Adlers Theory Birth Order and Research Paper

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This bleak outlook, Adler suggests, is the personality response to a sense of inequality within the family.

Moving on to a consideration of the youngest child in a family of three, Adler contends that though this child never knows what it is to be the only focal point of his or her parent's affections, he or she will come to experience parental attention and affection which is never displaced by the arrival of another child. This means that for the youngest child, the experience is often one of sustained emotional connection to the parents which may not otherwise be felt by the other two children. As Adler contends, this may have the consequence of actually retarding development of the youngest child, who may either be so emotionally or materially spoiled as to constantly lean on parental generosity as a crutch during adult life. (Boeree, 1)

Adler denotes that the middle child is thus the one likeliest to achieve personal success, emotional independence and social flourishing. This is because the middle child will never have experienced the singularity and subsequent sense of rejection felt by the oldest child, denoting that the middle child may not harbor the insecurities produced by this experience of rejection. Likewise, the middle child is less likely to have experienced the type of unending emotional connection achieved by the youngest child. The result is that the middle child will achieve a personality which is less comprised by the needs induced by his or her upbringing. Adler warns that as a consequence, this child may experience a sense of separation from the remainder of the family such that he or she behaves in a rebellious fashion or feels a sense of intentional exclusion from the emotional core of the family.

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(Boeree, 1)

As noted, one of the core conflicts in accepting the value of Adler's work is its lack of empiricism. Therefore, much of the research which has followed on the subject of birth order and personality has attempted to resolve this, such as in the case of the article by Adams (1972), originally published in Sociometry. Here, the author attempts to measure Adler's claims by examining specific lifestyle characteristics in a sample population as these relate to birth order. Among these lifestyle characteristics, Adams identifies personality adjustment and problems; education-achievement-intelligence, anxiety-affiliation-dependence-conformity, and miscellaneous. These categories are used as a way to make quantitative resolutions regarding lifestyle outcomes as they relate to birth order. Its conclusions appear to contrast the assumptions particular to Adler's theory, but the subject of the research is made possible by Adler's initial investigation of the subject.

Adler's theory proceeds from the idea that family power dynamics have a lasting impact on the lifestyle decisions made by children later in life. Adams tends to agree, even though his conclusions about these lifestyle decisions differ. The negative inclinations of birth order discussed in his model seem to support Adler's assumptive bias as evident throughout his research on the promotion of equality. In the context of family dynamic, many of the developmental and emotional crises associated with birth order can be preempted by more democratic family structuring.

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