Twin Studies

The Trouble with Twin Studies questions popular genetic explanations of human behavioral differences based upon the existing body of twin research. Psychologist Jay Joseph outlines the fallacies of twin studies in the context of the ongoing decades-long failure to discover genes for human behavioral differences, including IQ, personality, and the major psychiatric disorders. This volume critically examines twin research, with a special emphasis on reared-apart twin studies, and incorporates new and updated perspectives, analyses, arguments, and evidence.

Twin Research: Biology, Health, Epigenetics, and Psychology is a comprehensive, applied resource in twinning and twin studies that is grounded in the most impactful findings from twin research in recent years. While targeted to undergraduate and graduate students, this compendium will prove a valuable resource for scholars already familiar with twin studies, as well as those coming to the field for the first time. Here, more than forty experts across an array of disciplines examine twinning and twin research methodologies from the perspectives of biology, medicine, genetic and epigenetic influences, and neuroscience. Chapters provide clear instruction in both basic and advanced research methods, family and parenting aspects of twinning, twin studies as applied across various disease areas and medical specialties, genetic and epigenetic determinants of differentiation, and academic, neurological and cognitive development. The presentation of existing studies and methods instruction empowers students and researchers to apply twin-based research and advance new studies across a range of biomedical and behavioral fields, highlighting current research trends and future directions. Offers unique insights into twinning rates, mechanisms and factors surrounding twinship Provides clear instruction on both basic and advanced twin research methods and study design Features leading international experts in twin biology, genetics, health and psychology Examines findings from recent twin studies across a broad array of health and behavioral studies

Few would dispute the truth of the statement `People are Different', but there is much controversy over why. This book authoritatively explains the methods used to understand human variation, and extends them far beyond the primary `nature or nurture' question. After chapters on basic statistics, biometrical genetics, matrix algebra and path analysis, there is a state-of-the-art account of how to fit genetic models using the LISREL package. The authors explain not only the assumptions of the twin method, but how to test them. The elementary model is expanded to cover sex limitation, sibling interaction, multivariate and longitudinal data, observer ratings, and twin-family studies. Throughout, the methods are illustrated by applications to diverse areas such as obesity, major depression, alcohol comsumption, delinquency, allergies, and common fears.

This volume is about an ongoing long-term research initiative led by researchers from the School of Dentistry at the University of Adelaide. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the studies of the teeth and faces of Australian twins and their families that have extended over more than thirty years.

The Trouble with Twin Studies questions popular genetic explanations of human behavioral differences based upon the existing body of twin research. Psychologist Jay Joseph outlines the fallacies of twin studies in the context of the ongoing decades-long failure to discover genes for human behavioral differences, including IQ, personality, and the major psychiatric disorders. This volume critically examines twin research, with a special emphasis on reared-apart twin studies, and incorporates new and updated perspectives, analyses, arguments, and evidence.

The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart startled scientists by demonstrating that twins reared apart are as alike, across a number of personality traits and other measures, as those raised together, suggesting that genetic influence is pervasive. Segal offers an overview of the study’s scientific contributions and effect on public consciousness.

Twin and Family Studies of Epigenetics, Volume 27, the latest release in the Translational Epigenetics series, gathers expert opinions on epigenetic twin and family study research methods, recent findings across various disease areas, and future directions. The book provides in-depth coverage of epigenetics fundamentals, twin and family epigenetic study design, and the broader role of epigenetics in answering questions on the developmental origins of health and disease. Throughout the volume, twin and family studies are employed to examine causes of epigenetic variation, the relationship between epigenetic modifications and mental illness, cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and more. Emerging research methods applied in twin and family studies discussed include imaging epigenetics, exposure-specific DNA methylation changes, and unravelling time trends in epigenetic effects. Offers a practical, interdisciplinary approach across epigenetics, epidemiology and various disease specialties Applies epigenetic twin and family studies to determine the relationship between epigenetics and mental illness, cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, among other diseases and disorders Features chapter contributions from a wide range of international researchers in the field

Biosocial Surveys analyzes the latest research on the increasing number of multipurpose household surveys that collect biological data along with the more familiar interviewerâ€"respondent information. This book serves as a follow-up to the 2003 volume, Cells and Surveys: Should Biological Measures Be Included in Social Science Research? and asks these questions: What have the social sciences, especially demography, learned from those efforts and the greater interdisciplinary communication that has resulted from them? Which biological or genetic information has proven most useful to researchers? How can better models be developed to help integrate biological and social science information in ways that can broaden scientific understanding? This volume contains a collection of 17 papers by distinguished experts in demography, biology, economics, epidemiology, and survey methodology. It is an invaluable sourcebook for social and behavioral science researchers who are working with biosocial data.