Below are some sample PsychLogs, all posted with permission of the students who wrote them.   

Sample PsychLog - PSY100

        Last year in my psychology class, our teacher
conducted an experiment with us concerning obedience.  She
split the room into two groups. One group became the
teachers and one group became the students.  She handed out
an explanation on what the teachers were to do and a set of
activities that the students were going to do.  I, as a
teacher, was not told to boss the students around or
implement any kind of punishment.  All we were ordered to do
was for us to “teach” them some science-related items that
we were given instructions for.  Throughout the experiment
though, the teachers sometimes implemented absolutely silly
punishments to their students.  One example is when
a “student” talked without raising her hand: the teacher
made the student put tape on her mouth.  This example of
unusual punishment was very evident through the power of the
teachers and the submission of the students.  
        In the book titled Psychology by Carole Wade and
Carol Tavris, Zimbardo’s prison study was discussed.  Young
men volunteered to be in this study and were assigned either
prisoners or guards.  They were given no behavioral
instructions.  The roles that these people played were
dramatic though.  The guards quickly became the dominant
powerful type, some following the rules while others became
more like tyrants.  For example, one guard tried unusual
cruel punishment by putting a prisoner in solitary
confinement. They may have been following blind obedience. 
That is when people obey whatever they are told no matter if
it is wrong or right, even if they don’t know why.  This
concept stemmed from the Holocaust where the German guards
were killing Jewish people and others of different
ethnicities even if they thought it was wrong, which was the
case.  In the case of Zimbardo’s study the prisoners played
their role accurate just like the guards.  They became very
submissive, often becoming panicky and scared by the actions
of the guards. 
        The study was not clear-cut research; it did not
have empirical evidence with facts and statistics and “the
researchers did not investigate relationships between
factors”(Tavris/Wade 273).  The two designers of the prison
study said that it showed the power of roles, even in a
fictitious set-up.  This study can show that no matter what
a person’s character may be, they may respond to an
uncomfortable situation by putting their personality traits
and private values aside.  The obedience shown in this study
is not always bad.  If there were no obedience according to
the book, the world would be a crazy place.  Most people
follow orders because of fear of the consequences, but they
try to justify with many things.  One way they justify it is
when participants just simply believe they should do
something because authority told them to do it.  The
prisoners did something because the guards told them to do
it.  Another way they justify their actions is because of
the routine of the task.  It is routine for guards to order
around prisoners so it is nothing new to them. The prisoners
and guards also want to be polite to the designers of the
study so they try to obey.  Lastly, people felt like they
were becoming entrapped.  They already committed to doing
something small, so now they feel as though they need to
keep making steps toward something greater to justify their
investment. 
        When you look at the study that I did in my
psychology class with the teachers and the students it
directly relates to Zimbardo’s prison study. The teachers
can be related to the powerful guards, while the students
can be related to the submissive prisoners.  The teachers,
like the guards, were given no real instructions but they
still played their role of the ones in charge.  The
students, like the prisoners, were not told to take
punishment and be submissive, but they followed the typical
role of society.  They followed these things because the
authority figure of the guards and teachers told them to do
certain things. 
        In my reaction to this study, along with my study in
high school, I think this is such a weird phenomenon.  I
believe that if I was in the guard role, just like I was in
the teacher role, I would like to become dominant because I
am a person who likes power.  The thing that really
surprises me is the more quiet submissive people were
playing the role of the teacher with much power. Many of my
friends who were very shy and quiet in class soon became
loud and ordered the students around.  This seems very weird
to me, but I am sure it also happened in Zimbardo’s study. 
I believe this study with the teacher/student and the
guard/prisoner cases, shows a lot about people.  This shows
that no matter what a person is like, we take into
consideration the roles that we hold in society and act
according. 

