Correlations Between Birth Order & Personality Type?

**JamesR** · 08-10-2012, 02:44 AM

I was just wondering if there are any correlations between a person's birth order and their Myers-Briggs typology. It is already well attested that birth order plays at least a miniscule role in determining the type of person you become. For example, the first born child generally has the highest IQ.
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. But does birth order play any role in our typology? That is the question.

I speculate that older siblings would probably fall under the Introverted and Judging categories, whereas younger siblings would be more likely to fall under the Extroverted and Perceiving categories. The reason I would conclude that older siblings are more likely to be Is and Js is because from what I have observed, the oldest child is generally the most self-sufficient and learns to handle problems on their own--usually a result of the parents always leaving them in charge or telling them to handle something. So I would assume that this would perhaps make them more introverted in nature. Secondly, I think that they would be Js because the parents often give the oldest child the most tasks that need to be accomplished by a certain time. So I imagine that the oldest child would be more goal-driven with a desire for closure and organization to efficiently accomplish a task and make their job of 'being-in-charge' easier.

The reason I would consider younger siblings to be Extroverted is because I have noticed that younger siblings generally seem to feel insecure about themselves in regards to their older siblings. They seem to feel 'inferior' or that their older sibling is 'better' than them etc. Therefore, they may desire the approval of other people because it gives them more confidence in themselves or something along those lines, which--by definition--would make them an extravert if I remember my terms correctly. I also think that they are more likely to be Perceivers since they do not have as many goals or tasks that need to be completed--as that usually falls into their older sibling's hands. Therefore, they would probably care less about organization and/or closure since they never really had to employ it as much as their older siblings have.

This is all just my mere speculation, and I am half-asleep, so take it with a grain of salt. But what are your thoughts on the matter? And have you noticed any patterns in regards to your birth order and personality type?

I am the oldest sibling and not surprisingly, I am an INTJ. I find that my type seems perfect for the dilemmas I am faced with in regards to being the oldest siblings. For example, as an INTJ I can complete a task or goal--such as babysitting or feeding a younger sibling by a certain time etc. My biggest weakness is my lack of feelings and emotions--something that is vital for young children as they do not entirely understand logic yet but rely on feelings. I imagine that an INFJ would probably make a better older sibling, considering that they can use their Feeling orientation to cooperate with the younger children better.

**Apex** · 08-10-2012, 03:27 AM

Yes there is, there's actually a book on it. My sister was talking about it, but I usually discredit what she say;as a result, I didn't remember the name of the book.

My family is
Mom: ESTJ
Dad: ISTJ/ ISFJ
Oldest: ESFP
Middle Sister: ISFP
Me (youngest): INTJ

**anticlimatic** · 08-10-2012, 04:00 AM

Love the idea, not sure if it's so easily formulated...but there is probably a very reasonable influence on one's MBTI formation from one's siblings. Moreso their parents, I reckon-- as children tend to not only try to be their parents through their developing years, but also have to force themselves to adhere to their parents mental checks and balances, which comes through understanding.

The sibling thing, personally, I can flip right away. Stats as follows:

Mother: ISFJ
Father: ISTP

Oldest (boy, me): INTP
Second oldest (boy): ESFP
Third oldest (boy): ISTP
Fourth oldest (girl): INTJ

Two introverted parents would seem to guarantee that almost all us kids would end up introverts. I think that intuition might be dominant in older siblings, simply because they're the way-pavers, and have no other sibling role models to follow after. This instills an almost natural need to 'scan the horizon' as best as possible, which is basically intuition.

I know that I was formed by trying to emulate my father, and indeed took on many of his functions, particularly Si. Approaching him so many times over the years with physical problems, and having him Si-correct them into more elegant physical solutions, really trained me to think in similar terms growing up, I think. Likewise with Fe, through sympathizing with my mother. Ti, my strongest function, just came about from being left by myself for the bulk of my childhood-- either in day-care, with granny, or up on the alter in church (alter boy, every weekend-- which is just a torturous exercise in trying to entertain oneself without moving, for an hour or more).

When my first brother came along we shared a room, so he was never by himself, like I was, since birth. I think this is where he developed his 'need to be around others' extroverted disposition.

