Figuring People Out: Birth Order and Your Characters

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So, there's a new man in my life and I can't figure him out.
Sure, he's just imaginary--the hero for my new work in progress (WIP). But it's driving me crazy that I can't nail his personality. Who is this guy?!
I've chatted about him in my critique group. I've even talked to my husband about him, if you can believe that!
This week I pulled out my dog-eared workbook from last year's MBT Storycrafter's Retreat. One thing bestselling author Susan May Warren suggests is to interview your character. During the interview, ask your character, "Who are you?" Keep asking why they do the things they do until you get to their motivations and values.
Okay. I've gotten over the listening to/talking back to the voices in my head thing that fiction writers do.
As I tried to get my guy--his name is Caleb--to tell me who he is, I realized he's a firstborn son. Aha! Time to do some research on birth order.
Dr. Kevin Leman wrote probably the best known book on birth order: The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are.
Basically, the birth order theory states that your position in your family--firstborn, middle child, youngest--influences your personality. What does birth order mean for Caleb, who is a firstborn son--and, for all intents and purposes, an only child? (I'm not telling you anything more because it will give away my story. Curious?)
Traits of Firstborn Children:

• confident
• organized
• tend to be selfish
• feel as though they are never good enough (hhhmm, interesting!)
• want things their way
• reliable
• "grin and bear it" mentality
• perfectionists
• logical

One website I checked out, The Effects of Birth Order on Personality, even suggested that firstborns gravitated to jobs in law, medicine, computer programming or architecture. That doesn't mean that Caleb's going to be a doctor or a lawyer, but it's given me some things to think about.

Next time you're trying to understand a character in your WIP, ask him or her, "What's your family like? Are you the oldest or the youngest?" Then do a little research on birth order--and weave that information into the story.

Birth Order (Child Development Institute)
Birth Order (Wikipedia)
The Power of Birth Order (Time magazine)

Getting to Know Them--You're Characters, That Is

A question for all you fiction writers out there: How do you develop your characters? Do they pop up in your head and just start talking to you? And, more importantly, do you talk back? Do you develop an extensive personality profile for each of your main characters? Do you run them through a Myers-Briggs Personality Test to determine if your hero is an ISTJ or an ENFP?
I 'm reading Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon. McCutcheon promises that if you use his book "you, too, can create characters who think, hope, love, cry, cause and feel pain, save the day--and seize readers by the emotions."
Wow.
Impressed me--and I'm a nonfiction writer.
The book contains a "Character Questionnaire." You're supposed to fill it out before you start writing your story. If I filled in all these blanks about Characteristic Gestures, Areas of Expertise, Short-term and Long-term Needs, Prejudices, and Most Painful Things in One's Life, I'd know my hero better than I know my best friend!
I'm a bit of a thesaurus junkie, so I devoured the "Character Thesaurus." Lists and lists and lists to help you describe the people in your novel. Complexions. Noses. Body types. Bad habits. Occupations. Words to describe fear, suspicion love, laughs.
How about these for love:

• gaze at candidly
• exchange predatory looks--works for me if you're an elk
• eyes dark and smoldering
• regard provocatively
• exchange scorching looks
• stare adoringly
• regard with open fondness
• beam fondly

Okay, okay ... you get the idea.

Any other suggestions for creating believable characters in your novel?