zind0018: April 2012 Archives

Over the course of the semester, we have been able to learn about all kinds of different studies, disorders, and people. I believe five years from now that I will most remember the lecture on evolutionary psychology. I am biology major, and evolution is an extremely important topic in that field. Having some background knowledge about the psychological side to evolution will be extremely helpful in my future classes.
Learning about how males and females pick mates was a particularly interesting part of this topic. The lecture talked about how females picked males who were going to be the best providers. On the other hand, males would pick females who were young and could have the best offspring. Even though this all happened far in the past, it can still be seen today with older men desiring younger women.
Another interesting part about the evolutionary theory lecture is how stepparents treat their stepchildren. Stepfathers are more likely to injure or harm children who are not their biological children. This causes me to think about how in other species how rival males will kill the offspring of another male. This shows how in some ways we are more similar to animals than what we sometimes would hope to be.

Those of us who have siblings tend to have mostly friendly rivalries with them. Some, if not most, of us probably believe that we are more intelligent than all of our siblings; however, some research shows that the oldest sibling tends to have the highest aptitude. Now, for all of us who are not the oldest, we shouldn't worry too much. We tend to actually get better grades and be more extroverted. These results were found by surveying 90 pairs of high school siblings. The researchers believe that the oldest siblings tend to be the most intelligent because they received all of their parent's attention for a certain amount of time. They also believe that the younger siblings receive better grades because the older sibling could mentor them.
Some older studies about this particular debate found that the oldest sibling tends to be the most extroverted. This study had adults look back upon their childhood, and some of the people studied may have not remembered their childhood correctly. This study could not be replicated, so it violates the critical thinking principle of replicability.
Many of us may continue to ignore these studies and will still believe that we are the smartest sibling. It is still interesting that studies are able to show the general differences between many siblings.

Reference:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38683279/ns/health-childrens_health/t/sorry-kid-first-borns-really-are-smarter/#.T5RhtErvbLd