The Birth Order Theory

The Oldest, Middle or Youngest Child – And you are….?

His job involved working with people from all walks of life as he was a grocery store manager at the time. In his younger days he minored in psychology and one of his favorite topics was the “Birth Order Theory”, which refers to a person’s rank by age among his or her siblings. Typically, the term “all walks of life” is referred to as meaning different levels of social position or achievement. He tended to look at this term to mean birth order and personality types.

One of the first theorists to suggest that birth order influences personality was Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian psychiatrist who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Alfred argued that one’s birth order can leave an indelible impression on an individual’s style of life, meaning how they deal with the tasks of friendship, love and work.

Over time, this grocery store manager got to know his staff on a friendly personal level. That’s when he started wondering if this birth order theory may have any relevance to it. So, after updating himself with his knowledge on this subject through the internet it was fun to observe different people and their traits. It never determined the level of advancement among his employees, it was simply enjoyable to observe, much like reading horoscopes. The first born tends to show great leadership abilities, second born often have reasonable expectations and tends to be secretive, and the youngest tends to be creative, organized and self assured.

However, this theory is constantly being challenged by researchers, so reading and learning a little about the topic is just for fun.