Birth Order and Sibling Competition

Birth order is something I didn’t think affected our lives too much, but author Frank J. Sulloway changed thought for me. However; I didn’t agree with everything that Sulloway was talking about. Being that I have an older brother who is 5 years my senior, I feel as though I take on many of the characteristic that he is supposed to hold. I am the more bossy and in charge one, but then again I hold a lot of the younger sibling traits, for example: my brother is the more academic and definitely stronger than me. “A considerable surprise from these results is that growing up in the same family exerts only a small influence in making siblings more alike.” (Sulloway 299). This I feel is perfect in describing my brother and I, because a lot of people tell us that we are nothing alike and now there is a valid reason why. Sulloway gave many good examples in his writing to get his point of birth order and sibling competition across. Not only did he give examples on the human sibling competition, but he also explained animal sibling competition. This was extremely helpful in understanding where he was coming from. Another topic he touched upon in his writing was that too match the characteristics of birth order, he gave examples from famous historical figures and how significant their birth order was. This was a very interesting piece and well explained, I enjoyed it immensely and helped me understand my own birth order.

Work Cited
Sulloway, Frank J. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.