Adoption Studies

Question 1

Best method to measure what with

Answer 1

Nature vs nurture

Question 2

How to measure nature vs nurture

Answer 2

Adoptees are studied and their behaviour, adopted families and their natural families

Question 3

Why do we use adoptees

Answer 3

Share environment but not genetics

Question 4

Adoption study

Answer 4

Cadoret and Stewart (1991)

Question 5

What were Cadoret and Stewart (1991) findings

Answer 5

Adopted boys:
-increased risk of attention deficit/ hyperactivity and aggression THAN children if have a biological parent who had been convicted of a crime in adulthood
-more likely to be aggressive or have a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity if psychiatric problems in members of the adoptive family

Question 6

Conclusion Cadoret and Stewart (1991)

Answer 6

This suggests that behaviour as complex as aggression can have a variety of causes and is not significantly attributable to nature or nurture.

Question 7

Ethical issue

Answer 7

Contacting biological parents (child cant speak to them but you can)
Blaming criminal parents for being a criminal -> making them feel guilty

Question 8

Generalisability

Answer 8

Sample size
Not easy to gather large and diverse group of MZ and DZ twins or adoptees and parents

Question 9

Reliability

Answer 9

Unreliable
assume any similarities between adoptee and biological families are result of nature but similarity could be due to similar life events they have experienced

Question 10

Confounding variables

Answer 10

Impossible to separate nature completely from nurture
Cant separate child from birth and taken straight to adopted family

Question 11

MZ vs DZ environment

Answer 11

Assumed that mz and dz shared same environment but it can be argued identical twins share more similar environment (same clothes etc)

Question 12

Extraneous variables

Answer 12

MZ twins are similar it’s genes or environment, environment controlled only if compared to DZ twins

Question 13

Selective placement

Answer 13

Child adopted into similar family, similarities to biological relatives due to environment

Question 14

Unrepresentative

Answer 14

Adopted family are unrepresentative of whole population of families
Better educated, better socioeconomically, lower rates of mental illness

Question 15

Describe Cadoret and Stewarts (1991) sample

Answer 15

283 male adoptees
Investigated ADHD and adult antisocial personality