Birth Order

Birth Order by Frank J. Sulloway
Certainly, many individual traits and tendencies among brothers and sisters are the products of a unique arrangement of genes. But birth order also plays a key role in shaping a child's personality: Sam and Henry, as well as their 3-year-old brother, Joe, are all different from one another in part because of the order in which they were born. We've all heard the stereotypes: Firstborns tend to be perfectionists; middle kids, peacemakers; babies, spoiled rotten. But the reality is much more nuanced. Though kids in the same birth position often do share certain character traits, the variables within each family determine the degree to which they fulfill or defy the propensities of birth rank. The youngest of any family may be more freewheeling than the firstborn but won't necessarily turn out to be a brat.
In this reading titled, “Birth Order”, Sulloway focuses on birth order and evolutionary psychology, birth order and personality, g...