Sample PsychLog - Psy250

            I chose to write this PsychLog on delirium because, during a very difficult time in my family’s life, my grandma was extremely delirious.  To make a long story short, my 65 year-old grandmother was diagnosed with bronchitis and given Zithromax (Z-pack) for this condition.  However, without a warning from the doctor who prescribed it, the medication attacked her liver and she was flown by helicopter to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor for a liver transplant.  After this took place, the trauma of the surgery and the medications she was on caused her to be delirious.  In her hospital room, there was a poster of two dolphins jumping out of the water; my grandma made us take it down because she didn’t like it and because she wanted to “pack up”.  She kept telling my sisters and I to pack our suitcases because we were going to be leaving.  She was also somewhat paranoid, because she thought that my sisters and I would be hurt if we were left alone (we were 18, 16, and 12 at the time) and that Saddam Hussein was coming after our family.  Much of this occurred to her in dreams she had, especially the thoughts about Saddam Hussein.

            Delirium can occur in a number of instances, and it does not only occur in the elderly population, although it is more common in this age group as well as in young children.   While this state of mind is more common among the elderly, it becomes even more frequent after an elderly individual has major surgery, especially after hip or heart surgery.  According to the textbook, the criteria for delirium include a change in consciousness, evidence of a medical condition which is causing the delirium, fluctuation of the delirium within hours or days, and a change in the mental state and cognitive awareness of the individual which is not attributable to dementia. People with delirium often undergo great fluctuations in mood and if the condition worsens, fever, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and incontinence may occur, among other things.  Delirious individuals are in a different state of consciousness and may mistake the unfamiliar situation they are in for a familiar one, such as my grandmother believing that in packing up the dolphin poster on the wall, we would be going home. Although delusions and hallucinations need not be present for a diagnosis of delirium, these symptoms may occur as well.  Delirium can be a very serious condition because of the exhaustion the body goes through in addition to the severity of the medical condition which caused the delirium in the first place.  This condition is also considered serious because older patients in the hospital have an increased risk of death within the next three years and the mortality rate for people with delirium is quite high. However, delirium is frequently misdiagnosed, especially in older individuals, because of the common stereotypes held by others toward elderly people and because of the more common diagnosis of dementia.

            The etiology of dementia among the elderly population remains focused on a number of causes, such as the stress in the person’s life, drug use/withdrawal, illness, metabolic diseases, nutritional deficiencies, neurological disorders, or trauma such as surgery, concussion, or other severe injury.  These types of infections, disorders and trauma may include treatment such as medication that can cloud one’s sense of consciousness or may be side effects of more serious diseases, such as cerebrovascular disease, congestive heart failure, cancer, kidney/liver failure, urinary tract infection, and pneumonia.  Delirium, then, may be more common among the elderly because these individuals are more susceptible to these types of diseases and illnesses, which also means that they use more medications.  Some other things that make the elderly more susceptible to delirium include the fact that they are more vulnerable to the side effects of medications in their older age, and that the presence of dementia may make them more likely to have delirium as well because of possible brain damage.

            Since medications can complicate the symptoms of delirium, it is fortunate that most cases of delirium can be treated by treating the underlying medical condition.  However, if this condition is not treated and the delirium continues, permanent brain damage can occur.  This is important, especially in the situation of elderly individuals, because although delirium normally takes one to four weeks to treat, it takes longer in older people.  One other type of treatment in delirium is the education of the family.  This is important because the family can make sure that the individual is well-fed, hydrated, cared for, and know the differences between delirium and dementia.

            Luckily, my grandmother came out of her delirium a few days after her surgery and was able to return home two weeks later.  Although it was sometimes difficult not to smile or laugh at some of the things my grandmother said while delirious (I have to be honest), we were still extremely worried about her and tried looking at the bright side of things.  My grandmother met all of the criteria required for the diagnosis of delirium; she was in a cloudy, disturbed state of consciousness, she had perceptual disturbances in believing that Saddam Hussein was chasing our family, her condition fluctuated throughout the day, and her delirious condition was caused by a combination of major surgery and heavy medication. In treating my grandmother’s condition after surgery, making sure her new liver was functioning well, and treating her for the diabetes she developed while in the hospital, her delirium cleared up within four to five days. Unfortunately, however, the day after returning home, she suffered a major heart attack and passed away.  Remembering some of the “silly” things my grandmother said while delirious have given me some wonderful memories of her last days of life, because at the end of her delirium, she knew who everybody was and true to her character, actually tried to make us laugh.

