Family Constellation: Its Effects on Personality and Social Behavior

Rating:
Summary: A college textbook on the effects of birth order
Review: You may have seen lots of books on the effects of birth order, but this one is the product of statistical research at a German university. They interviewed subjects. They interviewed the families and friends of subjects (whose opinions may be different from those of the subject). They took personality inventories. They took birth order data. And they ran statistical analysis of the results to determine coefficients of correlation. So, when they say that an older brother or brothers is like this or an female only child isn't at all like that, you're actually reading the results of a computer printout where the coefficient of correlation is greater than 0.9 or less than -0.9 (or whatever threshold they chose).

This book is decidedly not fluff, like so many of the other birth order books. I have the second, third and fourth editions, which attests to how much I like it. The only reason why I didn't give 5 stars is that it can be pretty dry in spots, especially introducing a notation for his new taxonomy, and sometimes pretty grim. (In earlier editions, the good doctor explains how to calculate a numerical value to quantify the effects of death, separation or other losses of a sibling. Well, he's German, after all. If it can be named, it can be quantified.)

The 'Constellation' in the name is a tongue in cheek reference to its similarities to astrology. But unlike astrology, where your average guess of someone's sign is the 6th try, you can actually get really good at guessing someone's birth order after reading this book. (But don't overlook the influence of the same sex parent's birth order if you undertake this as a parlor game at parties.)