Final

Kimberly O’Day
Professor Yerks
Comp 106
23 April 2010

The nature verses nurture debate has been a heated argument for decades, only recently has there been any grounded evidence found to support either side. How much does your genetic code play in to the development of self? The recent use of twin studies has opened the eyes of many toward the extent to which genetics play in every individual’s life. Twins studies are a technique used by individuals from all sects of the academic community. These studies have been used to determine the likelihood of an individual inheriting an illness, the extent to which you DNA affects your IQ, how much of your personality is in your predetermined in your genes, etc.

In order to interpret the data from a twin study or understand their importance you must first know a minimal amount of background on twins. Not all twins are the same; this is an important aspect in looking at the studies. Fraternal twins are created when a mother releases two eggs which are in turn fertilized by two separate sperm. They are genetically no different than any other siblings except that they were born at the same time, thus they share 50% of their genetic make up. Identical twins are created when a single egg is fertilized by a single sperm and then divides. These twins are said to be identical because they have the exact same DNA, thought they often differ in personality and appearance. Through this knowledge we are able to determine to what extent genetics plays on a persons development and how much can be influenced by our environment, by comparing the results from a set of fraternal twins to that of a set from identical twins.

The largest frequency of twin studies generates in the field of psychology. There has been research conducted to determine whether an individual may have a predisposition to any variety of mental health issues. In a study conducted by Gottesman shows that the likelihood of an individual being diagnosed with schizophrenia in his or her lifetime is seventeen percent if they have a fraternal twin that has previously been diagnosed, if that individuals twin that was diagnosed was his or her identical twin the likelihood of this individual being diagnoses rises significantly to forty eight percent (Twin Study Overview). While there is a large difference in percentage between identical and fraternal twins it is important to look at the likelihood of any single individual in the population being diagnosed with this disease that likelihood rests at only one percent. This without a doubt leaves the impression that genetics must play some role in the way in which we acquire mental disorders.

This paper would not be complete without a look at the most controversial media covered topic in recent time, the homosexual community. In order to push legislation through our government activist groups have been attempting to compile data showing that an individual is born gay, it is not a conscious choice that these people make. This statement seems to make a lot of sense, in our society today those who come out, although being true to themselves, are knowingly making their lives harder. It seems illogical that they would choose to take a rougher path than those of us that are heterosexual. Those looking to this outlet to confirm the reason for their homosexuality have fallen short. The instance of both identical twins being homosexual is only thirty eight percent; if homosexuality were like eye color, something your genes determined, the instance of both identical twins being homosexual would be one hundred percent (Whitehead). This data will likely be shown through the media by Republican politicians in order to continue their support of the traditional household.

Though I have only touched on a small sect of topics that twin studies are used in the results all yield to the same conclusion. Neither nature nor nurture alone can determine the outcome of an individual’s life. In many areas of inquire genetics may play a role in which traits become visible, but the extent to which these genes affect specific traits varies. One may have a predisposition to a whole slew of mental health disorders, yet if they are raised in an environment that has shielded them from the things that may trigger the onset of these diseases they could live their whole lives without ever being presented with a single symptom. The environment in which a person is raised has a large bearing on the outcome of their lives. “Genes create a tendency, not a tyranny” as stated by N.E. Whitehead PhD, author of The Importance of Twin Studies.

In twin studies there are some factors that leave experts wanting more. When a twin study is conducted it is expected that the twins are growing up in the same environment being exposed to identical external factors. This however is impossible to control. While twins are born at essentially the same time it is often found that the minutes in between their births play a role in how their personalities form (Rutter). As a general rule of thumb those who are first out of the womb will take on a typical oldest child role in the family while the second born will take on the role of the baby of the family, assuming the twins are the only children to their parents. This is assumed to be due to the way in which the parents treat their twins. Although identical twins share the same genetic make up they see the world through their own set of eyes, thus leading to different perspectives that could influence the way their separate personality forms. It is common for twins to be separated into different classrooms once they reach school age so that they can develop their own self, this creates a problem for those generating theses studies because the twins who are essentially the same are being exposed to different experiences. I would be hesitant to say that conjoined twins experience the exact same world; if you have two separate eyes to take in the world and two separate brains to process the intake that is to say those they perceive the world the same as one another. Even rarer is the set of identical twins that were reared apart, such as in the case of separate adoptions. This is an ideal situation for a researcher. The twin’s share the same genes yet have separate experiences based on their environment. In this rare occasion it is possible to determine with a higher rate of accuracy what role genes play in the nurture verses nature debate.

