Twin and Adoption Studies Nursing Term Paper (Term Paper Sample)

Nature versus Nurture
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Introduction
Nature vs. Nurture
Nature refers to traits and capabilities of a human being dictated by the genetic factors which at times shows itself in the progress of development.
Nurture refers to characteristics of a person that develops due to exposure to the environmental factors and through experience when human beings go through a situation be it difficult or easy the person develops a character due to the exposure.
Carrying of studies on how the genetic and environmental factors contribute to or against the behavior of an individual is important. Various controversies have risen on whether one variable or many can help the change of human behavior and characteristics attached to it ( Jang, 2005).Although no particular study rules out the fact in the relationship between the gene and the environment as the main components that add impacts to a behavior of a person. Twin and adoption studies try to come out with clear facts from various surveys carried out on the relationship between the identical twins and fraternal twins, and how they are an important aspect of creating an understanding of the nature versus nurture debate that is ongoing.
Twin and adoption studies try to find out the elements of personality that is related to genes and what elements most probably show due to environmental factors. Several studies indicate that genetic factors and environmental factors contribute to fifty percent of the whole human behavior, though there are still debates that exist to know which aspect between the two contributes to a larger percentage of the human behavior. Twin and adoption studies are widely used to rule out the gap that exists in several types of research that are carried out. A revisit to an individual characteristic, psychopathology, and mental impairment is included in the study to have a comprehensive and advance argument (Young, 2010).
Twin studies
It is a significant aspect when expanding on the nature and nurture debate. The study bases its argument on monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Benson and Haith (2009) argues that, monozygotic twins share the same type of genes which are the determinant factors of their characteristics and attitudes, for instance if one has brown eyes then the other also has a brown eye: this idea of same genes will portray itself regarding phenotypes of attitudes and characters of monozygotic twins. On the other hand, dizygotic twins share 50/50 of the genetics factors with each other. They resemble the highest order of relative though their characteristics tend to differ from the identical twins, for instance, one may have brown eyes and the other blue eyes.
Twins study base its arguments on the samples retrieved from the monozygotic and dizygotic twins, the study emphasize that if genes have a powerful influence than the environment to human behavior, the monozygotic twins will portray the same psychopathology and characteristics to one another as compared dizygotic twins (Jang, 2005). Twin study explains the coefficient of heritability which is greater in monozygotic twins. On the Contrary, the identical twins can portray different behavior even if they share the same genes, when exposed or brought up in a different environment, they may experience a different situation which will tame their characteristics attitudes and psychopathology which will be entirely different from one another.
Twin study and characters
Characteristics and personality of twins as well as knowledge relate to the genes. The study argues that the way identical twins answer to a question and engagement to activities is always similar due the shared genetic factors. The uncommon environment between the identical twins shows the cause of the difference in behaviors for instance a twin that is brought up in Africa and the other brought up in America will develop different characteristics, personality, and attitudes. The level of intelligence will also differ due to the structures of the education system as well the way people behave and handle issues among themselves (Benson and Haith, 2009).
Twin study and the theory of mind
The ability of the mind is composed of the cultures, intents, and desires. Theory of the mind is a state, in which a person comprehends conditions and what they see in their perspective which can be wrongly interpreted, this happens in children at a tender age of three (Skuse, 2011). The study has shown that children brought up in extended families experience increased acquisition of theory of mind, compared to those born with deaf problems, this explains an environmental factor. In genetic explanation, children born with autism and girls born with Turner's syndrome have damaged theory of mind various test have been performed on monozygotic and dizygotic twins. According to Twin study, the difference in the theory of mind in identical twins is a result of uncommon environment. Twins from a family that discusses together a problem portray an increased theory of mind.
Genetic to environment interaction
The study was carried out using a sample of monozygotic twins that took part in the Swedish adoption. The reason of the survey was to measure the impact of environment exposure and experience to the genotype of an individual. The study wanted to determine if exposure of identical twins to different environments will bring a significant difference in their personality and attitudes. For the findings, an individual with genotypes that made them score low were not affected by the environmental factors (Elder, Evans and Nizette, 2009).
Adoption studies
This type of study involves two elements that result to a variance in characters, attitudes and psychopathology of an individual. The two factors are parents from nature and relatives from the environment. Biological parents relate to genes, and environment parents relate to adoption.
Adoption study and schizophrenia
The study argues that the environment of an individual add petite value to the development of schizophrenia impairment. Children adopted from the families that the parents suffered from mental disorders continue to experience whereas children adopted from the families that had no history of mental disorder show no sign of suffering (Petronis and Mill, 2011). They further purport that despite the change of environment genetic condition will still be the same. The change of environment has no influence on the biological composition of a person or a character towards a certain disease the case with schizophrenia. Despite the modification of the environment, an individual will continue to suffer especially in cases where the adoptive family is low functioning.
Antisocial personality disorder
Adoption study tries to find out if children whose parents were antisocial will develop that behavior in the adopted family, or if the adoptive family will shape the behavior. Several studies have shown that antisocial disorder is likely to have an impact on a child that had initially inherited the personality in the adopted family (Tibbetts and Hemmens, 2010). Hagan (2011) argues that, Children not born with the disease have no chance of developing it in the adopted family. The rate of illness increases when an individual with personality defect is exposed to the adoptive environment. Adoption study emphasizes that the situation becomes worse if the adoptee is born with the disorder and is adopted by a family with the same problem.
Reason for the support of the argument
Twin permits the...