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Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. (born October 3, 1937) is an American psychologist known for his behavioral genetics studies of twins raised apart. He is professor emeritus of psychology and director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research at the University of Minnesota. Bouchard received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966.[1]
Bouchard worked on twin study, particularly as part of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA). This work has included case studies, longitudinal studies, and large-scale quantitative analyses and meta-analyses. These studies attempt to determine to what degree genes have a role in medical and psychological outcomes, such as personality or heritability of IQ.[2]
One of Bouchard's case studies was Jim Springer and Jim Lewis (so-called Jim twins), twins who had been separated from birth and were reunited at age 39.[2] Bouchard arranged to study the pair, assembling a team and applying for a grant to the Pioneer Fund during 1981. According to The Washington Post, the twins "found they had each married and divorced a woman named Linda and remarried a Betty. They shared interests in mechanical drawing and carpentry; their favorite school subject had been math, their least favorite, spelling. They smoked and drank the same amount and got headaches at the same time of day."[2] According to The New York Times they both also owned a dog named "Toy", and had named their first son almost identically, "James Allan" and "James Alan".[3]
"There probably are genetic influences on almost all facets of human behavior, but the emphasis on the idiosyncratic characteristics is misleading. On average, identical twins raised separately are about 50 percent similar -- and that defeats the widespread belief that identical twins are carbon copies. Obviously, they are not. Each is a unique individual in his or her own right.[2]
In 1994, he was one of 52 signatories of Mainstream Science on Intelligence, a public statement written by Linda Gottfredson and published in The Wall Street Journal. This statement was a response to what the authors considered as the inaccurate and misleading reports made by the media regarding academic consensus on the results of intelligence research after the publication of The Bell Curve earlier the same year.[4] The next year, he was part of task force commissioned by the American Psychological Association which released a consensus statement on the state of intelligence research titled Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns.[5]
Biological psychology, also called physiological psychology, is the study of the biology of behavior; it focuses on the nervous system, hormones and genetics. Biological psychology examines the relationship between mind and body, neural mechanisms, and the influence of heredity on behavior.
The biological approach believes behavior to be a consequence of our genetics and physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a biological and, thus physical point of view.
Therefore, all that is psychological is first physiological. All thoughts, feelings & behavior ultimately have a biological cause. A biological perspective is relevant to the study of psychology in three ways:
2. Physiology : how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect behavior. For example, we could ask how prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behavior through their interaction with the nervous system.
3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next.
The biological approach is firmly on the nature side of the debate; however, it does recognize that our brain is a plastic organ that changes with experience in our social world, so it does not entirely deny the influence of nurture.
Cross-cultural research involves studying a particular behavior (e.g., gender, facial expressions) across different cultures. If the behavior is found to be similar across cultures, psychologists conclude that differences in behavior are biologically (i.e., nature) based.
However, if the behavior is found to be different across cultures, then it is likely to be affected by the environment (i.e., nurture). Cross-cultural research is useful as it contributes to the nature-nurture debate in psychology.
The biological approach uses very scientific methods such as scans and biochemistry. Animals are often used in this approach as the approach assumes that humans are physiologically similar to animals.
Twin studies provide geneticists with a kind of natural experiment in which the behavioral likeness of identical twins (whose genetic relatedness is 1.0) can be compared with the resemblance of dizygotic twins (whose genetic relatedness is 0.5).
Research using twin studies looks for the degree of concordance (or similarity) between identical and fraternal (i.e., non-identical) twins. Twins are concordant for a trait if both or neither of the twins exhibits the trait. Twins are said to be disconcordant for a trait if one shows it and the other does not.
Thus, if concordance rates (which can range from 0 to 100) are significantly higher for identical twins than for fraternal twins, then this is evidence that genetics play an important role in the expression of that particular behavior.
Bouchard and McGue (1981) conducted a review of 111 worldwide studies which compared the IQ of family members. The correlation figures below represent the average degree of similarity between the two people (the higher the similarity, the more similar the IQ scores).
Children begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with others. If given this opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative and feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.
One of these stages is known as REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep). During this, our brain waves begin to resemble those of our waking state (though we are still fast asleep) and it seems that this is when we dream (whether we remember it or not).
The procedure is based on the principle that the brain requires energy to function and that the regions more involved in the performance of a task will use up more energy. What the scan, therefore, enables researchers to do is to provide ongoing pictures of the brain as it engages in mental activity.
These (and other) methods for producing images of brain structure and functioning have been extensively used to study language and PET scans, in particular, are producing evidence that suggests that the Wernicke-Gerschwind model may not after all be the answer to the question of how language is possible.
Charles Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection. He argued that genetically determined characteristics or behaviors that enhance our chances of survival and reproduction would be passed on to the next generation and become more common in a population.
However, describing behavior solely in terms of either nature or nurture is limiting, and attempts to do this underestimate the complexity of human behavior. It is more likely that behavior is due to an interaction between nature (biology) and nurture (environment).
For example, individuals may be predisposed to certain behaviors, but these behaviors may not be displayed unless they are triggered by factors in the environment. This is known as the diathesis-stress model of human behavior.
A strength of the biological approach is that it provides clear predictions, for example, about the effects of neurotransmitters or the behaviors of people who are genetically related. This means the explanations can be scientifically tested, replicated, and peer-reviewed.
Furthermore, it could be argued that the biological abnormalities seen in mental disorders could be the result rather than the cause of the disorder as the brain is a plastic organ that changes with the way we use it, so it could be that, for example, the damage seen in the caudate nucleus is the result of anxiety rather than its cause.
Additionally, it could be argued that the unbalance in neurotransmitters such as low serotonin, in a depressed individual is the consequence rather than the cause of depression because the brain is a plastic organ that changes with the way we use it, so it could be that the depressed thinking causes the low level of serotonin observed.
It could be argued that twin studies do not separate nature and nature because twins are raised and live in the same environment, and the difference in the concordance rate found between MZ and DZ twins could be due to the fact that MZ twins are treated more similarly by their parents than DZ twins because they look more similar.
The biological approach is determinist as it sees our behavior as caused entirely by biological factors over which we have no control. This encourages people not to take responsibility for their actions and blame their genetic makeup.
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