            This section of the textbook was extremely interesting to me because I had never really heard of delirium before as an actual diagnosis.  I always thought of delirium as a toddler with a fever, and did not realize that my grandma was delirious during her condition until reading about it in the textbook and discussing it in class.  I am glad I was able to learn about this subject and apply it to my life, and I now realize that delirium is usually a combination of different things, as it was in my grandma’s liver transplant and medications.  Lastly, I feel that it was important that I learned this information because as a physical therapist, I will be working with many elderly individuals, and knowing the stereotypes and different conditions of the elderly will help me better myself as a professional in the health field.

Sample PsychLog - Psy250

            When I was in fourth grade, my paternal grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. The cancer had progressed significantly by the time it was detected, and his immune system was already weak from old age. No longer able to walk, he was confined to either a bed or a wheelchair, and my grandmother hired an in-home nurse to care for him. However, his condition only seemed to worsen by the hour. Every time we visited him, something more was wrong, another system was near failure, and he was scheduled for another bout of invasive procedures.

            When the chemotherapy seemed to stop working, my grandpa underwent surgery to have one of his lungs removed. I visited him in the hospital post-surgery, and as a young child, I was frightened by what I saw. He seemed to be completely unaware of his environment. When my dad entered the room to see him, he informed him that he had fixed him a Thanksgiving dinner and that it was waiting in the kitchen; he was unaware of the fact that he was in a hospital, he was immobile, and it was the middle of July. We tried to remind him that he was in the hospital, that he had just had surgery but that soon, he would be okay. He had trouble listening to us; his ability to concentrate was clearly disturbed. We didn’t know how to respond, especially since we had seen him days before and he had been completely coherent (or as coherent and together as a cancer patient can be). We called the nurse into the room in hopes of getting some answers. The nurse informed us that, as a result of the cancer and surgery, my grandpa had been diagnosed with delirium. We were assured, however, that the symptoms were, in fact, reversible.

            Delirium is a DSM disorder that can appear at any age, but is especially common in very young and very old individuals. In fact, 15 to 20 percent of hospital patients may experience full-blown delirium at one point during a period of hospitalization. In order to be diagnosed with delirium, disturbances in consciousness and cognition must be observed. In addition, symptoms must develop rapidly (within a few hours or days), and the individual must frequently fluctuate between delirious and coherent states. Also, there must be a known medical condition causing such disturbances.

In delirium, individuals become disoriented and unaware of their environment; they may forget the time of day, where they are, and even who they are. Speech may become incoherent, and paying attention for extended periods of time may be nearly impossible. Thus, it may be difficult to engage in meaning conversations with delirious individuals. These effects are sometimes amplified by minor to severe short-term memory loss. Sleep cycles are severely disturbed; individuals toss and turn at night and are unable to stay awake during the day. As a result, nightmares are common and symptoms generally worsen in dark rooms during the nighttime. Delusions and hallucinations are common, but not necessary for diagnosis. These perceptual disturbances, however, are generally short-lived.

            Delirious individuals are also prone to rapid physical and emotional changes. They may switch from anger, to depression, to elation within minutes. The may seem excessively emotional at some times, while calm at others. These fluctuations in affect may also occur in response to perceptual disturbances. Indeed, if someone is hallucinating at nighttime or unaware of their surroundings, they may be prone to outbursts of anger and confusion. Memory loss may have the same effect. They also may experience several somatic disturbances, many of which parallel symptoms of anxiety. For instance, they may experience tremors, an increased heartbeat, and a flushed face.

            Although delirium is a serious health problem, it is often unrecognized or misdiagnosed by unknowledgeable physicians. The cognitive distortions and faulty memory seen in delirious individuals are often misperceived as symptoms of dementia. Thus, physicians must become more aware of the differences that exist between dementia and delirium. For instance, the onset of delirium is much more rapid than that of dementia; while delirium can appear within hours, dementia takes years to fully develop. Most importantly, dementia is more permanent while delirium is largely reversible. This has huge implications when delirium is misdiagnosed as dementia, for physicians often recommend institutional care in the face of what seems to be a life-long debilitating illness. It’s also important that physicians accurately recognize the symptoms of delirium, for the mortality rate for those delirious individuals who go untreated is high; in fact, it is substantially higher than the mortality rate for dementia.

