Early sibling investigations

Abstract

The article represents the review of early (till 1965) researches of a family environment’s influence on individuality of children. For over a century psychologists made attempts to analyze a birth order’s effect. They try to explain how a person’s behavior and personality characteristics are related with birth order. In the article theories of A.Adler, W.Toman, M.Bowen and a number of their empirical examinations are considered. Given analysis leads to conclusion, that early works have shown the importance of birth order’s factor studies, but could not explain a mechanism of its influence on personal characteristics, aspirations and behavior. Many questions, concerning roles of birth order and family dynamics in personal development, remained opened. Birth order’s effect revealed to be more complex than most researchers believed in 1920-1965. The analysis of birth order is the subject for future researches.