ENVIRONMENT GENETIC

 Shared environmental factors  Parents who transmit a gene to a

which are common to children child like being musically gifted will
reared together and cause most likely have parents who not
similarities in their behaviour only are also musically talented, but
also provide an environment that
 Non-shared environmental helps to promote the musical ability.
factors which are factors such
as school, different social  Children who have musical ability
activities will most likely be selected by a
teacher for a special event. This
 The different interactions that gives that child a better chance then
the children have with their somebody who might not possess
parents the genetic talent, but might be able
to provide the same work. But
because of the known ability from
the one child, they are given special
opportunities.

 Musically gifted children might seek

out friend who also have a musical
NAZRIN SHAH ANNUAR PISMP TESL 2009 talent, CHILDagain
once DEVELOPMENT
giving NOTE
them
different environmental influences.
HOW ENVIRONMENT AND GENETIC AFFECT TWINS

THE INFLUENCE OF GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENT ON TWINS

TYPES OF
TWINS

MONOZYGOTIC DIZYGOTIC

(MZ) (DZ)
THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT AND GENETIC ON TWINS
 ENVIRONMENT GENETIC
People differ from one another because IQ scores have been at the center of the
of the complex interaction between their nature versus nurture debate.
genetic endowment and their
environment. A study by Shields on 37 pairs of twins that
were separated at an early age and
Identical twins growing up together not compared the IQ scores among the sets of
only will have the same genes but also twins.
the same, or close to the same
environment as one another He concluded that, “Intrapair IQ
correlations for MZ twins reared together
The environment a child or a set of twins and those reared apart were similar.
is surrounded in affects the person they However, DZ twins reared together had
are and will become. considerably lower IQ correlations than
either of the monozygotic groups” (Ainslie
Farber argued, “The interaction between 4).
twins leads to differences between the
pair. Individuality is crucial to the healthy Shield’s studies proved that even identical
intrapsychic functioning of twins. Thus twins that were separated had closer IQ
twins must create “artificial differences” scores than normal siblings or fraternal
between themselves to attain a sense of twins raised together.
individuality” (Shave 88).
If the same person took an IQ test twice,
Example: on average it would show an 87%
If both of the children played baseball correlation. Identical twins reared apart
and one was better at the game, the have a 76% correlation in IQ scores while
other child may feel inferior and lose fraternal twins reared together only had a
interest or move on to another sport or 55% correlation” (Redden)
dislike sports in general
This study suggests that intelligence is
Gesell (1941) demonstrated that physical hereditable and even though the nurture
training can cause physical skills to may influence the ability to achieve a
appear sooner but that identical co-twins certain degree of intelligence, genes have
who were trained later performed the a larger effect on how smart a person is.
same after a relatively shorter period of
training. This may partly be because people are
born with certain abilities, and the nurture
Studies show that the majority of may try and force other interest or beliefs
environmental influences on behaviour on you, but your true capabilities will
act to make siblings different from each override the nurturing.
other.
Example:
Common factors, such as global family If a set of identical twins are born with the
variables, parenting style, can affect ability to excel in science, but they may
individuals differently and thus may lack the ability to fully understand math and
contribute to individual differences. no matter how much practice they undergo
they will never grasp the concept or have
Environmental differences in how enough interest to become excellent at it.
children are raised also play a significant They may receive special tutoring or
role on intelligence. Socio-economic constantly study, but the hereditary ability
status (SES) has been shown to play an largely impacts a person.
important part of development.
Identical twins share an egg so they may
One study indicated that children from a have more of a connection than fraternal
home with a low SES, upon being twins who have two separate eggs.
transferred to a home with high SES,
improved their test scores as much as 16 “Environment” begins as soon as the egg
points (Wahlsten, 1995). is fertilized, It is possible that the
environment within the womb may have a
The impact of environmental factors on decisive, and, in some instances, a more
behaviour and development is specific to decisive influence than the world into which
each child, depending on individual the neonate emerges at birth” (Farber 13).
characteristics, such as personality.
Thus, parenting is influenced by child Burlingham suggest that, “Identical twins,
characteristics as well as parental when they grow up, often fail to develop
characteristics. into two separate human beings. It remains
a matter of conjecture whether this is due
to the twinship itself, or due to the attitude
 of the mother who in their infancy could not
tell them apart…thus treating them as one
being instead of two”(Shave 16)

CORRELATION BETWEEN IDENTICAL AND FRATERNAL TWINS

In a research project conducted by the National Merit Twin study, they tested 850
sets of twins, 60% of which were identical. They concluded that, “Both Identical and
fraternal twins are considerably less similar in personality and interest than they are
in ability.

CORRELATION (%)
Identical Twins Fraternal Twins
ASPECTS
GENERAL ABILITIES 86 52
ACTIVITIES 64 49
INTEREST 53 27
PERSONALITY 50 28

(Osborne 1980).