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Unit 2 Understanding the Individual
Methodology
You need to
Be able to describe and evaluate PET and MRI scanning techniques
Be able to describe and evaluate twin and adoption studies as research methods
Be able to describe and evaluate the use of animals in laboratory experiments including ethical and practical issues.
This lesson will be about
Twin and Adoption studies
Another method used by psychologists to tease out the effects
of Nature and Nurture
Twin Studies, adoption studiesand correlational
analysiscontribute to our understanding
of the learnt/innate debate
BackgroundHopefully you will have already read the first part of the ‘Brain’ text book (p227-239)
Ideally you will already be aware of how twin and adoption studies are used as research methods.
Remember you can be asked about ‘Underlying Assumptions’
Identify at least 2 assumptions of the following approaches in psychology:(meaning what is considered to be important within each particular approach)• Cognitive• Social• Psychodynamic• Biological
So, can you now identify 2 assumptions of the biological approach?
Nature
The ‘nature’ view of psychology suggests that all behaviour is determined by hereditary factors.
Genes are thought to provide the blueprint for all behaviours; some of these will be present at birth, and others are thought to be on a ‘pre-programmed’ schedule and will emerge as the individual matures.
NurtureThe nurture debate proposes that all human behaviour is the result of interactions with the environment.
In this debate the individual is regarded as being born with no predispositions to behaviour and so everything they do is from environmental interactions.
They are born like a Blank Slate
Watch the separated twins clip
Identify which characteristics are inherited – i.e Nature
Identify which characteristics are the product of upbringing – i.e. Nurture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REhKa3_oHL8
Recap - CorrelationCorrelations show relationships between 2 sets of
data. (i.e. how closely they match)A correlation coefficient is a number between +1 and -1 expressed as a decimal . Eg +0.86The direction of the number ie positive or negative
indicates whether the relationship is positive (as one goes up the other goes up) or negative (as one goes up the other goes down)
The nearer to plus or minus one the number is shows how strong the relationship is.
When looking at twin or adoption studies we tend to look for positive relationships as it would be very strange if the closer the biological relationship the more unlike someone we were
ComparingWhen we say we compare twins, or comparing children with parents we mean on a measurable variable and because we are psychologists this will be something to do with behaviour for example
Intelligence Aggression Introversion/extroversion Sense of humour Mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia Psychologists talk about concordance rates
Concordance rates
Simply the correlation coefficient converted from a decimal to a percentage.
A correlation coefficient of 0.79 becomesA concordance rate of 79%
Identical twins share 100% of their DNA
Non-identical twins share only 50% of their DNA
Bouchard IQ concordance rates
Dizygotic (2 eggs) MonozygoticDZ MZ55% concordance 86% concordance
MZ reared apart 76% concordance
What does this tell us about IQ?Identical Twins
Twin studiesWith twin studies there are 2 main methods
1.comparing concordance rates of monozygotic twins with dizygotic twins
2.Comparing monozygotic twins reared together with monozygotic twins reared apart
Adoption studies
With adoption studies we tend to compare the adopted child with the biological mother and the adoptive mother to see which correlation coefficient is highest
e.g.Child and adoptive mother 0.42Child and biological mother 0.72
Siblings Sometimes but less often
sibling studies will be done where the child is compared to biological and adoptive siblings
Problems?? In general the problem is that there are so many variables that
come into play when comparing families.
This is especially the case when it comes to adoption and reared apart twin studies.
This enables some level of choice in families chosen by researchers which may create a bias towards what the scientist is trying to show.
i.e. support the learnt or innate debate. Scientists are not meant to favour one outcome when doing research but in this hotly debated topic they often do.
Twin and adoption studieschecking learning…
Do you feel able to answer questions like these?1) What are twin studies?2) Explain what is meant by concordance rates.3) Define MZ and DZ twins.4) What is meant by the terms nature and
nurture?5) What are adoption studies?6) What are the problems with using twin and
adoptive studies?
PracticeChoose a research question and a method. Describe how you would set up the research?
a twin study a study of twins reared apart an adoption study
1. To find out if depression is inherited.2. To find out if IQ is inherited.
Answers
To look at whether depression is inherited.1. Find mothers diagnosed as suffering from
depression and whose children have been adopted. 2. Find the children. 3. Check the children for signs of depression. 4. Check the adoptive mothers for depression. 5. If the adopted children with depressed biological
mothers have depression, it is evidence for some genetic factor causing depression, this is true if the adoptive mothers do not suffer from depression.
So for example…
To look at the nature-nurture issue1. Find twins that were reared apart throughout
their childhood. 2. Check how similar the are, particularly if they
have not yet met one another. 3. Alternatively, check how similar they were
when they first met as adults. 4. If they are similar as adults, similarity is likely
to be genetic.
For example….
To look at IQ and how far it might be inherited.1. Find MZ and DZ twins. 2. Give both an IQ test. 3. See how different the scores are between the
two twins. 4. If the scores for the MZ twins are more similar
than the scores for the DZ twins, then this indicates at least some genetic cause for IQ.
Gottesman & Shields (1966)
This research used twin studies to investigate whether schizophrenia has a genetic basis
It is described in your Brain text book p288
• http://www.phgfoundation.org/tutorials/twinAdoption/7.html
Tasks – complete for homework if need be
• Read and highlight Gottesman & Shield study on pg 13 (If you want this as your key study the original is on the Blog)
• Complete an evaluation for twin and adoption research– pg 16 that has some evaluation points on as well
as a hand out that I have put on your tables• Complete pg 14 gap fill
Mark scheme description of Twins…
E.g. Twin studies
Attempts to identify the likelihood of both twins having a particularcharacteristic/eq;Twins can be compared to test the effect of genes on characteristics suchas mental disorders/eq;MZ twins are compared with DZ twins as MZ are genetically identical andDZ aren’t/eq;The concordance rate shows the percentage of cases where both twinshave the same disorder/eq;Produces quantitative data that can be expressed numerically/eq;Gottesman (1991) showed that the concordance rate for MZ twinsdeveloping schizophrenia was 48% and for DZ twins it was 17%/eq;
Would be useful to check that you have / can write a description similar to this!