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percivalI'm currently reading Frank J. Sulloway's (sp?) Born to Rebel.
As an only child, I'd like to ask your opinion of the theories he proposes.
Basically, firstborns are far more conscientious and less open to experience.
They also tend to be more aggressive and extroverted, and somewhat more neurotic.
Firstborns copy their parents/turn to their parents a lot.
Laterborns are gentler, more introverted, and definitely more open to new experiences.
The reason he gives is that each child looks for his/her own family niche. This will be an important influence on his/her personality; the second highest (?) after innate characteristics. Since birth rank is a powerful influence on the type of niche available, it's a good predictor of various personality traits. He even maintains that it's a better predictor than gender!
What do you think about this?
As an only child, I'd like to ask your opinion of the theories he proposes.
Basically, firstborns are far more conscientious and less open to experience.
They also tend to be more aggressive and extroverted, and somewhat more neurotic.
Firstborns copy their parents/turn to their parents a lot.
Laterborns are gentler, more introverted, and definitely more open to new experiences.
The reason he gives is that each child looks for his/her own family niche. This will be an important influence on his/her personality; the second highest (?) after innate characteristics. Since birth rank is a powerful influence on the type of niche available, it's a good predictor of various personality traits. He even maintains that it's a better predictor than gender!
What do you think about this?
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feedback from two generations
Date: 2003-03-10 09:14 am (UTC)Howeever, my children follow the pattern you describe slightly better. First-born is aggressive, extrovert, neurotic, conscientious, but quite open to experiences. Similar to his mother in character. Second boy is quiet, introverted, gentler and somewhat conventional/avoids the unknown.
Not sure whether this helps. I suspect there are too many other variables at play for your guy's generalisations to hold true in many cases.
Regards,
Mark
Re: feedback from two generations
Date: 2003-03-10 09:35 am (UTC)sex, age, parents' attitudes, relationship with parents ...
there are lots of factors at play, and quite a bit of random variation.
It's interesting that both you and your eldest are similar to your mothers.
This confirms Sulloway's hypothesis of how these differences develop - you're more like your
parents, and more like the parent that has the most influence over you, namely the mother.
does this make sense?
percival