By: Kimberly Swanson, MS-Psy, CNA
According
to Adler, the sequence in a person’s life is developed by the age of five
(Murdock, 2013). This is due to genetics
and a person’s upbringing and surroundings, personal outlook and lifestyle is molded during the earlier
years of life and it is very hard to alter (Adler, 1929/1965). In early life, children are very
vulnerable; this was observed by Adler
and he speculated that humans at the beginning of life feel inferior or
insignificant (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956).
Family constellations
occurs when the family has determines the critical developmental stages of
their offspring (Murdock, 2013); this is when the birth order theory comes into play with individual psychology (Murdock, 2013). The biological order is the order in which a
child is born among their siblings and the psychological birth order is how
the biological order affects the child’s outlook, behaviors and outcomes in
life.
According
to Murdock (2013), the first child is usually the ones who get the most
parental attention and usually they interact well with adults. But when the second child is born, the first
usually feel that they have lost some of the attention (dethroned) (Adler, 1927/1969). Often times, the oldest are held responsible
or have to look after the younger siblings. When the oldest child becomes an
adult, they tend to like authoritative roles in jobs or in positions. The
middle child often times feel like they are sandwiched or squeezed in the middle, whereas the youngest child gets the center
of attention (Murdock, 2013).
References
Adler, A. (1969). The science of living (H.L. Ansbacher & R.R. Ansbacher, eds. &
Trans). New York: Doubleday.
(Original work published 1929).
Ansbacher, H. &
Ansbacher, R. (Eds). (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York:
Basic Books.
Murdock, N.L. (2013). Theories of counseling & psychotherapy (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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