Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T02:17:33.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Birth Order and Personality: Is Sulloway's Treatment a Radical Rebellion or Is He Preserving the Status Quo?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

B. G. Rosenberg*
Affiliation:
University of California—Berkeley, USA
Get access

Extract

Frank Sulloway (1996) has stirred up great debate with his thesis that birth order explains and predicts people's proclivity to rebel. Scientists, scholars, business writers, and the broad reading and talk-television public alike all have weighed in to discuss the value and veridicality of Sulloway's thesis. Though many think he may be on to something, certain voices—Frederic Townsend's included—argue that his opus is simply bunk.

Type
Roundtable Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boynton, R.S. (1996). “The Birth of an Idea.” The New Yorker (Oct. 7):7281.Google Scholar
Dunn, J. and Kendrick, C. (1980). “The Arrival of a Sibling: Changes in the Pattern of Interaction between Mother and First-Born Child.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 21: 119–32.Google Scholar
Dunn, J. and Kendrick, C. (1982). Siblings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dunn, J. and Plomin, R. (1990). Separate Lives: Why Siblings Are So Different. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ernst, C. and Angst, J. (1983). Birth Order: Its Influence on Personality. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Koch, H. (1954). “The Relations of ‘Primary Mental Abilities’ in Five- and Six-Year Olds to Sex of Child and Characteristics of His Sibling.” Child Development 25:209–23.Google Scholar
Koch, H. (1955). “The Relation of Certain Family Constellation Characteristics and the Attitudes of Children towards Adults.” Child Development 26:1340.Google Scholar
Koch, H. (1960). “The Relation of Certain Formal Attributes of Siblings to Attitudes Held towards Each Other and towards Their Parents.” Monographs for the Society for Research in Child Development 25 (4, Serial No. 78).Google Scholar
Plomin, R. (1994). Nature, Nurture, and Social Development. Social Development 3:3753.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, B.G. (1982). “Sibling Association Influences across the Life Span.” In Lamb, M. and Sutton-Smith, B. (eds.), Sibling Relationships: Their Nature and Significance across the Life Span. New York: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, B.G. and Sutton-Smith, B. (1961). “The Relationship of Ordinal Position and Sibling Sex Status to Cognitive Abilities.” Psychonomic Science 1:8182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, B.G. and Sutton-Smith, B. (1968). “Family Interaction Effects on Masculinity-Femininity.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8:117–20.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, B.G. and Sutton-Smith, B. (1969). “Sibling Age-Spacing Effects on Cognition.” Developmental Psychology 1:661–68.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, B.G. and Sutton-Smith, B. (1974). “Family Structure and Sex Role Variations.” In Cole, J.K. (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Sulloway, F.J. (1996). Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Sutton-Smith, B. and Rosenberg, B.G. (1969). “Modeling and Reactive Components of Sibling Interaction.” In Hill, J.P. (ed.), Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology. Volume 3. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Sutton-Smith, B. and Rosenberg, B.G. (1970a). “Sibling Consensus on Power Tactics.” Journal of Genetic Psychology 112:6372.Google Scholar
Sutton-Smith, B. and Rosenberg, B.G. (1970b). The Sibling. New York: Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar