Birth order project
Does birth order make a difference in terms of infant development?
Relate:
ONLY / Birth is a miracle. Parents have no previous experience. Retains 200 percent attention of both parents. May become rival of one parent. Can be overprotected and spoiled. / Likes being the centre of adult attention. Often has difficulty sharing with siblings and peers. Prefers adult company and uses adult language.
OLDEST / Dethroned by next child. Has to learn to share. Parent expectations are usually very high. Often given responsibility and expected to set an example. / May become authoritarian or strict. Feels power is his right. Can become helpful if encouraged. May turn to father after birth of next child.
SECOND / She has a pacemaker. There is always someone ahead. / Is more competitive, wants to overtake older child. May become a rebel or try to outdo everyone. Competition can deteriorate into rivalry.
MIDDLE / Is “sandwiched” in. May feel squeezed out of a position of privilege and significance. / May be even-tempered, "take it or leave it" attitude. May have trouble finding a place or become a fighter of injustice.
YOUNGEST / Has many mothers and fathers. Older children try to educate her. Never dethroned. / Wants to be bigger than the others. May have huge plans that never work out. Can stay the "baby." Frequently spoiled.
TWIN / One is usually stronger or more active. Parents may see one as the older. / Can have identity problems. Stronger one may become the leader.
"GHOST CHILD" / Child born after the death of the first child may have a “ghost” in front of him. Mother may become overprotective. / Child may exploit mother's overconcern for his/her well being, or may rebel, and protest the feeling of being compared to an idealized memory.
ADOPTED CHILD / Parents may be so thankful to have a child that they spoil him/her. They may try to compensate for the loss of his/her biological parents. / Child may become very spoiled and demanding. Eventually, he/she may resent or idealize the biological parents.
ONLY BOY AMONG GIRLS / Usually with women all the time, if father is away. / May try to prove he is the man in the family or become effeminate.
ONLY GIRL AMONG BOYS / Older brothers may act as her protectors. / Can become very feminine or a tomboy and outdo the brothers. May try to please the father.
ALL BOYS / If mother wanted a girl, can be dressed as a girl. / Child may capitalize on assigned role or protest it vigorously.
ALL GIRLS / May be dressed as a boy. / Child may capitalize on assigned role or protest it vigorously.
General Notes
1. The psychological situation of each child in the family is different.
2. The child's opinion of self and his/her situation determine his/her choice of attitude.
3. If more than three years separate children, subgroups of birth order may form.
4. A child's birth order position may be seized by another child if circumstances permit.
5. Competition may be expressed in choice of interests or development of characteristics.
6. Birth order is sometimes not a major influence on personality development. The other potentially significant influences are: parental attitudes, social and economic position, and gender roles.
7. For more comprehensive information about birth order, read: What Life Could Mean to You, by Alfred Adler; The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, edited by Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher; and Lydia Sicher: An Adlerian Perspective, edited by Adele Davidson.
8. Adler speculated that birth order differences would begin to disappear when families became less competitive and autocratic, and more cooperative and democratic.
Source: Adlerian Overview of Birth Order Characteristics (Adlerian Institute, Henry T. Stein, Ph.D., permission to reproduce granted.)
Create: Design and develop a research project investigating birth order. What evidence can you find to support the theory of birth order and the characteristics of children? What other factors than birth order might account for certain characteristics in children, in other words, could there be other, more important influences rather than birth order?
Evaluation:
Sample size and random sample /10
Originality and quality of experiment /5
Format of report /8
Analysis /10
1. Report should include: Hypothesis: what you think will happen (If ______, then ______)
Describe the experiment your prediction of results
In this section, it would be nice to see background information, research on the topic before beginning, and sources.
2. Research method: || Observation || Experiment || Interview || Case Study || Survey ||Topical ||
You should describe in detail what was used and how
3. Sample: You should describe your sample size and how random it is as it would be reported in a newspaper. A good example would be:
In an attempt to get a variety of ages, I contacted a daycare centre and sent home permission forms. When I arrived at the centre to do my testing, the contact person was unavailable, and the other caregivers were not expecting me. There were only a few parents who had signed the form. I completed the trials I was able to, and made arrangements with the daycare centre to visit once more. After a few more returned the forms, I did a few more trials. I attempted to add to the total by testing my neighbour’s children. As such, I have only 20 subjects. The daycare centre is called ______and is located at ______. There were 13 boys and 7 girls. All participants were between the ages of one and nine. If I were attempting to re-do the experiment, I would get my permission forms to the daycare earlier, and I would phone the day before to find out how many forms had been signed.
I wanted to make sure my sample was random, so I conducted my experiment at the Cornwall shopping centre. The people I encountered were between the food court and Sears. I chose this location because the food court would draw all types of people, whereas locating myself beside certain stores may have affected the randomness of the sample. I was able to find 55 participants. Of those, 62% were male and 38% were female. The ages ranged from 5 to 83, with most participants falling in the range of 18-30. I conducted the experiment on a Saturday from noon to 2:00, so perhaps the timing contributed to the type of people who were in the mall. I would be interested to re-try the experiment at different times of day and in different locations within the mall.
Procedure: Be specific! Give as many details as you can.
4. Data: this section should have numbers and percentages, and report the information that was discovered, without any bias.
5. Analysis: your interpretation of the data given. What does the data tell us about our hypothesis.
6. Sources of Error: List in detail any possible issues with the way your study was conducted
7. Conclusion: Relate your analysis back to the hypothesis. Was your prediction correct? Also, please include any recommendations for a future study on the same topic (what would you do differently?)