Born First Born Smarter Analysis

“Born First, Born Smarter?” Is an article about how the genetics and birth order of any said family affect intelligence. The two main contributors of the study are Robert Zajonc and Gregory Markus. Zajonc and Markus believed that birth order does, in fact, relate to intelligence. Their main questions were how and why the majority of first-born children typically test better and are smarter than their later-born siblings. Zajonc and Markus tested their theory by comparing it to the data of studies done by other researchers’. They analyzed the data from many research projects, one of which was IQ-like test administered in The Netherlands (the results were concluded by Lillian Belmont and Francis Marolla). Zajonc and Markus used their observations and findings to make an intellectual climate formula that measured how the overall intelligence level of a given family rose or fell concerning family size and birth order. The data from the Belmont-Marolla study was summarized in Zajonc and Markus’s intellectual climate model. The researchers also found that the age gap between children is related to intelligence. Zajonc and Markus
I personally feel that birth order and family size do not, in any way, shape or form, affect intelligence. The information concluded by Zajonc and Marolla does include some valid points, however I do not believe that birth order is significant enough to be studied so thoroughly. The impact of family size and birth order has absolutely no affect on intellectual abilities. Each child is born with their own set of skills that grow and change as they do. I believe that factors such as living environment and life experiences affect intelligence more than anything. (If it wasn’t obvious, I am very much into the psychodynamic approach of psychology.) I myself am an only child, and I do not see myself being any more or less intellectually capable than I am now if I had