Genetic Explanations - Adoption Research

Question 1

What is involved in an adoption study?

Answer 1

Looking at the impact on children who are raised by their non-biological parents

Question 2

What difference is trying to be established between birth parents and adoptive parents?

Answer 2

If the child is more criminally similar to their biological parents than to their adoptive parents (with whom they share the same environment), a genetic base of criminality may be suggested

Question 3

Why is it important to know if the adoption took place soon after birth?

Answer 3

The child may have been able to gain environmental traits from their biological parents, which would make this experiment ineffective

Question 4

Hutchings & Mednick (1975)

Answer 4

14000 adopted children studied
High proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal convictions too
This suggests a link between aggression and genetics

Question 5

Mednick et al. (1994)

Answer 5

No relationship found between the number of criminal convictions of adoptive parents and their adopted children
Significant positive correlation between the number of criminal convictions of the biological parents and their offspring