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), doi: /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 pairs Females- 465 pairs  Dizygotic Twins: Males- 337 pairs Females- 394 pairs Opposite 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 POINTSLIMITATIONS  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. Intelligence b. ability self-perception c. 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 twins b. two male dizygotic twins c. male and female fraternal twin 6. Which had the smallest impact on motivation: a. non-shared environmental factors b. shared environmental factors c. genes

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