Synonyms
Definition
The sequence in which children are born into the family.
Introduction
In 1996, Frank Sulloway’s book Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives was published. In it, he outlined his adaptationist approach to birth order focusing on differential parental investment and sibling competition. The book documents personality differences by birth order and how they play out in terms of revolutions in science, religion, and politics. It has also spawned a new generation of research into birth order effects, not just concentrating on effects on personality but also examining the impact of birth order on behavior.
Role of Parental Investment in Creating Birth Order Effects
Parental investment is any investment that a parent makes that increases the likelihood of an offspring’s survival and reproduction at the cost of that parent’s ability to invest in other current or future offspring (Trivers 1972). This...
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References
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Salmon, C. (2016). Frank Sulloway (1996) On Birth Order. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1495-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1495-1
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