            Several general causes of delirium have been proposed throughout the years.  As older individuals are more sensitive to the chemistry of medications than younger adults,  mistakes in prescriptions (too high or too low of a dose), as well as withdrawal symptoms can lead to delirium. Nutritional deficits or imbalances can also lead to delirious symptoms, and thus it is important that older individuals maintain a healthy diet. Illnesses such as the common fever, pneumonia, cancer, kidney failure, or a urinary tract infection can adversely effect cognition, as can major surgery or severe stress in one’s life. Of course, as delirium is a cognitive disorder, neurological disorders and severe head trauma can precede its onset. In fact, the presence of brain damage is a major cause of delirium in many individuals. Likewise, individuals suffering from dementia are incredibly susceptible to delirium, though the delirious symptoms should not be regarded as part of the dementia and should be seen as generally curable. The underlying cause of the delirium sets the stage for its progression; some illnesses can lead to a faster onset of the disorder. Older individuals are perhaps more susceptible to delirium than younger adults due to their aging bodies. Perhaps a weaker immune system also explains, in part, the higher frequency of delirium in children as well.

            As there are various causes of delirium, so too are there various treatments. Assuming that the disorder is accurately diagnosed and the medical or psychological cause is treated, symptoms can generally lift within four weeks. If not treated, however, permanent brain damage will likely result and the individual may very well die. Clinicians must be aware of the symptoms of delirium and quick to establish its underlying cause. If the cause is a fever, fever reducing medication might be prescribed. Likewise, if an unbalanced diet possibly aided in the development of delirium, a more nutritionally sound diet is implemented. To treat the symptoms of delirium more directly, doctors may prescribe anti-psychotics such as chlorpromazine to treat hallucinations and perceptual disturbances, as well as sleep medications such as chloral hydrate to help regulate the sleep cycle. For individuals who also suffer from dementia, family members must be taught to distinguish between the symptoms of dementia and delirium so that they do not prematurely assume that behavioral changes are permanent. Again, if caught early, the symptoms of delirium can be completely reversible.

            My grandpa displayed many of the common features of delirium. His cognition and consciousness were severely impaired, as he was confused as to the day it was, the room he was in, and even his own motor abilities. When we spoke to him, he often looked away; he could not concentrate long enough for us to speak with him and was unable to focus much of his attention on anything. In addition, his memory for information was short lived; the content of our brief conversations seemed to be fleeting from his thought. The nurse informed us that he had been having trouble sleeping, which is a common symptom of delirium. He also was having perceptual disturbances, as he mistook the hospital room for his very own home. In addition, the onset of his delirium was rapid, for we had seen him just days ago as a sick, yet completely coherent individual.

            There was no doubt that the delirium was a result of both the cancer and the surgery. In addition, the medical procedures and failing health had caused significant stress for my grandpa, which also could have caused or aided in the progression of the disorder. His body might have also been too weak to fight off any signs of infection, as his immune system had been severely jeopardized by the rapidly spreading cancer. As I recall, he was being given sleep medication every night, and we were informed that the symptoms would reverse themselves within the next few weeks. It is quite possible that he was also given an anti-psychotic, though, at nine years old, I’m sure my attention to such details was limited. As the nurses predicted, within the next month, my grandpa’s delirium lifted; his cancer, however, did not, and he passed within that year.