A disposition he, in turn, tried to stuff down our next brother's throat-- who really just wanted to be alone with his imagination for the most part. This drove him into further into introversion, I think, as he's the most introverted out of all of us.

My sister came much later (total baby), and by gender and time gap, was pretty much a type of 'only child,' which is very common for INTJs. Like me, she had to pretty much chart her own course with no one to follow, and developed intuition as a consequence.

I think you can kind of make sense of your siblings MBTI types...but it's going to have a lot of variables, and will differ from family to family. I'd love to hear other people's family break downs and logic, the topic fascinates me.

Moxiie · 08-10-2012, 07:00 AM

Interesting. I know that birth order loosely correlates to IQ etc and agree with that...not sure if I agree that there would be a trend leaning towards I-J personalities. Of course on an INTJ forum there will likely be agreement that since there is a correlation between intelligence and birth order that of course there must be more INTJ's and INFJ's. However, statistically this couldn't play out as there are billions of sibling sets in the world and each of the I-J types only comprise 1-3% of the population.

It's an interesting question though, I would go to "other forums" and ask different personality types to increase the sample size and variety of type your asking.

Dad: ENTP - his mom ESFJ, his dad INFP
Mom: INFP - her mom ENFP, her dad ESTJ

me -oldest: ENFP (on T border)
sister - middle: ESFP
sister - youngest:INFP, on border of S

Interesting tidbit: twin half brothers (dad's side) one is an ENTP the other ISTP. I find it fascinating that twins would have different typology. The ENTP is the older one by 10min or so.

**CrudeHypothesis** · 08-10-2012, 07:08 AM

I think being unable to physically compete with older siblings encouraged me to rely on my brain more to get my way. At least, that's what I rationalized when I was like 8.

**IQ65** · 08-10-2012, 08:15 AM

To me there's no doubt that the older siblings tends to be Js and that younger tends to be Ps.
When it comes to introversion and ekstraversion I'm not so sure, because those factors are very genetically determined.

My family is:
Dad - ESTJ
Mom - INFP

Oldest brother(me) - INTJ
Second sister - ISFP
Youngest sister - ENTJ

A interesting trend: the sibling in the middle tends to be SPs?

Moxiie · 08-10-2012, 08:30 AM

	Originally Posted by IQ65 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	To me there's no doubt that the older siblings tends to be Js and that younger tends to be Ps. When it comes to introversion and ekstraversion I'm not so sure, because those factors are very genetically determined. My family is: Dad - ESTJ Mom - INFP Oldest brother(me) - INTJ Second sister - ISFP Youngest sister - ENTJ A interesting trend: the sibling in the middle tends to be SPs?

Need bigger sample size in order for it to be a trend I think - in my family the eldest on both sides are NP's. My dad is an ENTP, he was the eldest. My uncle, eldest on my mom's side, is an INTP.

I might agree that the eldest might show a preponderance of N personalities.....again with the sample size though.

However, if the majority of the population are SP/SJ's then logically (and mathematically) there would be a lot of S personalities as the eldest as well.

**IQ65** · 08-10-2012, 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by Moxiie
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Need bigger sample size in order for it to be a trend I think - in my family the eldest on both sides are NP's. My dad is an ENTP, he was the eldest. My uncle, eldest on my mom's side, is an INTP.

I might agree that the eldest might show a preponderance of N personalities.....again with the sample size though.

However, if the majority of the population are SP/SJ's then logically (and mathematically) there would be a lot of S personalities as the eldest as well.

Of course we need more than 3 people to really tell if there's a trend:P

I don't se how siblings can form your percieving or judging function? Why should the eldest tend to evolve N as their percieving function?

**joliet** · 08-10-2012, 02:28 PM

There have been studies that try to verify this. There is correlation between birth order and personality, although not to Myers-Briggs.

I am the youngest and most intuitive of my siblings. I am lucky that they influenced my growth. My oldest sibling--ENTJ--is the most financially stable and opportunistic. The middle sibling is an ESFJ/ENFJ, and dependent on feeling needed and is therefore very reliable.

Moxiie · 08-10-2012, 02:50 PM

	Originally Posted by IQ65 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Of course we need more than 3 people to really tell if there's a trend:P I don't se how siblings can form your percieving or judging function? Why should the eldest tend to evolve N as their percieving function?

The OP submits a hypothesis that the eldest in birth order tend to be I-J personalities, which you appeared to agree with in your post.

