Both the articles written by Forer and Wither depict the importance of birth order in determining one's personality. They claim that parents treat their children differently according to children's birth hierarchy. For instance, oldest child is expected to act maturely and care his/her younger siblings. The youngest child, on the other hand, is free from those strains. I agree that birth order play a role in determining or building children's characteristic. However, I do not think that a person's birth order is a critical and ultimate factor in determining one's personality.
Aside from one's birth order, other environment can change how person behaves. A perfect example is me. I am the only child, and according to Forer, the only child does not need to take parental role and therefore is childish. However, that is completely incorrect. Since I am the only child, I need to be very responsible and take care of myself all the times. The feeling that all the eyes of parents are on me makes me behave as excellent as I can. I always have the burden that I should be obedient and extraordinary.
As people grow up, they do not just stay at their home. Instead, they experience and learn many things outside the world. Thus, birth order could be the element in determining one's characteristic, but it is never an absolute factor. For such reason, saying that birth order is straightly related to child's personality is committing the fallacy of hasty generalization.
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