            It has been interesting to look back in retrospect at my grandfather’s incident and align it with the information I have gained about delirium. I had forgotten that my grandpa has struggled with this particular disorder until I began reading the symptoms, at which time the memories of that particular hospital visit began to more clearly make sense. His random, seemingly “crazy” remarks in the hospital room frightened me at that time. Though I have thought little about it since then, it’s amazing to go back and put a diagnosis to behavior that, at the time, seemed insane. It’s also been important to learn the distinction between delirium and dementia. So often, our society assumes that delirious symptoms are a sign of impending doom and permanent neurological malfunctions. I must admit that, having forgotten about my visit with my grandfather, that I too held these misguided beliefs. If I had seen someone who exhibited symptoms of delirium, I am fairly certain that I would have misperceived them as an Alzheimer’s patient. It is now clear, however, the neurological disorders have a range of symptoms, many of which overlap but do not allude to an identical diagnosis. In all, this section taught me much about the delirium, the differences between brain/cognition disorders, and helped me to remember my grandpa and more fully appreciate his struggles.

Sample PsychLog- Psy250

It is common for a child to feel attached to her parents or caregivers, but when separating from that parent or caregiver becomes difficult, it needs to be addressed. Listed in DSM-IV-TR, separation anxiety disorder is the phrase used to describe this phenomenon and it is something that I was diagnosed with in the sixth grade. 

As a fifth and sixth grade student, I frequently refused to go to school. Upon arriving at school, I would get physically ill and then call home to my parents. I missed 17 days of school in a very short period, because my parents and the doctors initially assumed I was ill. I also slept with my parents or on their bedroom floor for fear of being separated from them. The doctor ran a complete battery of tests to ensure that there was not a physical explanation for my illness. Upon completion of these tests, he recommended that I see a psychologist for further analysis. The psychologist then diagnosed me with Separation Anxiety Disorder. After several appointments with her, she began coaching my parents in how to get me to sleep in my bedroom again and how to get me to stay in school. After a period of time, I was able to get through the issues, return to my own bedroom, and return to school without experiencing any physical symptoms.

Separation Anxiety Disorder is a condition that can affect people of all ages, but according to DSM-IV-TR, must be evident before the age of eighteen. It must last for at least 4 weeks, and must also cause harm to the child in at least one part of their life. The final requirement is that the issues are not part of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, panic disorder, or any other mental disorder.

 Finally, the DSM provides a list of eight separate characteristics and requires three of them for a diagnosis. I demonstrated the first one, “recurrent excessive distress when separation from home or major attachment figures occurs or is anticipated,” in the form of crying and just general emotional discomfort whenever I would be away from my parents, but most of this issue is actually more specific issues that are characterized in other pieces of the disorder.

“Persistent reluctance or refusal to go to school or elsewhere because of fear of separation,” was one of the most obvious issues. In the first few days of sixth grade, I attended so little school that teachers and counselors were noticing.

“Persistent reluctance or refusal to go to sleep without being near a major attachment figure or to sleep away from home,” was evident in my need to sleep near my parents. It is abnormal for a 12-year-old to insist on sleeping with her parents because she is afraid they will leave.

Next, “repeated complaints of physical symptoms (such as headaches, stomachaches, nausea, or vomiting) when separation from major attachment figures occurs or is anticipated,” was one of the most crippling symptoms. Upon separation, whether at night or school, I would begin vomiting. I believe this can be explained through unwanted operant conditioning. I discovered that physically getting sick allowed me to leave school and return home. So, it acted as a reinforcer to my getting sick, and although probably the result of an actual illness, my body discovered that it got me what I wanted. My parents unknowingly granted me the reinforcer.

Finally, “persistently and excessively fearful or reluctant to be alone or without major attachment figures at home or without significant adults in other settings,” was part of my diagnosis. At a time when most kids my age were begging to stay home alone, I would not do it, and there was a very short list of adults I would stay with, all of whom were close family.

 There are three specific criteria that I cannot be sure if I experienced; “persistent and excessive worry about losing, or about possible harm befalling, and major attachment figures, persistent and excessive worry that an untoward event will lead to separation from a major attachment figure (e.g., getting lost or being kidnapped) and repeated nightmares involving the theme of separation.” It would not surprise me if I did experience these things, but I do not remember the time in my life well enough to know if this was actually the case. Most specifically, I remember being physically ill and uncomfortable, but I do not remember the cause of my worrying or if the nightmares existed. Because I met enough of the other symptoms, I could be diagnosed without these things.

