Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
943160
TITLE
Resemblance in appearance and the equal environments assumption in twin studies of personality traits.
ABSTRACT
The equal environments hypothesis of twin methodology was examined for the variable of similarity of appearance as it affects the personality ratings of young twins. There were two separate samples, the first with 95 pairs of same-sex twins and the second with 111 pairs. The average age of the twins in both samples was 3-1/2 years. Mothers rated their twins on four personality traits and on confusability of appearance. Not surprisingly, identical twins were markedly more similar in appearance than fraternal twins. The effect of this inequality on the personality ratings of the two types of twins was examined by correlating ratings of similarity of appearance with the absolute difference on the four personality traits for each pair of twins. None of the correlations was significant for the identical twins, suggesting that greater resemblance in appearance in identical twins does not make them more similar in personality. Indeed, the data suggested a contrast effect in which identical twins who were easily mistaken in appearance tended to be rated as less similar in personality. Thus, although similarity of appearance may create unequal environments for the two types of twins, it does not appear to bias twin studies in the direction of inflated heritabilities, at least for rating studies of the personality of young twins.
DATE PUBLISHED
1976 Jan
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1976/01/01
medline 1976/01/01 00:01
entrez 1976/01/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Plomin R Plomin R R
Willerman L Willerman L L
Loehlin JC Loehlin J C JC
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 6
ISSUE: 1
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav. Genet.
YEAR: 1976
MONTH: Jan
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-8244
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Child, Preschool
Emotions
Female
Humans
Impulsive Behavior
Male
Motor Activity
Parents
Personality
Pregnancy
Social Behavior
Social Environment
Twins
Twins, Dizygotic
Twins, Monozygotic
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's