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Babies in the family are always spoiled. The oldest sibling is always the most responsible. The middle child will be the peace maker. These and other beliefs are popular in our culture. Does birth order really affect a person's personality? This is a controversial subject in psychology.

Alfred Adler was a psychiatrist from Austria in the early 1900s. He was one of the first experts to claim that birth order does indeed influence a child's lifestyle choices. Adler didn't believe that birth order directly influenced personality, but that birth order did have an effect on how an individual learned to deal with life circumstances and relationships. Adler asserted that the age difference in the siblings as well as the number of the children in the family would affect the degree to which birth order is influential to a child.

Author Frank Sulloway wrote "Born to Rebel". In his book, he theorizes that birth order is very influential in personality development. He believes that birth order influences the main five personality traits, which are agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, openness, and neuroticism.

Author Judith Rich Harris is a vigorous opponent to Sulloway's theories. She wrote "The Nurture Assumption" and even goes as far as saying that parents aren't even the most important factor in a child's development. Harris states that a child's peers are the most influential factors in a child's developing personality.

Firstborns are viewed as scholarly, responsible, high achievers, and possessing high moral standards. According to theory, firstborns learn to be leaders because of younger siblings introduced to them while they are still young. This may also cause them to feel unloved and feel that they have to regain their parents' affections. Adler calls this being 'dethroned'. Adler's theory is that this causes firstborns to be fearful of abandonment, which can cause first-borns to be jealous. Also, firstborns are less likely to take risks.

Other possible reasons for firstborn personality differences are because they are raised by inexperienced, anxious parents. This causes added stress on a firstborn. Firstborn children are also put into a leader role when younger siblings are born, which causes them to be more responsible.

Middleborn children seem to have more differing personalities. Middle child personality traits related to birth order are usually chalked up to the fact that they never got to be the center of attention. The firstborn was already in the

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