The Relationship of Psychological Birth Order to Actual Birth Order

Abstract

The importance of birth order was first identified and described by Alfred Adler in 1918 (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956). In developing his perception of the importance of birth order, Adler emphasized, “It is not the child’s number in the order of successive births which influences his character, but the situation into which he is born and the way in which he interprets it” (Adler, 1956, p. 377). Birth order is a location in a social structure (family) and the psychological position of children is the way they locate or perceive themselves in the family structure (Shulman & Mosak, 1977). Individuals do not, by virtue of birth-order position, necessarily exhibit any traits or patterns common to persons of that birthorder position. The psychological position of the person is of greater importance (Manaster & Corsini, 1982).

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