Spinath, F., Spinath, B., & Plomin, R. (2008). The nature and nurture of intelligence and...

Spinath, F., Spinath, B., & Plomin, R. (2008). The nature and nurture

of intelligence and motivation in the origins of sex differences in elementary school achievement. European Journal of Personality, 22(3), 211-229. doi:10.1002/per.677.

Summary by Sean Durkin

The common observation that females tend to outperform males in school suggests that there are genetic intellectual differences between the sexes.

Why? Researchers goal was to examine the

effect of motivation and intelligence on school performance and if there are any differences between genders in the interaction.

Is it possible to accurately predict future success based on elementary school information?

Are there gender differences in the interaction between motivation and intelligence?

Sample frame was TEDS 4464 children Monozygotic Twins:

Males- 356 pairsFemales- 465 pairs

Dizygotic Twins:Males- 337 pairsFemales- 394 pairsOpposite Sex- 680 pairs

Longitudinal Study over 9 years Cognitive Ability Test Assessment of Instruction Children’s Ability Self-Perception Children’s Intrinsic Values

Reliability Analyses

INTERESTING POINTS LIMITATIONS

There is no significant difference in intelligence between sexes.

Females are not as confident in their English abilities as males are in their math abilities

Intelligence is the best predictor of future achievement

Reliability for motivation construct could have been higher.

Study would have been more complete had they sampled twins from a different culture as well

Longitudinal Study so this is some drop out

1. T/F Males tend to score higher on motivation for verbal subjects.2. All of the following have an significant impact on future achievement

EXCEPT:a. Intelligenceb. ability self-perceptionc. intrinsic value

3. T/F Dizygotic twins show lower variance in motivation than monozygotic twins.

4. T/F Females scored higher in ability self-perception for English than males did for math.

5. Which twins would be expected have the least variance in cognitive ability:a. two male monozygotic twinsb. two male dizygotic twinsc. male and female fraternal twin

6. Which had the smallest impact on motivation:a. non-shared environmental factorsb. shared environmental factorsc. genes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv8nWxhZBPs start at 5:00