childre n and first-born children. Only children do, however, tend to have a significant intellectual advantageattributed from the quality of parent-child interactions in small families, (Parker, 1998, p.30). Socio-economic class should also be