Journal Entry Two

Over the past week I have created an annotated bibliography for six sources concerning the subject of birth order. Through this process I learned why there are such differences between siblings. For instance, firstborn children generally agree more with sources of authority, and they themselves often grow up to be leaders. Middle children on the other hand are thought to be very good mediators, perhaps because they had to deal with the constant interaction with both a younger and an older sibling. The youngest children are typically the babies of the family who seek to get attention any way they can. They are also often the most rebellious of the birth orders.  Finally, only children who are female usually put their love life first, whereas male only children put their career first. I also discovered that there is a certain amount of romantic compatibility when it comes to birth order. For example, an oldest child and a youngest child often make a good match because the firstborn will cause the younger to become more responsible and the lastborn will make the older loosen up and become more spontaneous with their life. This was probably especially interesting to me because my mother is a firstborn and my father is a lastborn and they get along so well. Because of my research work, I now feel like I know my topic extremely well. I not only know the fundamental characteristics of each birth order, but I also know how it affects that person's relationships, career, and even success. Before I began this project I didn't believe that birth order science was actually capable of predicting something in my life. Now I see people's interactions as explained by birth order. Almost all of my family member's personalities seem to be shaped in one way or another by their birth order. I am now a believer in birth order science, in part because I have always wondered why siblings react differently to a similar situation when they grew up in the exact same environment. I didn't realize it before I undertook this project, but birth order helps to explain many of the fundamental differences between siblings, and I now see birth order as one of the main reasons the world is the way it is.