The Relationship Between Birth Order and Intelligence

1182 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Birth order and its characteristics

Debates on the relationship between birth order and intelligence have been remaining controversial. Birth order is considered as a person's ranking by age among his or her siblings. There have been numerous researchers studying about this subject to find whether firstborns generally have a higher IQ scores than their siblings. Some scientists conclude that birth order strongly influents intelligence; however, others oppose to this, claiming that birth order has no effect on intelligence. In this paper, my study deals with the birth order effects on intelligence. 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 is significant. In 1973, Lillian Belmont and Francis Marolla conducted a study which tested the intelligence of Dutch nineteen-year-old men. The results of their study illustrate that higher birth order associates with higher intelligence, meaning that the scores on the standardized test decline when their position among their siblings decline. Moreover, there was a constant "intelligence gradient" down the birth order. In fall 1996, three researchers at University of British Columbia and Ohio State University at Mansfield conducted four studies on difference groups of people. In order for participants not to be influenced by previous birth order researches, they were not informed in advance that the result would be published or used in any textbook. Their first experiment asked participants to write down the birth order of their siblings, including themselves. Then, they were required to mark the sibling who has the best academic performance. The outcomes “are consistent with previous evidence th... ... middle of paper ... ...e Power of Birth Order - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 17 Oct. 2007. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. Carey, Benedict. "Study Says Eldest Children Have Higher I.Q.s." The New York Times. 21 June 2007. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. Trapnell, Paul D., Delroy L. Paulhus, and Chen David. "Birth Order Effects on Personality and Achievement within Families." 10.6 (1999): 482-88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. Rodgers, Joseph Lee, H. Harrington Cleveland, Edwin Van Den Oord, and David C. Rowe. "Resolving the Debate over Birth Order, Family Size, and Intelligence." American Psychologist 55.6 (2000): 599-612. Print. Aaron, Wichman, L., Rodgers Lee Joseph, and MacCallum C. Robert. "Birth Order Has No Effect on Intelligence: A Reply and Extension of Previous Findings." 33.9 (2007): 1195-120. PsycINFO. Web. 10 Apr. 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of 'The Bell Curve'

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    It talks about many different topics this affects. For poverty, it concludes to say that people that have a low IQ most likely live in poverty as it is a strong indicator. It says that low IQ drastically increases the chance of dropping out of high school, and further decreases said person to ever achieve getting a college degree. Low IQ is also associated with people that are unemployed, injured often, or “idle” to which they describe to mean removed themselves from the workforce. It also describes that families with lower IQ have high rates of divorce, lower marriage rates, and higher illegitimate births. Plus the familes children correlates with having low birth weight babies, poor motor skills plus social development, and possible behavior problems. Another one it includes is low IQ correlates with welfare dependency, increased criminal behavior, and people with low IQ are less likely to vote and care less about

    Read More

  • The Power Of Birth Order By Jeffery Kluger

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The achievers, the gamblers and visionaries, and the undefined, this is how Jeffery Kluger describes the oldest, youngest, and middle child in his article “The Power of Birth Order” (409). The birth order is a phenomenon, studied by many scientists, that has been impacting the way siblings think and act for years. The birth order classifies the oldest child, who is the achiever; the middle child, who is a hybrid of the oldest and youngest; and last but not least, the youngest child, who is the adventurer of the family. The fact that the birth order affects the personalities of siblings is becoming more and more evident and the classifications of the firstborn, middle child, and youngest child have been proved to be very accurate.

    Read More

  • Birth Order Theory Essay

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    ‘Birth order theory can help explain why children raised in the same family environment with a strong genetic relationship can have such different personalities’ (Drysdale, 2011). The birth order theory says that ‘first-borns are leaders, the drivers and the responsible type. They love to feel in control and feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook’ (Grose, 2013). The personality theory says that last-borns are majorly different to first-borns in their characteristics and traits. It states that last-borns are ‘the

    Read More

  • IQ and the Controversy Concerning Human Intelligence

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    "There can be of course no serious doubt that differences in environment experiences do contribute to variation in IQ [5]. The environment is made of circumstances, objects, and conditions by which a human, animal, plant or object are surrounded in science. It has been argued that the environment in a child's developing years could in fact be a factor that will determine this IQ. In a study of adoptive and biologically related familys psychologist Scarr and Weinberg recognized that with children between 16 and 22 years of age, environment was more powerful in influencing IQ level in the young child, than the young adult. Scarr and Weinberg reasoned that "environment exerts a greater influence on children, who have little choice; as they age, diversity age, diversity and availability of choices expands, and if these choices are at least partially determined by genetic factors, the influence of environment is there by diminished.

    Read More

  • The Patterns of Birth Order

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    The patterns of birth order have been seen for centuries, although it was not studied exclusively until around the 1980s. There are many factors that play into a persons personality, such as their genetics, the way they are raised, and their environment. Birth order looks at a persons place in their family—if they are the oldest, middle, or youngest child—and provides commonalities between them and others in the same location in other families. While there are many variations, the general traits do apply. Research shows that the first born is typically a leader in the family and in other areas of life. The youngest child is usually light hearted and social. The one that is hardest to put a type to is the middle child. He or she will frequently try to blaze their own path, straying from the one that their older sibling made. I believe that birth order plays a part in a person’s personality, but that the way they were raised is also a very important variable. A child’s birth order, along with the way they were raised, is a major factor in the way they interact within their family and other groups.

    Read More

  • Genetic Determinism

    2847 Words  | 6 Pages

    Loehlin, John C., Lindzey Gardner, and J.N. Spuhler. Race Differences in Intelligence. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1975.

    Read More

  • Genetic and Environmental Factors of Intelligence

    3375 Words  | 7 Pages

    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?"

    Read More

  • Twins and Genetics

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    Finkel, D. (1995). Heritability of cognitive abilities in adult twins: Comparison of Minnesota and Swedish data. Behavior Genetics, 25, 421-432.

    Read More

  • How Birth Order Affects Personality

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gross, Dr. Gail. “The Achiever, the Peacemaker, and the Life of the Party: How Birth Order Affects Personality”. Huffingtonpost. 2014. Web. 30 April 2014.

    Read More

  • How Does Birth Order Affect Psychological and Social Development?

    2301 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rodgers, Joseph Lee. (2001). What causes birth order-intelligence patterns? The admixture hypothesis revived. American Psychologist, 56(6-7), 505-510. doi: 1O.1O37//O0O3-O66X.56.6-7.5O5

    Read More

  • Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...

    Read More

  • Intelligence and Age

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    Horn, J. L., & Cattell, R. B. (1967). ‘Age differences in fluid and crystallized intelligence’. Acta Psychological, 26, 107-129.

    Read More

  • Human Development: Nature vs. Nurture

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Variation in IQ is accounted for by variation in home environment to the extent of not more than 4 percent; 96 percent of the variation is accounted for by other factors” (Leahy).

    Read More

  • Cognitive Development: Multiple Intelligences

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Visser, B. A., Ashton, M. C., & Vernon, P. A. (2006). g and the measurement of multiple intelligences: A response to Gardner. Intelligence, 34(5), 507-510.

    Read More

  • Intelligence: Nature and Nurture

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ongoing debate on whether nature or nurture is responsible for intelligence seems to be a never-ending argument. There will probably be no definite answer to this argument any time soon, but answers such as Dr. Bigot's prove how intolerant of other opinions people can be. To say intelligence is entirely based on genetics, or one's environment, for that matter, is utterly extremist. An interaction of both nature and nurture is responsible for intelligence.

    Read More

More about The Relationship Between Birth Order and Intelligence

Open Document