Twin studies have a long road ahead of them. It can not be said with any definitive rate of accuracy as to what role our genes play in our development. We grow as a society with every advancement made whether in your particular field of study or one you know little about. Researchers studying twins for any reason have a bright future to look forward to due to the recent medical advances in obstetrics; the use of in vitro fertilization has a high likelihood of creating a pregnancy resulting in a multiple birth thus dramatically our pool of possible subjects. For the time being, twin studies give a slight glimmer of hope to an end of this long standing debate.


Works Cited

Rutter, Michael, and Jane Redshaw. "Growing Up as a Twin: Twin-Singleton Differences in Psychological Development." Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 32 (1991):885-895. 15 Apr 2010.

"Twin Study Overview - Dealing With Schizophrenia." Nature vs. Nurture. Web. 08 Apr 2010.

Whitehead, N.E. "The Importance of Twin Studies." National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Web. 08 Apr 2010.

The survey I conducted on twins yielded some very interesting results. My survey contained responses from sixteen individuals, the survey was open to anyone who had close contact with a set of twins. The surprising thing was that most individuals who took the survey knew relatively little about the twins that were present in their lives. If I were to analyze the results for this survey I would have to disregard all responses from individuals who were not the parents of the twins regarded in this survey due to the lack of substantial knowledge on the twins. A third of the participants were indeed a parent of twins. What I found most surprising when looking at the data I had collected was half of the parents who claimed to have a set of identical twins did not know what type of identical twins they were. After contemplating this discrepancy there are a few conclusions I have arrived at: The parent in question was a father, in which the type if identical twins he fathered would not be necessary information since he was not the one carrying the fetuses; the twins were born before medical equipment was discovered that could tell the way in which a mother was carrying identicals (although this was not the case in the survey all identicals were under the age of eight); lastly, it was never medically defined as to what type of twins the set in question really were which could cause the data to be misleading if they were in fact not identical but fraternal twins that happened to look very much alike. The parents were the only group that could tell me whether the twins were co-bedded, which I asked to determine the extent to which the twins were kept together after birth, possibly showing another reason for a close bond shared after birth. I wanted to look to whether identical twins were closer than fraternal twins. Throughout the questions and stories offered in this survey it seemed to show that identical twins do indeed have a stronger type of bond than fraternal twins. More would need to be done since this was such a small sample and it was voluntary participation. If I could do it again I would include more open ended questions as well as make stricter stipulations as to who is eligible to take the survey. Overall I found the results very interesting.

