Читать книгу Birth Order & You - Dr. Ronald W. Richardson & Lois A. Richardson - Страница 8

The over-riding influence on an individual’s development is the family personality. Children develop their social behavior by relating to their own parents and siblings. For instance, even though all oldest children are likely to share many characteristics, they are all also unique in the way those characteristics are expressed.

Even where non-birth order characteristics are the dominant element in someone’s personality, some of the birth order traits are usually evident. For example, an exceptionally bright or talented youngest boy might still be more dependent or less responsible than the other children in his family. He may be a genius, but a spoiled, babied genius.

In addition, birth order doesn’t determine the basic values of a person or the person’s value to society. It affects social interactions more than attitudes and ethical stances. Depending on a number of other family and environmental circumstances, an only child can turn out to be Joseph Stalin or Leonardo da Vinci, Elvis Presley or Franklin Roosevelt. But these four men shared certain characteristics that are common to male only children.