Birth order and its relation to Achievement motive and Resilience

Abstract

Adlerian Psychology and a new thrust to human potential provided by positive psychology provide the framework of this study. Adlerain psychology famous for individual differences brought to light the concept of birth order as an important factor in the differences in personalities, attitudes and behaviour. Adlerian psychology, the youngest child is highly motivated to perform better than elder sibling in various spheres and the only child is mostly egocentric and dependent. The study is aimed at studying the differences that exists in subjects’ level of achievement motive and resilience on the basis of birth order categorized as first born and later born. A sample of 80 individuals is taken, 40 first born and 40 later born. For resilience, Connor and Davidson resilience scale (2003) is used and for achievement motive, Achievement Motivation Inventory by J.M. Muthee, University of Kerela (2009) is used. The analyses showed that there exists no difference between the first born and later born in the level of resilience and in the level of achievement motive.