I laid a counter hypothesis down based on my subjective experience. In reviewing the siblings sets that I can think of in my family (I have a HUGE family - sample size for me went from 3 to 15 or so) The eldest are almost exclusively N personality types. It's by no means conclusive, but if I were to supply some conjecture as to why the eldest would be intuitive personalities, I might say it's because as the eldest, when your parents are "new" parents, you may develop a reliance on intuition to learn with them, by the time the younger siblings come along, your parents have an idea about what to expect etc.

It's an interesting question for sure.
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**teraczy** · 08-10-2012, 03:19 PM

Father: ENTJ
Mother: ISFJ

Older brother: XSTJ
Eldest girl (myself) - INtJ
Middle sister: INFP
Youngest sister: ESFP

My brother is less than a year older than me, and I grew up being told that I was the oldest girl, so that made me the oldest and I had more responsibilities. But I had to escape a lot into my own head, when the youngest was born when I was 7, my life changed a bit. I speculate that I once was an NF but I no longer am. Most of my life I've felt like a sort of "old soul", not trusting neither adult nor child to be sensible in their actions at all. I feel like most of what I've formed about my life has been from books and solitary adventure. I've adapted some of my mother's emotional dealings but I have spurred away from her tendency to sacrifice herself for others as she uses Fe and I use Fi. The brother seemed very clearly to be introverted most of our lives, but he speaks of feeling drained when he's alone and hates doing things without company, and is starting to consider he may be an Extrovert with some Introverted type hobbies (like gaming). All of my siblings had plenty of friends growing up and I did not have a single friend until I was in Middle School.

Weird I saw this post started and thought it was odd because my dad's name is James and his middle name starts with R, and I was thinking about my dad and the ways we were alike vs. my mother.

Some of the already pointed out correlations apply to my family as well, I suppose.

**troi** · 08-10-2012, 03:22 PM

My guesses of my family:

Dad INTJ
Mom ESFJ
Me INTJ
Middle child ExFJ
Youngest IxTJ

**KonTiki** · 08-10-2012, 09:45 PM

This is an interesting topic.

Every parent I know says the same thing about their kids: they arrived with their personalities. As in, nothing the parent did (or was aware of doing) had any impact on the kid's intrinsic personality. Totally subjective, of course.

In my family (best guesses):
Dad: INTP
Mom: ISTP

Oldest sister: INFP
Brother middle: ESTJ
Me (youngest): ENTP

It certainly would be cool to have a large, validated dataset to run some stats on.

**hopeandpray** · 08-13-2012, 06:55 AM

My family is as follows:
Dad INTJ possibly, although really a quite balanced T and J. (2nd child, oldest male)
Mom - ISFJ (youngest of 8 children)
Me, eldest - INTP
Brother , twin - ENTP
Sister , twin - ISFJ

**ChangelingGirl** · 08-13-2012, 02:04 PM

	Originally Posted by KonTiki To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Every parent I know says the same thing about their kids: they arrived with their personalities. As in, nothing the parent did (or was aware of doing) had any impact on the kid's intrinsic personality. Totally subjective, of course.

The way I understand it from college psychology (very introductory still), personality is more environmentally-driven than IQ, and IQ is not totally genetic. This plus the fact that people can drift ont he various continuums of the MBTI (so much so that they can change personality type eveyr month) makes me believe that peoplle are highly influenced by their surroundings as o which type they are most likely to end up with or lean most towards.

**KonTiki** · 08-13-2012, 11:25 PM

Originally Posted by ChangelingGirl
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The way I understand it from college psychology (very introductory still), personality is more environmentally-driven than IQ, and IQ is not totally genetic. This plus the fact that people can drift ont he various continuums of the MBTI (so much so that they can change personality type eveyr month) makes me believe that peoplle are highly influenced by their surroundings as o which type they are most likely to end up with or lean most towards.

What your psychology class says does not agree with my personal experience. Does it agree with yours?

When I think of my siblings or my close friends, their personalities have remained largely constant over time. People mature, and a lot of their maturing process involves developing confidence due to finding a lifestyle that best makes use of their lead functions. Also, maturing involves developing the minor functions, mostly through hard experiences.

**scorpiomover** · 08-15-2012, 07:14 AM

Dad: INTP.
Mum: ISTJ.

