Chapter 3    Adler: Individual Psychology93
have already developed a self-centered style of life, they likely will feel hostility and 
resentment toward the new baby, but if they have formed a cooperating style, they 
will eventually adopt this same attitude toward the new sibling. If firstborn children 
are less than 3 years old, their hostility and resentment will be largely unconscious, 
which makes these attitudes more resistant to change in later life.
According to Adler, secondborn children (such as himself) begin life in a bet -
ter situation for developing cooperation and social interest. To some extent, the per -
sonalities of secondborn children are shaped by their perception of the older child’s 
attitude toward them. If this attitude is one of extreme hostility and vengeance, the 
second child may become highly competitive or overly discouraged. The typical sec -
ond child, however, does not develop in either of these two directions. Instead, the 
secondborn child matures toward moderate competitiveness, having a healthy desire 
to overtake the older rival. If some success is achieved, the child is likely to develop a 
revolutionary attitude and feel that any authority can be challenged. Again, children’s 
interpretations are more important than their chronological position.
Youngest children, Adler believed, are often the most pampered and, conse -
quently, run a high risk of being problem children. They are likely to have strong feel -
ings of inferiority and to lack a sense of independence. Nevertheless, they possess many 
advantages. They are often highly motivated to exceed older siblings and to become the 
fastest runner, the best musician, the most skilled athlete, or the most ambitious student.
Only children are in a unique position of competing, not against brothers and 
sisters, but against father and mother. Living in an adult world, they often develop an 
exaggerated sense of superiority and an inflated self-concept. Adler (1931) stated that 
Siblings may feel superior or inferior and may adopt different attitudes toward the world depending in 
part on their order of birth.  
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