Wednesday, February 9, 2011

"Birth Order Trait"..Does It Really Represent Our Personality and Characteristic?

“We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.”
-  Albert Camus


Psychologists claim that our birth order determines our character. Previous studies claim, among others, that:
  1. the eldest child: more responsible, mature, often a perfectionist, a good leader, higher IQ, low self-esteem.
  2. the middle child (any child born in between the eldest and the youngest): not an over achiever, creative, artistically inclined, often felt neglected, lack of direction. 
  3. the youngest child: often get away with anything, not independent, often not taken seriously. 
Although this fact is being stated by the expert that is been carried out from an observation and research, but for me its not fully true. Being the youngest child in the family myself, I don't think the fact that is being stated above represent the character of the youngest child as a whole. It is true that the child at this position do act a little more lenient towards their family, but it is not to the point where they were being spoiled by it.

The first character that being specified by the psychologist which state about the youngest often get away with anything are totally not true. We still get the nagging every time anything bad happen. The beaten are still getting to us if  we do something wrong .  Its not like the world is in our hand by being the youngest child in the family. The punishment are still there, no matter in what position you are. As for the independent part, it depend on the peoples it selves. honestly, the youngest do depend a lot on their family. But as they grown up, they gradually become more independent as they got the taste of the real world, outside of their own family's world.

As the youngest family member, I do agree on the fact that we often not being taken seriously. Like if something  happen, an opinion from us are mostly being neglected as they keep thinking that we're not matured enough to handle a serious matter. People always treat us as a child no matter how old we are, as long as we are the youngest member in the family. And that is something to be depressed about. Even as the youngest, we still can be a matured and a responsible person. Our opinion should be counted as well, just like any other people.

The fact that the eldest child being labeled as having a higher IQ are not entirely true, as the IQ level does not depend on someone position in their siblings. It depends on their life routine, eating habit, environment and perhaps genetic as well. But I have to agree on the fact that the eldest has the good leadership in them as they been trained since little to take care of the other younger sibling. This goes to the middle child as well as they were mostly will be assisting the eldest child on handling the siblings, thus making the fact that the middle child lack of leadership and direction are not entirely true.

All of the statement and point above shows that the birth order traits do not determine our character entirely. Only a small part of it are true. But then again, as being stated by Albert Camus, the birth order can't really reflect one's personality and character as it is being develop along with the growing process, and it can be change from time to time.

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