Twins separated at birth are less alike or more alike than twins that were raised together?
A Psychologist John Loehlin from the University of Texas did a twin study to see how genetics comes to play with one’s personality. He did this experiment with identical twins and fraternal twins. He tested their IQ and personality. Loehlin came to see that an environment plays a huge role of developing one’s individuality. For example identical twin are very alike when it comes to genetics but can be different due to their unique experience. Loehlin came to a conclusion that each child can perceive situations more differently than the other. He tested 514 identical twins and 336 fraternal twins. He found that genetics plays 44 percent of making ones
Nature is the inherent features of something. Genetics also is a big part of nature. Anais and Sam are identical twins. They were separated at birth and adopted by different parents. Although they did not grow up together they had come to know that they have a lot of similarities. These girls have the same laugh, it sounds the exact same. Anais and Sam both do not like when the shower curtain touches them, and they even have the same favorite drink. Twins have very special bonds that include having very familiar likings and dislikings. They also have most of the same habits and interests. A big thing that is common among twins is that they end up getting the same IQ results and test scores. Some scientist had even shown that twins are more
Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick, the famous identical twins from the movie The Parent Trap, were separated at a young age by their divorcing parents. Sharon grew up in Boston to a socialite mother while Susan grew up in California on her father’s ranch. Sharon had structure while Susan’s life was very laid back. They looked the same and liked many of the same things, yet their personalities were very different. What is responsible for these differences? Is it simply that they are two different people with different interests and preferences? Or did the environments that they grew up in play a part in making who they are? In the nature vs. nurture controversy, nature proclaims that our genetic make-up plays the primary role in human development, while nurture declares that our environment dictates our development.
Within his blog, Manly uses the experiences of other twins to strengthen his argument. His twin brother Daniel says: “‘I remember one girl in grade four, who used to tell us apart by the colour of our lunchboxes! That stuff is ridiculous, since the easiest way to tell us apart is to know us.’” I believe what Daniel says is true. Singletons should take the time to know each twin individually, instead of knowing a set of twins as one person. Manly states that this confusion on which twin is who often leads to a difficult environment for individuality to develop. I agree to this as well. In my own experience of being a twin, I have struggled to become myself with my peers, since I am constantly referred to as “one of the twins” or “a
Many twin studies have also shown results that genetically identical twins (MZ) have a greater number of inheriting depression than non-identical twins (DZ). For instance an experiment carried out by Prince in 1968 expected that MZ twins would have a higher concordance for depression compared to DZ twins. Results found were that the MZ twins who were raised in the same environment/family showed a concordance of 68% and DZ twins had a lower concordance of 28% for bipolar disorder only. This is evidenc...
Segal, Nancy L. Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us about Human Behavior. New York: Dutton, 1999. Print.
How adoption and twin studies have influenced the “nature verses nurture debate” has been a focal point for many researchers and people around the world which has caused controversy and many views regarding the topic. “Twin studies look into behaviour in identical and none identical twins and adoption studies separate the effect of nature from nurture, or at least do more successfully than twin studies.” ("The Usefullness of Twin Studies and Adoption Studies | psuea7", 2011, p.1) These studies are used to provide plenty of strong and reliable evidence that and positively influence the Nature vs. Nurture debate. “The Nature vs. Nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture, behaviour, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture. Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviours, while nurture is most commonly defined as environment and experience.” (("Nature vs. Nurture", 2014, p.1) Many controversial debates have surrounded this issue and many researchers are trying to find evidence to justify if twin and adoption studies have an effect on the nature vs. nurture debate. Twin and adoption studies have had a positive influence on the nature-nurture debate because research and evidence has identified different issues and quality information to help the nature-nurture debate evolve. This essay will outline these positive influences and will elaborate on the research and evidence that has helped the nature-nurture debate. The three influences of twin and adoption studies that will be discussed are the influence of researching the affects of behavioural issues such as schizophrenia, the influence of undergoing research on the drinking affects an...
I have found that people have expectations of twins. The most common assumptions are that just because we look alike, my sister and I must have the same personality, dress the same all the time, like the same things, have the same friends, and g...
...rities and the same preferences. They also felt an immediate bond upon meeting. Jim Springer and Jim Lewis are twins who were separated four weeks after they were born in 1939, and they were reunited thirty-nine years later. The twins discovered that they had married and divorced women named Linda, married second wives named Betty, and named their first sons James Allan and James Alan, respectively. They both drove the same model of blue Chevrolet, and they both enjoyed the same hobby. They often vacationed on the same small beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, and owned dogs named Toy (Heredity 62). There have been many cases reported similar to this one, such as where twins were separated at birth and when reunited, found that they had astounding similarities between the two. By studying twins who were reared apart, scientists are learning how the forces of nature and nurture interact to make us what we are (Chensanow 69).
It is true that identical twins have many similarities, but people tend to ignore their differences. The Jim twins, for example, may
Subsequently, they relished getting to know one another; but one twin expressed the disheartening feelings toward her separation and her original belief that nurture was far greater an influence than nature. However, after getting to know her biological connection, she now vows that nature is paramount to nurture because of both experiences that differed, but how natural
Dr. Eileen Pearlman says that “The separation and individuation process begins early in life, and for some twins it takes longer than others as not only do twins need to learn to separate and individuate from their mothers but they also have to learn to separate and individuate from each other.” The constant comparison from individuals looking into their life can make this harder for twins. People need to understand that with being a twin there are advantages but also disadvantages. People and even family members of twins can fail to realize this. The figment of people's imagination is that twins get along, have similar tastes, and are the exactly alike, almost the same
For years I have been fascinated by that mysterious quirk of nature called twins. In my family, there are several sets of identical twins, and I have always concentrated on their similarities. I did not realize that identical twins also have many differences. My identical twin cousins, Sue and Heidi, appear to be perfect mirror images. They love to dress alike. They can feel each other's pain. They sound alike and can complete each other's sentences. But upon taking a closer look, I have found that they are as different as day and night. Aside from Sue and Heidi's outward characteristics, they possess several distinguishing traits that allow them to be viewed as two separate, independent individuals.
In a review by Gottesman and Shields (1972), the pair looked at adopted and twin studies between 1967-1976, and found a concordance rate of 58% in identical twins, and 12% for non-identical twins. Therefore, due to the concordance rates not being 100%, similarly like the dopamine hypothesis, environmental factors such as rearing patterns will influence the development of schizophrenia. However, this explanation shows that the closer one is genetically similar to another family member, they are at a higher risk of showing schizophrenic
For the measure assessing age of reunion, the results indicate there is a high level of overall correlation between identical twins reared apart. Thus, the identical twins that were not reunited prior to testing exhibited the same development and intelligence as the twins that were reunited before testing. The next measure, rearing by a relative, revealed that identical twins that are raised by unrelated family members are essentially no different from identical twins reared by biological parents, as evidenced by the heritability values. Lastly, identical twins that were reared in minimally similar environments demonstrated more similarity than twins reared in strongly similar environments (.70 vs .67). This is interesting because one would expect the twins in strongly similar environments to be more
It is true that identical twins who are raised together have many things in common,