Interview

Children’s Hospital of Michigan employs some of the most renounced pediatric nurses in our area. When faced with this interview for my research topic of twin studies I could not think of a better person to turn to than my co-worker and second cousin, Cathy Suda. Cathy has worked in the medical field for over twenty years. She is a licensed registered nurse and has worked in a variety of different settings from hospice care to pediatric care; she now embraces the title of Nursing Administrator, overseeing a vast majority of Children’s Hospital.
I started off the interview by asking whether she thought twin studies were a good investment and why. “From a medical standpoint the results that come from twin studies are very important they allow us as medical professionals to know the best way to treat our patients by looking through their family medical history. Generally a patient’s family history is only a starting point for a nurse or doctor, yet these results let us know which aspects of the history are likely to present within our own patient. This way we can weed through what is relevant and what is not” said Cathy.
Once I had established her own opinion on whether twin studies were worth the amount of time and effort that they have been receiving recently I moved to her own personal experiences with twins. I choose to do this in order to put a story with each of the topics I was trying to cover in order to give a good overview of these studies. Information pertaining to particular studies could be researched later.
My next question was what her experiences with twins had looked like. She stated that she has had both personal as well as profession experiences with sets of twins. She has encountered both identical and fraternal sets of twins within the realm of her career but her most extensive experience with a single set of twins was with a set of identicals. A statement that she had made following this answer was one that shocked me, she stated “Too many the type of twins that a set is an insignificant detail. A set of twins is a set of twins. Yet if you know anything about twins aside from the fact that they were born at the same time, this is a huge deal.” I could not have said it better myself. We talked for awhile about the different types of twins there are (mono/mono, mono/di, and di/di) and how different the different sets are from one another.
I asked specifically for stories of her different experiences. This way I could use her stories along with my knowledge of the academic side of twin studies to paint a clear picture in my reader’s minds. Her professional story was one that I personally would have expected to make the news or have been part of a novel with a medical plot. Due to HIPPA laws which maintain doctor patient confidentiality all names had to be let out as well as some details. Cathy had been stationed in the emergency department one morning upon arriving to work a twelve hour shift. There was a very young mother who had given birth to a set of twins at home. “From what I understood she had not wanted anyone to know she was pregnant, she was going to give the babies up after birth, so he had not taken herself into the hospital she thought she could do this on her own” Cathy said this with the tone a mother uses when telling her child that they should have known better than to do something that had just occurred. The babies were brought directly into our trauma room in the emergency department. They were stabilized and moved up to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). They had to be hooked up to numerous machines to keep them alive. Cathy ended up working twenty hours that day being assigned the twins’ nurse for the day, but it wasn’t only that that had kept her there. The twins’ had been in the NICU only a few hours before the younger twin coded, it was a code blue the newborn had gone into repertory failure. The nurses rushed to the newborns side and by the time they had reached one child the other was coding too. This had happened twice while the twins were staying at the hospital. Every time something happened to one of them it was only a matter of seconds before the other one was shows the exact same symptoms. Cathy seemed still in a bit of confusion as to how it all happened “I know that they were identical but it really makes you wonder about whether there really is a “twin connection” maybe I should go ask a twin” she said laughing.
She seemed so anxious to get the personal part of the interview and I already knew where it was headed. As I asked her about her personal experiences with twins she said that she was extremely lucky to have two god-granddaughters that were identical twins, she was in fact talking about my own daughters. It took a lot of effort to keep her on track at this point which was why I saved if for the end of our interview. My daughters are identical twins they are what is considered mono/di twins. Much of what she eluded to was how much she had expected them to be exactly the same, yet they are far from it. “I almost fainted the day you told me they were going to be twins I was so excited I couldn’t wait for them to get here. You always said that even in your belly they had different personalities and when they were born they looked so alike I couldn’t believe that they could act different because they were just so alike. Yet as they got older and grew into their personalities a little bit more they made it easier for me to tell them apart. Maddy is just like you, and well I hate to say it but Jess is a spinning image of Nick. Yet when you really think about it they are both very outgoing, talkative, and charismatic. I bet if you could give a toddler a personality test they would probably match up very closely. Yet to me their personalities’ seem like day and night.”
To end the interview my final question to her was, if she was able to set up a twin study that was fully funded that would its objective be? She stated that she would love to know more about twins both identical and fraternal that were raised apart in order to find out exactly what our DNA has planned out for us and what we can influence for ourselves.

Interview Photographs

This picture was not taken during the interview. However, to get the feel of the interview as well as the setting for my paper this picture is crucial. This is a picture of Children's Hospital of Michigan (CHM) which is part of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). This location participates in a large number of twin studies leading to new medical breakthroughs. This is also the location in which my interviewee as well as myself are employed.









I was not able to take pictures at CHM is is against employee policy as well as violating the patients rights. In order to compensate I choose to use pictures that added a visual to the information provided by my interviewee, Cathy. Twin studies are used most often to determine whether something specific, such as a medical condition or a personality trait, is caused by a genetic factor to an environmental factor. Twins are key in this study, fraternal as well as identical twins are used as participants. Identical twins carry the same DNA while fraternal twins share only 50% of their DNA (the same amount as any other siblings) this allows researchers to determine the cause of their research topic. This picture was taken in February 2009 when my twins were only 6 weeks old. They are identical twin girls, Jessica Lynn (left) and Madeline Grace (right).









Throughout the interview The March of Dimes was brought up often. They are on organization devoted to ensuring that every baby is born healthy. More sets of multiples are touched by this organization than are not. Due to the high rate of premature birth associated with multiple births many of these newborns are born with medical problems. The March of Dimes is a contributor to research such as the twin studies that offers hope to new medical breakthroughs that would offer improved medical care to those newborns that are in need of it.







This picture is of a genetic test given to my twins showing that their genetic makeup is in fact identical. During the interview Cathy had mentioned how when we found out that i was carrying mono/di twins (a type of identical twins) she was excited to see how much they truly were identical since in the medical field she was not able to remain with one set of twins for any extended amount of time, she was only able to see them through their medical treatment. She made a point of saying that when the DNA results came back, even though we had known they were identical from the beginning, there was a sort of awe from actually seeing it confirmed on paper.







Lastly this picture is a picture of a reoccuring theme in our interview. Throughout the interview although we did talk about frathernal twins we leaded heavily on the impact of identical twins. I had asked Cathy if she was able to place one visual with our interview that summed up what she knew about twins it was this. She said, "go home and take a picture of all of the girls stuff!" She went on to explain that when you walk into our house there are two of everything, yet evertything is slighly different, and it sums up the girl perfectly. They are identical, they have the same DNA and they look perfectly identical, yet when you get to know them their personailtys are slighly different.

