Birth Order Research Final Essay

Delilah Sadat

August 25, 2014

Third Period

First Child Syndrome

    It was late at night and I had finally finished all four hundred plus pages and fifty-two questions to my AP World History summer assignment. I couldn’t help, but feel slightly proud for finishing such a boring book, but as I looked at it closer I saw how sloppy my answers and handwriting looked. So I grabbed a stack of paper and began to rewrite all my answers. This is an example of how I am a perfectionist which is a common trait among first born children like myself. There are many interesting characteristics about firstborns according to the Birth Order Research.

    One trait that I can really relate to is being highly motivated, especially when it comes to basketball and school. During basketball I work my absolute hardest because I am motivated by the idea of being the best. When it comes to school I aim for at least a 3.8 gpa because I am motivated to get good grades and go to a four year university. I think oldest children are highly motivated because great things are expected of them and we don’t want to be anything less than what we are capable of. I also think we are highly motivated because we secretly want to impress our younger siblings and so we are motivated  to do good.

    The other trait I use almost everyday is sarcasm. Whenever my ten year old brother as me a question I’ll joke around and give a very sarcastic answer and he will just sit there confused. To me sarcasm is a sign of more mature humor so it’s easy for us older children to use it on our younger siblings who don’t understand it. In an odd way it makes us firstborns feel like we have some type of leverage over our younger siblings. Plus it’s an easy way to make fun of them and not get in trouble.

    Although for the most part the research was correct there are some things I disagree with. According to the research oldest children tend to get science career related jobs which is the complete opposite of my academic strengths. I do very well in history and English, but rather poor in science and math. Another finding of the research that I disagreed with was that firstborns are patient. I am not patient at all, I get very annoyed and frustrated when things or people take a long time. I can be especially impatient with my younger sibling.

    There was a lot of research done on the traits of firstborns. I found that there were some traits I could really relate and some other traits not so much. Overall I learned two main things. Research is meant to apply to the majority of people so that means there will be certain exceptions to certain things,  like myself and the trait of being patient. The second thing I learned was that being the oldest can cause you to develop certain positive and negative traits.