The Effect of Being an Only Child on the Childs Personality Essay

The Effect of Being an Only Child on the Child's Personality Literature Review: Before a child has friends they have their family. Everything that they know and love about the world mostly comes from what they see around in their house. Children usually find role models in their family most of the time it is the child’s sibling. Yet only children don’t have that experience of living with another child and begin to develop their personality and traits from what they see in their parents. An only child’s role model is usually their mom or dad. Most of their time is anyway spent with them. Looking up to an adult rather than a younger being can really change a lot about the child’s personality. Only child are mostly known to be responsible and develop good language skills because they are around their parents so much. They may see the responsibility that the parent has and learn how to be responsible from that. They don’t have any influences of seeing a child being lazy and not listening to their parent they just see the work of th e parent. Also because an only child’s main person to speak to is an adult they learn how to speak more properly and are able to talk better because they are learning from an expert of speaking that will not make mistakes at saying common words. This is a great advantage later in life for these only children. (Brophy, 1989)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Only children are also commonly known to become more mature faster then other children who grow up with siblings. Their maturity grows faster because again adults surround them most of the time. They copy what they see their parents do and they try to fit in and be like the parents. As other kids with siblings they would try to fit in with their siblings but only children have their parents to fit in with. (Koontz, 1989)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As these only children try to fit in with their parents they also try hard to fill up the expectations of their parents. Most parents put very high expectations on their only child since this is their only child and all their energy and attention is on them. They have high expectations because this is the only child that can make them proud. Knowing this, only children have a hard time trying to be the best. Only children have this pressure of being perfect for their parents because if they make a mistake they can’t say well at least I’m doing better than my brother or sister... ...y child. By giving out this survey to many children not just only children we can see the differences between only children and children with siblings. Statements 2-4 test whether or not the person likes school because most people who like school tend to do well at school. Statements 4-9 test whether the person is a hard-working student or not. Statements 10 and 11 test whether or not the person can have relationships with people because self-centered may not care too much about other people. Also in strong relationships you must think and care about other people this is hard for self-centered people. Statements 12,15,16,17 test whether or not the person has a high view of himself or herself because self-centered people have very high views of themselves. Statements 13 and 14 test whether or not the person cares about other people because self-centered people only care about themselves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Works Cited Brophy, B. (March 6, 1989). It doesn't hurt to be alone. U.S. News and World Report, 106, 54-55 Koontz, K. (February 1989). Just me. Health, 21, 38-39 Sulloway, F. J. (September 1997). Birth order and personality. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 14, 5-7