I always enjoy covering Adler in Personality theories as I find his views
down-to-earth and relevant to concrete problems people have in adapting and
finding social acceptance. His idea of birth order is more popular than it is
valid however, and has not been shown to have any consistent effects by itself
on personality development. Like so many pop-psych notions, we can always find
interesting ways to fit it to our lives in hindsight and this convinces us of
the importance of the idea. I feel the idea may have more relevance to a later
discussion in my classes about non-shared environmental influences and the
difficulties of researching same. Birth order is always fun to chat about
though as we always can find stories to relate. Gary
Ernst, C., & Angst, J. (1983). Birth order: Its influence on personality.
N.Y.: Springer-Verlag.
Rodgers, J. L,, Cleveland,m H.N., van den Oord, E., & Rowe, D. C. (2000).
Resolving the debate over birth order, family size, and intelligence.
American Psychologist, 55, 599-612.
Steelman, L. C. (1985). A tale of two variables: A review of the intellectual
consequences of sibship size and birth order. Review of Educational
Research,55, 353-386.
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
989-964-4491
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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