Eldest son: INTJ.
2nd eldest daughter: INFJ.
3rd eldest son: INTP.
Youngest son: ENTP.

**aworldapart** · 08-16-2012, 03:21 AM

Dad: ISTJ
Mom: ENFJ

Me (male): INTJ/ENTJ
2nd (male): ISTJ
3rd (female): ISFJ
4th (male): INTP
5th (male): ENFP

**krtzone** · 12-26-2012, 02:15 PM

Dad: ISTJ
Mom: ISFJ

Firstborn Daughter: INFJ
Secondborn Son (Me): ENFP

**NanaEllis** · 12-26-2012, 02:58 PM

Guesses:
Mom: ExFJ
Dad: xSTJ
Only child (female): INTJ

**Ananas** · 12-26-2012, 03:30 PM

Mom: Introvert
Dad: Extrovert
Eldest son: ESFP
Second, daughter: ISTP
Me: INTJ

**Gefyon** · 12-26-2012, 06:00 PM

Interesting thread.

My best guesses for my family:

Mom - INTJ
Dad - he is hard to type, as he tends to be a bit of a chameleon - blending in with the strongest personality around him. Before my mom died, I would have typed him as ISTJ. He is now married to an ENFx and seems to have been kidnapped by aliens and a replica put in his place, lol. Completely. Different. Person.

Sister #1 ISTJ
Sister #2 ISFP
Sister #3 (me) INTJ

If it matters, there is a pretty large gap between my sisters and I (~10 years). I could be considered an only child for a large part of my childhood.

**Freeburgh** · 12-26-2012, 07:45 PM

My cousin did a study on dolphin pods, and one of the discussions we had he mentioned that anything beyond a 4-5 year gap and the "order" resets. So I would classify you as a 1, Gefyon.

For my family...
Mum: ????
Dad: ????

#1 Me: INTJ
#2 Bro: ????
#3 Sister: ????

If we were functional at all I am sure I'd be able to type them with some accuracy. Alas...

**Beesnthebreeze** · 12-26-2012, 08:14 PM

I would literally be shocked if this was true. I'm the oldest of ten. Part of keeping the peace and helping the parents is stabilizing the emotional world of my siblings, enough for the child to put Theo clothes on, tie their shoe, eat their vegetables... I couldn't get away with taking care Of only myself
I have three parts to my family- half sibligs at moms house, half siblings at dads house and then the stepsiblings. Although in the oldest of all ten, At my dads house my brother is the oldest, ENFJ. at my moms my sister is the oldest ENFP, and my stepbrother is the oldest in that family but he is an INTJ!
I lived with all my siblings in one house or another at some point. My step brother was "allowed" to be autonomous, he was never expected to wipe a you're siblings butt or make them a sandwich for their lunch. (like my sister brother and me)

I should add I had zero siblings until I was 11

**Ananda** · 12-26-2012, 10:10 PM

I see the merit in this hypothesis... Personality is shaped by both genetics and environment, of course, and more and more research is pointing to the idea that the environment has far, far more to do with affecting personality than genetics. (Take the influence of the epigenome, for example.) This is further supported by the fact that personality is a very fluid concept; if it were genetic, it'd be much more stable. So it wouldn't surprise me if there were a solid correlation between birth order and personality type, especially because family is generally considered the strongest agent of socialization.

However there must be quite a bit of variation depending on what kind of family you come from, and, as others have pointed out, the age differences between siblings. For that reason I wouldn't try too hard to prove or disprove the hypothesis in the first place. It might be an indicator, but I don't see the practical use in the evaluation of any results obtained. I guess I'm not alone in that; I searched around for any studies that discussed MBTI and birth order but came up empty-handed. If anyone can find any, please share!

