[quote=“914”]Most my friends and myself are the eldest in our families and share some similar traits ie. we’re the responsible ones, we went to university, we are nurturing, we take care of others, we are considerate, we’re non-confrontational but very protective.
So how about you? Which sibling order are you? Are you a typical eldest child? Neglected middle child? Bratty baby of the family?
Here are some articles I googled:
ABC News: Does Birth Order Determine Personality?
Birth order factor and your personality: 8 facts that might surprise you
Siblings birth order and personality types
Or have you proven these theories totally wrong?[/quote]
From the first link you posted:
[quote]Putting Birth Order in Context
[b]But Dalton Conley, author of “The Pecking Order,” another book on the effects of birth order, says, “birth order makes about as much sense as astrology, which is almost none.”
Conley explains in his book that a lot of other factors affect the behavior of first-borns and last-borns much more strongly.[/b] “Early death of a parent, timing of economic shocks to the family, gender expectations and roles in the family, you name it,” Conley said, “outside influences, random events — birth order is basically at the bottom of that list.”
[b]“It’s just like astrology,” he added. “When you see a good fit, you say, ‘Hah! He’s such a Gemini.’ When you see a good fit, you say, ‘hah, he’s such a first-born, aggressive control freak,’ but when it doesn’t fit the mold you don’t even notice it.”
Conley says Sulloway’s data is quite selective, relying on cases that support his claims and ignoring those that don’t. When I asked him about that, Sulloway said, “It is human nature that we look for evidence to confirm our theories.[/b] But I took rather unusual steps in born to rebel to minimize as much as possible that sort of bias.”
Sulloway does acknowledge that there may not be hard and fast rules about birth order. “Humans are complex,” he said, “The fact that you can find things that are more important than say, birth order, doesn’t mean that birth order isn’t something we don’t learn from.”[/quote]
Sorry but this hardly qualifies as anything approaching a theory worthy of respect and attention. And Sulloway’s rebuttal to Conley’s criticisms is not exactly a stunning defense. Conley - you selected data to fit your theory. Sulloway - I’m only human…but I didn’t do that much, honestly. No really.
Yeah, that’s a real scientific theory Sulloway’s working up there. Just about on par with the flat earth “theory”.