The etiology of separation anxiety is very similar to that of most other anxiety disorders. One of the main biological aspects is the general vulnerability factor, or the idea that all people are prone to some degree of anxiety, suggests that I may be on the high end. I would suspect that my mother is on the high end of anxiety levels, so it is very likely this is inherited. `Although some disorders are finding changes in there neuroanatomy, there are no specifics on separation anxiety in children to relate to my issues, but it is hypothesized that anxiety disorders are caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Behavioral inhibition can explain some childhood anxiety disorders because it is an issue that causes children to not participate in the society around them. I do not believe this was my problem, because I have never had a problem participating in the people and things around me.

The psychologist I saw used a behavioral and cognitive treatment called exposure to treat my condition. Because someone has been exposed to his fear, they can then overcome it. Specially, in my situation, in vivo exposure was used. She simply insisted that I do the things I was fighting. My parents left me in my bedroom and left me the necessities to care for myself should I get sick. They then ignored me for the night. They then did this for a period of nights until I was able to sleep alone. They also worked with a school counselor and arranged for me to go to his office when I felt I was about to get ill. I would then stay there until I could return to class, instead of going to the office where they would allow me to call home.  This is in vivo exposure because they forced me to face my specific fear and problems. Leaving me in school or in my own room showed me that it would not seriously harm me in any way, and as much as I could be told this, I need the in vivo exposure to show me this. It is also possible to use imaginal exposure. In this situation the person simply imagines that the event or situation is occurring. This is most useful when it is a fear rooted in the past, such as in the case of a rape victim. Finally, relaxation techniques can be taught to help the patient deal with their anxieties.

There are other possible treatments. A psychoanalytic perspective could be taken, and a psychologist could try to talk to the patient to try to understand what the base of the problem at hand is. They spend a large number of sessions trying to uncover the roots of the issue at hand. This can be effective, but it takes a long period of time. There are also biological ways to treat conditions such as separation anxiety disorder, such as medication. Although anti panic medication can be given to anxiety patients, it has been found that anti depressants actually help to treat the base of the problem. Anxiety medications simply treat the panic in the moment. There are also psychosurgeries that can do away with some anxiety disorders, specifically obsessive compulsive disorder. Cognitive and behavioral theories often have the best long term success, but medication has also proven to be very useful.

I selected this topic because it was a trying time in my life and it is comforting to know that something I felt alone in is actually a legitimate psychological condition. It is also interesting to reflect on something that happened many years ago and look at it from a different perspective. At the time, I was young and scared. I can now examine the symptoms more objectively and consider the effect this could have on my life. Although this was not a positive time in my life, I feel as if it is what is driving me to be a psychologist because of my experiences, both positive and negative, at that time.

This knowledge is also important, because it is speculated by psychologists that there are connections between separation anxiety disorder and other panic and anxiety disorders. If a connection is found, it would then be easier to focus on prevention of later psychological conditions of people who experienced separation anxiety as young children. By better understanding this topic I may be able to help myself in the future.

Sample Psychlog - Psy100

On July 12^th, 19xx Gary and Susan N. were blessed with fraternal twin daughters named Rebecca and Rachael. Rebecca was born with bright red hair, while Rachael was born with her mother’s dishwater blonde hair. Both Rachael and Rebecca were raised in a small rural town just an hour south west of Pt. Huron called xx. Their parents made the decision that, although they were twins, Rachael and Rebecca would be encouraged to pursue their own interests instead of conforming to the twin stereotype. As time progressed both Rachael and Rebecca took a common interest in soccer. They played AYSO soccer for many years, and were always on the same team, by their mother’s request. Rachael began piano lessons in fifth grade, and Rebecca began learning trombone in sixth grade, so music was also a common interest among the twins.  As the girls entered middle school, their personalities began to take on unique characteristics. In school, Rebecca was a shy, studious, observant student while Rachael was an active, outgoing student leader. However, at home the roles were reversed, Rebecca became the dominant twin and Rachael became studious and reserved. Rachael and Rebecca were born with the same eye color and have also developed similar body types. However, Rachael and Becky do not share the same hair color. The ultimate question scientists are asking is whether their similar interests, personality traits, and body types are due to their genes or a combination of factors.