08-10-2012, 03:27 AM	#2
Apex Member [15%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 633	Yes there is, there's actually a book on it. My sister was talking about it, but I usually discredit what she say;as a result, I didn't remember the name of the book. My family is Mom: ESTJ Dad: ISTJ/ ISFJ Oldest: ESFP Middle Sister: ISFP Me (youngest): INTJ Last edited by Apex; 08-10-2012 at 02:58 PM.
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08-10-2012, 07:00 AM	#4
Moxiie Core Member [210%] MBTI: eNfP Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 8,400	Interesting. I know that birth order loosely correlates to IQ etc and agree with that...not sure if I agree that there would be a trend leaning towards I-J personalities. Of course on an INTJ forum there will likely be agreement that since there is a correlation between intelligence and birth order that of course there must be more INTJ's and INFJ's. However, statistically this couldn't play out as there are billions of sibling sets in the world and each of the I-J types only comprise 1-3% of the population. It's an interesting question though, I would go to "other forums" and ask different personality types to increase the sample size and variety of type your asking. Dad: ENTP - his mom ESFJ, his dad INFP Mom: INFP - her mom ENFP, her dad ESTJ me -oldest: ENFP (on T border) sister - middle: ESFP sister - youngest:INFP, on border of S Interesting tidbit: twin half brothers (dad's side) one is an ENTP the other ISTP. I find it fascinating that twins would have different typology. The ENTP is the older one by 10min or so.
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08-10-2012, 07:08 AM	#5
CrudeHypothesis Veteran Member [74%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 2,999	I think being unable to physically compete with older siblings encouraged me to rely on my brain more to get my way. At least, that's what I rationalized when I was like 8.
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08-10-2012, 08:15 AM	#6
IQ65 New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 35	To me there's no doubt that the older siblings tends to be Js and that younger tends to be Ps. When it comes to introversion and ekstraversion I'm not so sure, because those factors are very genetically determined. My family is: Dad - ESTJ Mom - INFP Oldest brother(me) - INTJ Second sister - ISFP Youngest sister - ENTJ A interesting trend: the sibling in the middle tends to be SPs?
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08-10-2012, 02:28 PM	#9
joliet Member [15%] MBTI: xxxx Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 610	There have been studies that try to verify this. There is correlation between birth order and personality, although not to Myers-Briggs. I am the youngest and most intuitive of my siblings. I am lucky that they influenced my growth. My oldest sibling--ENTJ--is the most financially stable and opportunistic. The middle sibling is an ESFJ/ENFJ, and dependent on feeling needed and is therefore very reliable.
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08-10-2012, 02:44 AM	#1
JamesR Banned MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 17	I was just wondering if there are any correlations between a person's birth order and their Myers-Briggs typology. It is already well attested that birth order plays at least a miniscule role in determining the type of person you become. For example, the first born child generally has the highest IQ. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. . But does birth order play any role in our typology? That is the question. I speculate that older siblings would probably fall under the Introverted and Judging categories, whereas younger siblings would be more likely to fall under the Extroverted and Perceiving categories. The reason I would conclude that older siblings are more likely to be Is and Js is because from what I have observed, the oldest child is generally the most self-sufficient and learns to handle problems on their own--usually a result of the parents always leaving them in charge or telling them to handle something. So I would assume that this would perhaps make them more introverted in nature. Secondly, I think that they would be Js because the parents often give the oldest child the most tasks that need to be accomplished by a certain time. So I imagine that the oldest child would be more goal-driven with a desire for closure and organization to efficiently accomplish a task and make their job of 'being-in-charge' easier. The reason I would consider younger siblings to be Extroverted is because I have noticed that younger siblings generally seem to feel insecure about themselves in regards to their older siblings. They seem to feel 'inferior' or that their older sibling is 'better' than them etc. Therefore, they may desire the approval of other people because it gives them more confidence in themselves or something along those lines, which--by definition--would make them an extravert if I remember my terms correctly. I also think that they are more likely to be Perceivers since they do not have as many goals or tasks that need to be completed--as that usually falls into their older sibling's hands. Therefore, they would probably care less about organization and/or closure since they never really had to employ it as much as their older siblings have. This is all just my mere speculation, and I am half-asleep, so take it with a grain of salt. But what are your thoughts on the matter? And have you noticed any patterns in regards to your birth order and personality type? I am the oldest sibling and not surprisingly, I am an INTJ. I find that my type seems perfect for the dilemmas I am faced with in regards to being the oldest siblings. For example, as an INTJ I can complete a task or goal--such as babysitting or feeding a younger sibling by a certain time etc. My biggest weakness is my lack of feelings and emotions--something that is vital for young children as they do not entirely understand logic yet but rely on feelings. I imagine that an INFJ would probably make a better older sibling, considering that they can use their Feeling orientation to cooperate with the younger children better.
