The Relationship Between Birth Order and Intelligence Essays

These variables explain, in terms of environmental factors, development and performance which are correlated with social status. The first of these variables consists of the combination of birth order, nutrition, and prenatal care. Children who are first born, on average score better on mental tests. There is a definite higher number

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

Almost all of us are familiar of the Birth Order theory that Alfred Adler presented almost a century ago. Adler theorized that our personalities are hugely influenced by our chronological place in the family because

The experiment that I read was "Born First, Born Smarter". It was a study done by R. B. Zajonc and G. B. Markus in 1975. They planned to see why recent research had determined that the first-born child in a family related to certain characteristics. It was round that first-born children tend to be more verbally articulate, less impulsive, more active, better performers in school, more likely to go to college, and tend to have a greater need to achieve. It was also found that earlier-born children tend to score higher on tests of intelligence and aptitude than those born into the family later. One of the things researchers looked at was the different environments that a first-born and second-born

The object of this experiment was to determine whether or not birth order actually affected personalities and to see if oldest/youngest stereotypes were true. Oldest children are said to be bossy and rule followers while youngest tend to be ambitious and outgoing. To find out whether or not these assumptions were true, ten people were asked a series of questions about oldest and youngest children and what it was like growing up.

Firstborn children in families develop a higher I.Q. than their siblings. The New York Times used a study that found that the average difference in I.Q. was three points higher in firstborn than closest sibling. Even though it is only three points it is significant according to researchers. While three points may not seem like a huge differences, experts say that “it can be a tipping point for some people- the difference between a high B average and a low A” (Carey, 2007). The results also show that it was because of family dynamics and not biological factors. In the study, analyze the data of Norwegian men born from 1967-1976 and found that firstborn had three percent higher than second child and four percent higher than third child. The

Researchers suggested that the “admixture hypothesis” is responsible for the connections between birth order and intelligence (Page & Grandon, 1979). Parts of the hypothesis argue that parental IQ and social status are responsible for large families and low IQ, which would make it seem that high birth order causes lower IQ. It would appear that parents with low IQs would have more children, but it this was proven to be true, the IQ scores would decrease given the population size.

Describes a confluence model that explains the effects of birth order and family size on intelligence. Intellectual development within the family context is conceived of as depending on the cumulative effects of the intellectual environment, which consists primarily of the siblings' and parents' intelligence. Mutual influences, through time, on the intellectual development of the siblings are described by the growth parameter a. The confluence model predicts positive as well as negative effects of birth order, a necessarily negative effect of family size, and a handicap for the last born and the only child. The model explains several features of a large birth order study carried out on nearly 400,000 19 yr

Many researchers have questioned whether or not birth order and sibling structure play a role in dictating one's success in education. Research shows that firstborns tend to exceed their siblings in intelligence and achievement levels (Cheng, Wang, Sung, Su, & Li, 2012; Boomsma, Beijsterveld, Beem, Hoekstra, Polderman & Bartels, 2007; Cho, 2010; Bu, 2014; Akgeyik, 2013; Karwath, Relikowski, Schmitt, 2014; Horner, Andrade, Delva, Grogan-Kaylor & Castillo, 1998; Rammohan & Dancer, 2008) starting at the age of eight. (Boomsma et al., 2008). This may be due to several factors including the uneven divide of familial resources (Cheng et all, 2012; Harkonen, 2014; Rees, Lopez,

In making an assessment about the respondent's birth order, it will become a new knowledge as part of thier development experience. This could be open the ways to new top to bottom research about youth and it's affects on grown-ups. There is a possiblity that birth order can have such a noteworthy influence on the respondent's improvement of self-efficacy. This gives a confident viewpoint to the psychology as a major and profession for strengthening and change.

Birth order is defined as being the chronological order of sibling births in a family. There is five ways to classify birth order: first, second, middle, last, and only children. Treatment plays a large role into how strong the birth order effect is. If out of four sons, a daughter is born, even if she is a middle child she will be treated at a first born, because she is the only girl. Age gap is also a major factor affecting birth order. Large age gaps result in birth order starting over (Birth Order, pg. 1-3). Referring to birth order, Dr. Hartstein, a psychologist says, “It’s been researched since the 1920s, and they really have found that over time the things that they have found stay the same and are proven to be honest and true representations of people (1).” A child’s growth and personality are greatly affected by birth order and the effects will be carried into adulthood (Birth Order, pg.1).

There have been many studies conducted regarding the impact of birth order in multi-children families, whether it affects creativity, future success, intelligence, and overall happiness and satisfaction in life. It is popularly believed by laypeople that birth order and family size plays a strong role in the development and eventual personality type and success of each adult; however, while many studies have found positive correlations between older children and success, others have been inconclusive (Carballo, J. et al. 2012). While birth order may play a role in a child’s development, there are many other factors to consider such as socioeconomic status, parental favouritism, parental involvement, and socialization at an early age to name a few. We can go back to our ancestral days to look for clues as to why birth order may have a significant impact on the future success of a child. In ancestral humans, the most important thing was survival; there were high infant mortality rates and people were driven to pass down their genes, so parents were often left to allocate efforts to the child that would most likely survive to have their own children (Daly, M. Wilson, M. 1987, pg 93). This is especially important for fathers, whose paternity is not necessarily guaranteed, as is the mothers. Even today it is still very common for a man to leave a newborn child and the mother if it is even speculated that a child may not be his own (Schmitt, D. 2005, pg 250). Following this, we

For centuries, one of the most curious stereotypes that have compelled most people is the role birth order has on their personalities and lives. Is birth order necessarily important? Does it honestly affect our personalities? Birth order has been controversial issue since biblical times for example Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau. Psychologists have a lot of assumptions about how that individual behaves and responds to life whenever a person is a first born, middle child, youngest child, or only child. The questions remains, what difference does birth order make, and how true is it that birth order can even have an impact? Theorist has looked at the various studies regarding birth order most of which have used the example of the Adlerian concept of birth order to suggest intelligence and personality type the following paper will work to better understand if birth order makes a significant difference in the outcome of an individual’s life. Leman believes the key to sibling personality discrepancies lies in birth order and how the parents treat their children due to it. However, there are numerous psychologists responsible for the stereotypes of birth order, and how it contributes to various personality types in the study.

The central question posed in the article that I read is, does birth order affect intelligence? According to the article, “Does Birth Order Affect Intelligence?” it sometimes seems to be the case. Correspondingly to birth order, the size of the family a child is born into may affect intelligence levels. Many hypotheses, tests, and research methods are available in order to attempt to explain why these general statements are made, but the data is, by and large, very conflicting.

In a cross sectional study find that they if the birth order is high, the IQ is low. In 1979 Page and Grandon made the suggestion that the admixture hypothesis account for the link between birth order and IQ. This hypothesis argue that other things like parental IQ or socioeconomic status, may be responsible for both low IQ and large families which made it show up in cross-sectional studies as that a high birth order caused a lower IQ. In 1874 Francis Galton made reasons as to why birth order might affect eminence. He listed: Primogeniture laws. Firstborn sons would be more likely have the financial re to continue their education. Firstborns had the advantage of being "treated more as companions by parents." This means that they also undertake more responsibility than their younger siblings. Firstborn children would get more attention and better nourishment in families with limited financial re. The Resource Dilution Model was shown by Blake in 1981 and put more out there by Downey in 2001 it offered an explanation for the high IQ scores of firstborn children and the representation of firstborns among college students. One assumption was "Parental resources are