Reading Response #2 - "And Yet"

1) Marx and Engels wrote: "Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat" (10). If only that were true, things might be more simple. But in late twentieth-century America, it seems that society is slitting more and more into a plethora of class factions - the working class, the working poor, lower-middle class, upper-middle class, lower uppers, and upper uppers. I find myself not knowing what class I'm from.
In my days as a newspaper reporter, I once asked a sociology professor what he thought about the reported shrinking of the middle class. Oh, it's not the middle class that's disappearing, he said, but the working class. His definition: if you earn thirty thousand dollars a year working in an assembly plant, come home from work open a beer and watch the game, you are working class; if you earn twenty thousand dollars a year as a school teacher, come home from work to a glass of white wine and PBS, you are middle class.
How do we define class? Is it an issue of values, lifestyle, taste? Is it the kind of work you do, your relationship to the means of production? Is it a matter of how much money you earn? Are we allowed to choose? In this land of supposed classlessness, where we don't have the tradition of English society to keep us in our places, how do we know where we really belong? The average American will tell you he or she is "middle class." I'm sure that's what my father would tell you. But i always felt that we were in some no man's land, suspended between classes, sharing similarities with some and recognizing sharp, exclusionary differences from others. What class do I come from? What class am I in now? As an historian, I seek the answers to these questions in the specificity of my past.

Julie Charlip, "A Real Class Act: Searching for Identity in the Classless Society"

Italicized phrases are showing ideas which are possessed by the author
Bold phrases are showing ideas possessed by others



2)
a) In my letter to a Michigan Representative in Congress I used two perspectives, that which is believed by the general public and mine own.
b) In order to make my piece more persuasive it would have been wise to include a perspective from an individual that has a expertise in the subject of the letter, such as a sociology professor from a well renounced university.
c) I was able to clearly distinguish my views by using clear transitions. It was also helpful that for this particular piece the views were opposing with no overlap.
d) I was able to use clear voice-signaling phrases.
e) Some options I have for clarifying whose view is being presented would be to clearly define by name whose spoken view is is being presented instead of relying on the phrase "the public".
f) I believe that to best improve this piece at least one expert view of the subject needs to be added as well as a new way of phrasing "the public".

"They Say"
Exercise

1.)
a.) When I was a child, I used to think that our cities drinking water was safe to ingest. Today, experiments suggest that there are dangerous levels of chemical X in the Ohio groundwater.
b.) At the same time that I believe that love makes the world go around, I also now know that material forces drive history.
c.) Throughout my education in the field of psychology i have come to believe that Freud was a brilliant man, yet proponents of Freudian psychology question standard notions of "rationality".
d.) You would think that class discussions are run in a gender neutral manner, it has been shown that males tend to dominate class discussions.
e.) The film is about romantic relationships; the theme I discovered was that inner strength is all you need to move on from the tough decisions of life.
f.) I'm afraid the templates in this book will stifle my creativity, yet they create only a building block for me to advance from.

2.) If ever there was an idea custom-made for a Jay Leno monologue, this was it: the thought that men dominate class discussions. Isn't that like saying men are dominating the world? Whatever happened to taking turns? I used to believe this was an elementary skill, though now I'm starting to think those teaching our elementary school students should take some more curriculum time to teach this needed skill.
I happen to sympathize with the men only because they are unaware of how they are acting in public. Just because they tend to be louder and have strongly set opinions doesn't mean that they are correct or based on fact, though, perhaps because men are losing ground at such a fast pace in areas of life women were once absent from they feel the need to try and make up for it in this manner.

I was astonished at the feelings i possessed when asked to take a screen shot of my computer and reflect upon it; never before had i felt like just another person. My words could be any body's words, they possessed no voice. My name being added to my work meant nothing; it could have read any one's name and the person reading it would have felt the same way about the piece no matter who has published it. When i personally take the time to place my thoughts and ideas in to a text for others to see I want those reading it to know that what they are reading has come from me. This is a very important aspect of our society, mainly in an academic environment, taking credit only for ones own work. This is why we have such strict plagiarizing laws being enforced.

I believe digital space is best utilized when the composition being publicized is of factual matter. There is no voice to be lost when the subject matter contains no personal views or opinions. The use of digital space has made it possible for individuals on opposite sides of our globe to interact instantaneously. This way of communication will never take the place of face-to-face interaction, which is being pushed aside with ever technological advance we make. While electronic interaction is necessary for some situations i believe that we should, whenever possible, go back to the old fashioned face-to-face interactions where the voice in communication is never lost.