I heard this when I was younger too and thought it was a lot of malarkey. When you were born, in comparison to your siblings should have nothing to do with you or your success in life. However, it turns out that these ideas are more popular than I thought...
You listened to the man and you think 'sure, makes sense when he says first borns are more scholastic because parents put more pressure on them'. However, we fail to see the assumptions in these explanations. Scientists have found no strong correlation between birth order and the big five personality traits. Birth order may influence some of your traits, sure, but that's due to environmental factors largely (ie your parents paying attention to you). Just because you were 2nd born doesn't mean you're gonna be spineless. Heck, my sister is quite unagreeable and she's the middle child. I'm the last born and I can attest to the fact that I am quite a leader.
All in all, don't buy into these logical fallacies they are placing in front of you. Just because it sounds legit, doesn't mean it is.
It almost seems like what the Doctor was saying was that it has less to due with the actual order you were born in, but more to do with how parents treated the kids based on they're learning of becoming a parent. I know and understand that there is no scientific evidence between birth order, but I wonder if there is any scientific evidence regarding the way a parent treats a child for example, if they are very strict or lenient, and if there is a stronger correlation to personalities and traits of children.
I definitely agree that it seems as though the doctor is saying that it is more about the parenting style that anything else. When I think of my family, each of us kids showed some of the personality traits that the doctor talked about but we also had some traits from the other "categories." The parenting style though is where it changed us. For example, I'm the youngest of three kids and my parents were definitely more lenient with me because they had been through having a strict curfew and saw that although it was good, it didn't always work out the way they expected it to. Since I was given more freedom, I became more of a leader than either one of my siblings, in addition I was more diplomatic than my sister was, who was the middle child. I think that it would be interesting to have a study done to see if the parenting styles guide kids to develop certain characteristics.
Good topic. I can think of a few families who this idea absolutely does apply. The first child is focused on school successes, the second being the diplomat, and the third being the wild child. However, there are other families that make this idea look completely crazy. I agree with you that it largely depends on the environment. Say you are the first born child of a very young, immature, bad parent or set of parents; I have a feeling they may not be quite as focused on pushing you toward success. This is just an example and nothing against young parents, there are very successful young parents out there. I just don't believe this idea. Sure, you can apply it to some situations, but it definitely doesn't apply to all. I think good parenting is the most important thing of all.
I really agree with your point of view and this is a great topic. But I do notice some areas of this in which I agree, and maybe that is normal. I am the first born in my family and definitely the most driven when it comes to school. But in many ways both my siblings are much more enterprising than I will ever be. But like all sciences I'm sure it is a collection of data and an average of it. I guess that whole saying about everyone being unique has some sort of validity after all, although some traits are probably most likely shared.
Interesting topic. I agree and disagree to this idea though. Where I agree falls on the guy in the video's personality groupings for oldest, middle and youngest children. I am the baby of my family, with 2 significantly older sisters, and as I watched that I found myself agreeing to what he was saying. My oldest sister is really spontaneous and energetic, my middle sister is very attention-seeking and I am hard-working and sensitive. But where I disagree is with WHY these personality traits are the way they are based on birth order. They said that the oldest is typically the most diplomatic, but both of my sisters dropped out of high school. I am the one who has the goals to push farther than both of them combined. My parents put a heavier weight on me to achieve than them because although they tried to, my sisters rebelled. I feel like how you view your birth order can have an effect on your personality too, because as I am the youngest, I am proud of that, and try my best to be better. It's kind of out of the box to say that this is the determining factor, but I do see some slight similarities.
Good topic. Interestingly, I found myself with traits in all areas, and I only have one sibling who happens to be older and he also has traits in all areas. I'm not really sure how hard my mom pushed my older brother but he recently graduated from ISU with a double major in accounting and financing and found a job within a month which I thought to be very impressive, but he also had an advantage because my mom works for people in the same field so she provided connections to him, whereas me being an architect major, it won't be as easy. Now that he has accomplished all of that, I feel as if there is now a bar set that I have to achieve, even though it was a part of the plan.