According to Forer, the birth order of a child construct's the child's personality. The first child becomes parental and the younger child has a person to lean on. Also, the middle child thinks that he/she is more capable compared to other people. Like this, birth order shapes the child's self-perception. Forer says the youngest in a family has more easy-going parents, they do not feel the urge to meet their parents' expectations, and they think of themselves as less capable. However, this theory doesn't apply to me and my family for several reasons such as my personality and the way I was raised.
To begin with, I must explain my self-perception in order to tell why Forer's theory doesn't fit me. Unlike Forer who said, "The later children enjoy many advantages as a result of having more relaxed parents", I view myself as an independent and hard-working person who strives to achieve the goals that I want. This is because my parents raised me to become very independent and they were not more relaxed or easy going. Before I ask for help from my parents, I was educated to come up with my solutions and choose the best among them unless it was a problem that I couldn't solve. Even when I asked for help, I was guided by my parents to make my own decisions and take responsibility of my actions at all times. Hence, I was used to embracing the consequences of my own actions so I inevitably grew independent.
Furthermore, I see myself as a hard-working, tenacious person because I like the feeling of self-satisfaction when I reach a goal. When I set a goal that I think I should achieve or I have the ability, I work very hard not to disappoint myself. I try my best because I dislike the feeling of disappointment and I want to think that I did my best when I don't succeed in reaching that goal. If I didn't try my best and expect I would get a good result, I am just fooling myself and wanting something that I didn't deserve. Also, I like competition because it pushes me to do my best and even try to overcome my limits. Thus, I never thought that "I am less able to do many things than other people" unlike what Forer said.
In conclusion, when I compare how I view myself and what Forer said in the reading, I cannot agree because there are distinct differences.
The essay clearly states your opinion on the articles and you have proved enough of the article not matching with your case, which I think was very effective for the readers to look at the article from another perspective.
ReplyDeleteFor any suggestions, the conlcusion part can be more elaborated and perhaps finish it with a stronger theis statement.
Oh, also, the font should be Times New Roman :)
DeleteIt's interesting to see that you are fond of competition and self-achievement. From the first step, I realized how ridiculous and unscientific the essay is and your opinion is consolidating my belief. The author had better realize that there's no firm correlation between the birth order and personality... I don't know why he wrote so :(
ReplyDelete201200283 Kim Keunho from summer session