Siblings: how do they affect each other's social and educational understanding and development?

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Siblings: how do they affect each other’s social and educational understanding and development?

“No psychologist is needed to point out the passion, fury and jealousy that is expressed so uninhibitedly by siblings”

        Approximately 80% of British people have a sibling or siblings, and they always seem to cause each other trouble. Anyone with siblings will know all about the fighting; stealing each others’ toys and colouring books; kicking each other under the dinner table and quarrelling horribly in the back of the car on long trips. Think of Cain and Abel – they must have really irritated one another. And yet the sibling relationship is one of the most unique and intense relationships that any of us will ever experience due physical proximity and daily interactions during the younger years; the (normally) shared genetic and social heritage; the shared history of experiences within a family context – and it is one of the longest relationships that most people will have in their entire lives, be it harmonious or hellish. Siblings undoubtedly profoundly affect each other’s social and educational perceptions through a number of factors that will be explored in this essay.

        König (1970) stated that “the temperament and the character of a person are determined by his family constellation” and conducted several studies on birth order (also known as ordinal position). He describes the first-born as adult orientated, conscientious and sensitive, possessing a desire to “conquer the world”. In contrast, the second-born is typically difficult to motivate into work and lacks perseverance, either through their hopelessly placid and laid-back attitude, or their stubbornness and rebelliousness. The synopsis of the first- and second-born children clearly demonstrates an educational link: motivation and conscientiousness, and social implications here are going to be affected. How?

        The first-born is instantly expected to adopt a ‘leading’ role. At first, this is among their siblings. König asserts that first-borns often claim responsibility for occurrences and are often “filled with bitterness” when not enough respect is given to their achievements. When their younger brother or sister is born, they frequently become withdrawn, overly demanding and unusually upset Clearly, then, here is the first indication of a child’s social understanding being altered due to the arrival and existence of their sibling. The child is forced to reconsider their position and must reassess their own self-categorisation. (Through the sensory-motor stage, as proposed by Piaget, children acquire what is known as ‘person permanence’ and branching out from this, children develop the ability to socially categorise other people according to social outlines and dimensions. These include physical appearance (height, hair colour, facial features); movement, voice and eventually the person’s role in the child’s life (parent; friend; stranger).) Freud (1948) expressed “the opinion that a child can form a just estimate of the set-back he has to expect at the hands of a little stranger.”

        A stranger? Defined as: “foreigner, person in a country or town or in company that he does not belong to, unknown to oneself or another; person entirely unaccustomed to some feeling or practice or experience”. If this person with whom the child is to live and interact with is a stranger, then social understanding must immediately come into play from all sides. Obviously, attention becomes split between the new baby and the first child. However, it was observed that often the mother spends more time playing with the first-born than previously when she is not attending the baby. The presence of a sibling provides a focus of discussion of another person between the first-born and others. (It has been proven1 that discussing the baby as a person with likes, interests and needs promotes a more harmonious sibling relationship in the future.)

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        This arrival also necessitates a more complex cognitive development on behalf of the first-born, and becomes more naturally instinctual in the second-born, which has implications in their social interaction: understanding their sibling. Basic comprehension is demonstrated (by the first-born) through size – big and small; big and baby – and through gender, especially if the baby is of the opposite sex. Older children displayed the ability to make inferences about their sibling’s emotional state, leading to the ability to act with sympathy or hostility as deemed appropriate.

BRUCE S (baby playing with balloon): He going to pop it in a ...

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