Heritability is defined as an estimate of the “proportion of the total variance in a trait that is attributable to genetic variation within a group (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.87).”  For example, physical traits such as eye color among a group of healthy adults are highly heritable because the variance in color is due to the genetic code that person has inherited from their biological parents. On the other hand, someone’s etiquette or social behavior may be contributed solely to the environment in which they were raised. Perhaps that person was abused as a child and thus avoids physical contact. The harmful environment that that child was exposed to is what caused their fear of physical contact, not their genetics. Therefore etiquette and social behavior have a low heritability rate. Heritability is an inconsistent statistic that applies to a specific group of people living in a specific environment (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.87). If a group of people all live in the same type of environment, in terms of receiving proper nourishment, education and family support, then the differences in intelligence measured among those people will be mainly due to genetics because the environment is held constant for everyone. Also, heritability statistics can not be applied to individual people because each person has their own unique genetic code and life experiences that contribute to their personal traits. Excelling in one subject doesn’t necessarily mean that you were genetically predestined to excel in that subject. It may just be the result of inspiration from your past. Additionally, even highly heritable traits can be affected by an unfavorable environment. For example, children in Africa that are starving for food may never grow up to be full bodied adults because although genetically they may be capable of achieving an average height, their environment prevents them from receiving the proper nutrition to do so.

In order to study heritability, it is surprisingly inaccurate to use biological relatives within families. Although biological parents contribute to the genetic makeup of a child, not all of that child’s traits can be attributed to genetics because many members of that immediate family often share a home environment which may also contribute to that child’s personality traits. For instance, a child in a family of people who like to eat lots of sweets will most likely develop a taste for sweets, but that cannot be contributed directly to their inherent genetics because the sweets were made available by people in his or her environment. Therefore, a better approach is the study of adopted children (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). The adopted child has one set of genes from their biological parents, yet they’re raised by two adoptive parents who contribute to their environment (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). The correlation between the traits the child exhibits compared to their biological and adoptive relatives help produce an estimate of heritability as the result of genetics or environment (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). Alternately, the third approach of comparing identical and fraternal twins also proves sufficient. The difference between fraternal and identical twins is that identical twins develop from one fertilized egg (monozygotic), while fraternal twins develop from two separately fertilized eggs (dizygotic) (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). The identical twins are born with an identical genetic code, and conversely the fraternal twins are no more similar then any other siblings in that family (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). Often in research, groups of same sex fraternal twins are compared to groups of identical twins. The assumed theory is that identical twins will respond similarly because they share a genetic code. To combat this assumption, identical twins that have been separated in infancy and raised separately are used in most heritability studies. When the twins are separated at an early age, any similarities in the traits of the identical twins may be contributed to heritability because their environments are different, so any commonalities are probably due to genetic heritability (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p. 90). 

Rebecca and Rachael are fraternal twins, and consequently should not be any more similar then any other siblings, yet it is not clear whether their similar personality traits and interests can be attributed to their genetic predispositions or the environment in which they exist. Is it the result of genetics that both twins enjoy soccer and music? In this scenario, heritability is harder to determine because the twins live in the same home and share an environment. They may both be genetically inclined to excel at both music and soccer. However, those skills may have been developed through practice and inspiration in their environment as well. Ideally, to test the heritability of this situation, Rachael and Rebecca should have been separated at birth as in the previously mentioned study with same sex identical twins to determine which character traits were inherited. Any distinct similarities in personality would most likely be the result of genetics if they were raised separately. Yet there is no scientifically accurate method for determining whether a person’s interests are the result of genetics or environmental cues. In the reality of this situation, heritability cannot be applied effectively because Rachael, Rebecca and their family all live in the same environment that promotes or discourages the same things, and because of the fact that heritability can not be applied to individuals.

More samples to come, if students continue to give me permission to post them....

 

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