Birth Order Study        

Running head:  Birth Order Study

Birth Order

Team Red

Grand Canyon University

Shawana Allen

October 12, 2008

Abstract

Although many believed for many years that birth order affects personality, the evidence has been contradictory. Most individuals have a dominant birth order personality that matches their birth position however, that personality is influenced by variables such as temperament, gender and other family circumstances.  Thus, if birth order does systematically affect personality, firstborns, middle child or lastborns would definitely have personalities that is easy to predict and peculiar to that birth order. We all know or have seen where birth order has no effect on an individual’s personality. Sometimes birth order roles are reversed or nonexistent depending on the family as well as the society in which the person grows up in.


Parental Styles

In order to understand birth order and its relationship to parental styles, one must understand what each style entails.  Based on research by Diana Baumrind, best known for her theories on parenting styles, there are four styles based upon two categories of parenting styles. The two categories are control and warmth, the first being control refers to how a parent manages their children’s behavior ranging from controlling to having a few rules and demands. Warmth, which entails the degree to which parents accept and responded to their children’s behaviors opposed to being unresponsive and rejecting.  The four parental patterns that were formed from these two categories are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful.

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Authoritative parents encourage their children to be more independent but they maintain a balance with limits and control on their children’s actions.  They tend to be are more open to hearing the child’s view point as well as teaching the child how to negotiate and engage in discussions.  They tend to discipline by talking, discussing or explaining what is expected of them. These types of parents only punish at appropriate times but harsh punishment is not considered. In addition to this they also use a reward and praise system, which in turn produces a child that may be more self-controlled.

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The Quality of Written Communication is good, though there are some moments when colloquialisms are used and shouldn't be. Phrases like "[parents] are more into themselves" are not good uses of English and the candidate would do well to stick to the standard grammatical requirements.

The Level of Analysis shown is fair, though in almost all cases it is not directed at the right theory. This answer is more of a description of the theories and the studies that were influenced by them; there doesn't appear to be any sound evaluation of the theories or the studies themselves. An evaluation would consist of strengths and weaknesses of theories/studies; pointing out the consistency errors in theories and/or commenting on how the studies have contributed to modern psychology, though the extent to which this candidate has achieved this is limited. In the future, it may prove a good idea to study something like how well the sample used in studies like Baumrind's reflect the target population, or whether she was aiming to prove her own theories and may have introduced researcher bias into the results, which are subjective anyway because it was an observation. This is the level of analysis that is required; description is not enough to get much higher than a high D grade.

This is a coursework piece that investigates how Birth Order affects personality. The focus here is somewhat skewed, because after what appears to be a promising introduction and analysis of research that supports or refutes the theory that birth order affects personality, the candidate then wanders off into talking about how parenting styles affect personality. A lot of what is said is perfectly sound analysis (though a better use of psychological research as evidence wouldn't go amiss), but the main quandary I have with this answer is that it simply does not answer the question it set out to answer. Because of this, their has been a neglect to concentrate on the question and whilst external theories such as the parenting styles affecting personality development are almost synonymous with birth order and therefore is a good supporting analysis point, it is not acceptable to completely abandon the original question's focus.