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08-10-2012, 04:00 AM	#3
anticlimatic Veteran Member [54%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 2,163	Love the idea, not sure if it's so easily formulated...but there is probably a very reasonable influence on one's MBTI formation from one's siblings. Moreso their parents, I reckon-- as children tend to not only try to be their parents through their developing years, but also have to force themselves to adhere to their parents mental checks and balances, which comes through understanding. The sibling thing, personally, I can flip right away. Stats as follows: Mother: ISFJ Father: ISTP Oldest (boy, me): INTP Second oldest (boy): ESFP Third oldest (boy): ISTP Fourth oldest (girl): INTJ Two introverted parents would seem to guarantee that almost all us kids would end up introverts. I think that intuition might be dominant in older siblings, simply because they're the way-pavers, and have no other sibling role models to follow after. This instills an almost natural need to 'scan the horizon' as best as possible, which is basically intuition. I know that I was formed by trying to emulate my father, and indeed took on many of his functions, particularly Si. Approaching him so many times over the years with physical problems, and having him Si-correct them into more elegant physical solutions, really trained me to think in similar terms growing up, I think. Likewise with Fe, through sympathizing with my mother. Ti, my strongest function, just came about from being left by myself for the bulk of my childhood-- either in day-care, with granny, or up on the alter in church (alter boy, every weekend-- which is just a torturous exercise in trying to entertain oneself without moving, for an hour or more). When my first brother came along we shared a room, so he was never by himself, like I was, since birth. I think this is where he developed his 'need to be around others' extroverted disposition. A disposition he, in turn, tried to stuff down our next brother's throat-- who really just wanted to be alone with his imagination for the most part. This drove him into further into introversion, I think, as he's the most introverted out of all of us. My sister came much later (total baby), and by gender and time gap, was pretty much a type of 'only child,' which is very common for INTJs. Like me, she had to pretty much chart her own course with no one to follow, and developed intuition as a consequence. I think you can kind of make sense of your siblings MBTI types...but it's going to have a lot of variables, and will differ from family to family. I'd love to hear other people's family break downs and logic, the topic fascinates me.
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08-10-2012, 03:19 PM	#11
teraczy Member [26%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 1,056	Father: ENTJ Mother: ISFJ Older brother: XSTJ Eldest girl (myself) - INtJ Middle sister: INFP Youngest sister: ESFP My brother is less than a year older than me, and I grew up being told that I was the oldest girl, so that made me the oldest and I had more responsibilities. But I had to escape a lot into my own head, when the youngest was born when I was 7, my life changed a bit. I speculate that I once was an NF but I no longer am. Most of my life I've felt like a sort of "old soul", not trusting neither adult nor child to be sensible in their actions at all. I feel like most of what I've formed about my life has been from books and solitary adventure. I've adapted some of my mother's emotional dealings but I have spurred away from her tendency to sacrifice herself for others as she uses Fe and I use Fi. The brother seemed very clearly to be introverted most of our lives, but he speaks of feeling drained when he's alone and hates doing things without company, and is starting to consider he may be an Extrovert with some Introverted type hobbies (like gaming). All of my siblings had plenty of friends growing up and I did not have a single friend until I was in Middle School. Weird I saw this post started and thought it was odd because my dad's name is James and his middle name starts with R, and I was thinking about my dad and the ways we were alike vs. my mother. Some of the already pointed out correlations apply to my family as well, I suppose.
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08-10-2012, 03:22 PM	#12
troi Member [07%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 315	My guesses of my family: Dad INTJ Mom ESFJ Me INTJ Middle child ExFJ Youngest IxTJ
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08-10-2012, 09:45 PM	#13
