Minjeong Lee / Chapter1 Part 5 B2 / Wed 1-2

Both passages written by Forer and Wither describe the characteristics of various people which are differed by one's birth order. Two of passages both state that first child tends to be parental, caring and perfectionistic. They also describe the later child as out-going, less dependent, and less ambitious person than the first child. On the other hand, both writers claim that only children are well-adjusted and be able to take care of oneself.

 

First and foremost, the first passage of Forer's asserts that first child imitates adults and tends to think himself as a meditator between parents and other children. Therefore, the older ones (or oldest ones) try to suppress the view of themselves as a child and start to be parental. Also, Forer claims that parents tend to expect their older children to be more capable and responsible than their later ones. This expectation stimulates the first child's adequacy of handling tasks. Similarly, the second passage of Withers' insists that the oldest tends to be capable, responsible and parental as long as they used to care younger siblings. Thus, the oldest child matches with youngest, an only, or a person who has a number of opposite-sex siblings as long as those people are fond of being cared. However, the worst match for the oldest child might be another child whose birth order comes the very first because two of them are likely to be domineering on each other.

 

Secondly, Forer's article maintains the idea that later child are less dependent for sustenance, and less lonely. Since their parents are less anxious and more relaxed than the time they raised the very first child, the later child would not feel inadequate even if he or she do not meet the standards of parents. Forer additionally explains that later children are biased to diluting identification with the parents. According to Forer, the younger children do not seem to try as hard to be parental as the first ones. Wither as well as depicts the youngest and middle child's characteristic in the passage. Wither has accordance on the view of younger children with Forer to some extent. As reported by Withers, middle children can be best mates of middle children's. Whereas youngest children need oldest children of opposite-sex siblings to be next to them. However, they have to avoid the youngest of same-sex brothers or sisters because they are neither parenting nor used to be with person with different gender.

 

Lastly, Forer explains that only child is likely to be independent, because he or she tend to think that one is secure when his or her parents are around, but feels obligatory to take care of oneself when they are absent. The first child unconsciously learn how to talk from his or her parents and imitates them, so might consider oneself as a child in relation to adults. Wither's passage states that only child's characteristic is affected by his or her same-sex parent's birth order. Accordingly, the onlies' best match can be differed from when their same-sex parent was born. However the only are easy to be a person who adjusts well, so he or she has much options than others, except another only.

 

I think that these two passages both generalizes too much and ignore other factors that build one's individuality. There are other factors such as gender, or intelligence. For instance, I am the youngest child among my siblings, although there is only one older brother of mine, my brother and I completely do not match the description above. My brother is sometimes needy, less capable than me, and irresponsible. On the opposite side, as long as I am the only girl, and my mom was too busy to take care of me and my brother, I usually served the role "mommy". I have done domestic chores, fed my brother, and more communicated with my parents than my brother did. The role made me more capable, confident, and parental. I am the barrier of my parents and my brother, even though I am the youngest one. The reason why this happened is that in Confucian ambience which protects boys too much make young girls taking care of one's brothers. Also, I believe that the passage of Wither's is generalizing too much that the writer is totally ignorant of same-gendered couple and only explains about heterosexual couples.

 

 

In conclusion, both writers guessed the characteristic of people by their birth order, but I believe that birth order does not always fit the cases of all. Two of passages ignore other factors and generalized overly.