▶ Your Answer : In
this letter, the editor insists that the birth order can have effect on
individual’s levels of stimulation. That is, the editor claims that the earlier
birth order, the more an individual is stimulated. Even though this argument is
based on the scientific experiment, it does not seem so convincing at all on
many grounds and needs to be explained in many aspects.
First,
it has to be explained whether the cortisol is the only hormone which can
affect on stimulation of the entity. The editor try to support his opinion by
suggesting the cortisol as a bridge between the level of stimulation and the
birth order. However, for example, other hormones can be produced in an
outrageous way due to the birth order, which can decrease the level of
stimulation too. Therefore, it is not ultimately sure that the birth order only
enhances the degree of stimulation.
Second,
the editor has to explain if the birth order is the only cause of excessive
cortisol so that the birth order is related to the level of stimulation. For instance,
in the example of the pregnant monkey in the letter, there is a possibility
that the large quantity of cortisol was due to the pregnancy, not the birth
order. Even if the fact that the cortisol enhances the degree of stimulation,
it is not guaranteed that the birth order is the only reason when we can observe
high level of cortisol and stimulation.
Lastly,
the number of and relevant information on the monkeys experimented in the study
is not sufficient so that further explanation and more trial of experiments are
needed. Only 18 monkeys cannot be enough to make an assumption which would be
applied to human beings and other species to generalize the argument. In addition,
it is not clear how the birth order is formed among 18 monkeys; if those
monkeys have 9 teams with only one sibling, those are not appropriate cases
because many siblings are necessary to effectively compare the first-order
monkey and others to ensure the level of cortisol is considerably different.
In
summary, the argument that the editor persists is lack of explanation. The editor
needs to support his argument by explaining the cause of stimulation and
suggesting more examples. |