KonTiki Member [10%] MBTI: INFP Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 438	This is an interesting topic. Every parent I know says the same thing about their kids: they arrived with their personalities. As in, nothing the parent did (or was aware of doing) had any impact on the kid's intrinsic personality. Totally subjective, of course. In my family (best guesses): Dad: INTP Mom: ISTP Oldest sister: INFP Brother middle: ESTJ Me (youngest): ENTP It certainly would be cool to have a large, validated dataset to run some stats on.
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08-13-2012, 06:55 AM	#14
hopeandpray New Member [01%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 17	My family is as follows: Dad INTJ possibly, although really a quite balanced T and J. (2nd child, oldest male) Mom - ISFJ (youngest of 8 children) Me, eldest - INTP Brother , twin - ENTP Sister , twin - ISFJ
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08-15-2012, 07:14 AM	#17
scorpiomover Core Member [111%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 4,447	Dad: INTP. Mum: ISTJ. Eldest son: INTJ. 2nd eldest daughter: INFJ. 3rd eldest son: INTP. Youngest son: ENTP.
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08-16-2012, 03:21 AM	#18
aworldapart Member [04%] MBTI: xNTJ Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 172	Dad: ISTJ Mom: ENFJ Me (male): INTJ/ENTJ 2nd (male): ISTJ 3rd (female): ISFJ 4th (male): INTP 5th (male): ENFP
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12-26-2012, 02:15 PM	#19
krtzone New Member [01%] MBTI: ENFP Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 1	Dad: ISTJ Mom: ISFJ Firstborn Daughter: INFJ Secondborn Son (Me): ENFP
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12-26-2012, 02:58 PM	#20
NanaEllis Member [03%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 147	Guesses: Mom: ExFJ Dad: xSTJ Only child (female): INTJ
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12-26-2012, 03:30 PM	#21
Ananas New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 77	Mom: Introvert Dad: Extrovert Eldest son: ESFP Second, daughter: ISTP Me: INTJ
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12-26-2012, 06:00 PM	#22
Gefyon Member [26%] MBTI: INTp Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 1,045	Interesting thread. My best guesses for my family: Mom - INTJ Dad - he is hard to type, as he tends to be a bit of a chameleon - blending in with the strongest personality around him. Before my mom died, I would have typed him as ISTJ. He is now married to an ENFx and seems to have been kidnapped by aliens and a replica put in his place, lol. Completely. Different. Person. Sister #1 ISTJ Sister #2 ISFP Sister #3 (me) INTJ If it matters, there is a pretty large gap between my sisters and I (~10 years). I could be considered an only child for a large part of my childhood.
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12-26-2012, 07:45 PM	#23
Freeburgh Veteran Member [57%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 2,308	My cousin did a study on dolphin pods, and one of the discussions we had he mentioned that anything beyond a 4-5 year gap and the "order" resets. So I would classify you as a 1, Gefyon. For my family... Mum: ???? Dad: ???? #1 Me: INTJ #2 Bro: ???? #3 Sister: ???? If we were functional at all I am sure I'd be able to type them with some accuracy. Alas...
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12-26-2012, 08:14 PM	#24
Beesnthebreeze Member [20%] MBTI: ENFJ Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 815	I would literally be shocked if this was true. I'm the oldest of ten. Part of keeping the peace and helping the parents is stabilizing the emotional world of my siblings, enough for the child to put Theo clothes on, tie their shoe, eat their vegetables... I couldn't get away with taking care Of only myself I have three parts to my family- half sibligs at moms house, half siblings at dads house and then the stepsiblings. Although in the oldest of all ten, At my dads house my brother is the oldest, ENFJ. at my moms my sister is the oldest ENFP, and my stepbrother is the oldest in that family but he is an INTJ! I lived with all my siblings in one house or another at some point. My step brother was "allowed" to be autonomous, he was never expected to wipe a you're siblings butt or make them a sandwich for their lunch. (like my sister brother and me) I should add I had zero siblings until I was 11
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12-26-2012, 10:10 PM	#25
Ananda New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 25	I see the merit in this hypothesis... Personality is shaped by both genetics and environment, of course, and more and more research is pointing to the idea that the environment has far, far more to do with affecting personality than genetics. (Take the influence of the epigenome, for example.) This is further supported by the fact that personality is a very fluid concept; if it were genetic, it'd be much more stable. So it wouldn't surprise me if there were a solid correlation between birth order and personality type, especially because family is generally considered the strongest agent of socialization. However there must be quite a bit of variation depending on what kind of family you come from, and, as others have pointed out, the age differences between siblings. For that reason I wouldn't try too hard to prove or disprove the hypothesis in the first place. It might be an indicator, but I don't see the practical use in the evaluation of any results obtained. I guess I'm not alone in that; I searched around for any studies that discussed MBTI and birth order but came up empty-handed. If anyone can find any, please share!
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