Born First, Born Smarter Experiment Essay

The idea that they came up with was finding identical or fraternal twins in order to draw a comparison between the behaviors that they share. The most common similarities between the twins (after multiple meetings with pairs of twins) can be concluded as genetic, and other factors could be considered due to the environment, like learning a language. In 1983, Bouchard and Lykken brought together these twins who participated in the study. First, they needed to gather identical twins who were separated at birth. The researcher 's’ goal was to gain as much information as possible on these twins within one week. They had fifty hours of studies on many levels. These studies included personality trait scales, aptitude, IQ tests and occupational interest tests.

If identical twins were truly identical, then their development in two different environments would not affect their behavioral differences. Identical twins that are not separated may still differ from each other. Dr. Farber conducted a study that measured the degree of being separated and I.Q. test scores. On average, Dr. Farber discovered that the more separated the twins were, the greater the difference between their I.Q. scores. If intelligence had been hereditary, then these identical twins that were reared apart and separated would still have the same amount of intelligence; yet, they do not (Gruber).

According to Alfred Adler, the birth order of the children in a family will largely affect how they age and the personalities which they will form. First borns enter the family as the only child. They revel in the love and full attention from their parents, that is, until the second baby comes along. Suddenly, first borns are dethroned and lose the undivided attention they are used to receiving. As a result, they tend to develop a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness over their siblings at an early age, which often leads to them becoming authoritative adults. Moreover, when there are multiple children in the family, parents will set high

Twin studies are a mainstay of the nature verse nurture debate because they allow researchers to conduct “natural experiments” on human beings. When researchers try to determine the relative importance of genetics and environment with regard to a certain condition, they have a hard time because they cannot generally get people with the same genes. This is where twin studies come in. Twins studies are part of the method used in behaviour genetics, which includes all data that are genetically informative. E.g. siblings, adoptees, pedigree data etc. Researchers use this method to estimate the heritability of traits and to quantify the effect of a person 's shared environment (family) and unique environment (the individual events that shape a life) on a trait.

Methods: The researchers needed a way to study a person who developed in a certain environment and how similar or different that person would be having been raised in a different environment. They came up with an experiment using monozygotic (identical) twins. Half of the pairs of twins were reared together (MZT); the other half were reared apart (MZA) and separated early in life. Each twin was individually given numerous surveys and

Within this experiment they used a questionnaire in order to identify the sexual orientation of their twin. Results from this experiment showed that 52% of the identical twins were homosexual and only 22% were homosexual for the fraternal twins. In conclusion these results were able to highlight a genetic pattern within these numbers, especially since they found a similar pattern in lesbian participants. Michael Bailey an associate professor of psychology in Northwestern University also studied the correlation between genetic influence and sexual orientation. Through these studies there was a clear conclusion that if one twin was gay there was a 50% chance the other twin was also gay, and thus showing somewhat a genetic influence on sexual orientation although not

The Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment was the study of elementary students and the effects teachers expectations have on their pupils. The result was in part what we call the Pygmalion effect, or as the book rightfully calls it "the self-fulfilling prophecy." The experiment was conduct by at the beginning of the academic year Rosenthal and Jacobson administered IQ test to the students. After the results were completed they then pick randomly one-fifth of the students tested and told their teachers they (these random students, with no consideration at all for their IQ results mind you) were special snowflakes and extraordinary in comparison to their peers. As a result the teachers behavior towards those students changed. Having the teachers now label them within the classroom setting as more intellectually curious thus granting them an edge compared to others.

Such hypotheses could not be empirically proven until researchers began doing twin and family studies. Before the Lichtenstein et al. (2009) family study, several population-based studies were conducted,

Earlier this year, CNN published an online article entitled “Study That Says Firstborns Are Smarter Leads to Debate Among Parents.” The article seeks to summarize a 2015 National Bureau of Economic Research working, then expand on that summary with individual opinions. The author, Kelly Wallace, begins by characterizing the paper as concluding that “firstborn children do better in school than us kids who were born later.” Wallace claims that the researchers identify three categories in which parents impose stricter rules on their firstborn than on subsequent children, causing this discrepancy: TV watching, homework monitoring, and responses to bad grades. After this, the article stops explaining the study and moves toward editorializing. First, it speculates about the validity of the findings using the specific evidence of bloggers, reality stars, authors, and psychiatrists. For example, one parent believes that she is not “easier” on her second-born. The author then cites successful middle children Bill Gates and Thomas Jefferson as counterpoints to the study, but prosperous first children Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs as evidence of its validity. Next, the article offers explanations for the grade dichotomy that deviate from those proposed in the study. A psychiatrist claims, for instance, that parental verbal involvement is “watered down” for later-born kids. Lastly, a reality TV actor draws on personal experience to claim that the most successful parenting strategy

Psychologists constantly offer new testable hypothesis to expand our knowledge on human behavior. This paper will include an analysis of a podcast and a research article. From this analysis, a hypothesis on birth order will be offered toward the end of this paper.

In the textbook it states “The fact that genetically identical twins show a correlation of 0.86 means that the environment must play a part in determining some aspects of intelligence.” (P.342 Ciccarelli) For instance, one of the twin, Christian, decides to change is environment and enroll in a karate class and the other twin, Jason, doesn’t. At a certain point in time, Christian’s intelligence in defending himself will be greater than Jason’s. Both twins know how and when to defend themselves, but only one is better equip to do it. Christian’s environment has affected his behavior in a different way than Jason’s

Across studies of 10,000 twins, the intelligence test scores of identical twins reared together are virtually as similar as those of the same person taking the same test twice…Likewise, the test scores of identical twins reared separately are similar enough to lead twin researcher Thomas Bouchard (1996) to estimate that ‘about 70 percent’ of intelligence score variation ‘can be attributed to genetic variation. (p. 455)

     Scientific research in child development flourished from the early 1900’s. One major stimulus was the introduction (1916) by the American psychologist Lewis Terman of the test known today as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. This test led to a number of studies about children’s intellectual development. In the 1920’s scientists at more than a dozen leading universities began large-scale observational studies of children and heir families; these included the Berkeley Growth Study at the University of California (started in 1929 and still active today), the Fels Growth Study at Antioch College, and the Harvard Growth Studies. All used the longitudinal method, in which the same children are observed and tested at over a specific time period (The Volume Library 1990: Volume 2).

While this assumption is accepted by a majority of geneticists and behavioral scientists, there is great disagreement on the degree of influence each contributes. Arguments for environmental influences are compelling; at the same time there is growing evidence that genetic influence on intelligence is significant and substantial (Eyesenck, 1998; Mackintosh, 1998; Plomin, 1994; Steen, 1996). The purpose of this paper is to explore the question: "How is intelligence influenced by heredity and environment?"

Investigation about the birth order effects first started in the late nineteenth century. Several researchers have claimed that the relation between birth order and intelligence