Personality resemblance among adolescents and their parents in biologically related and adoptive families

Studied 120 biologically related families with 234 children aged 16-22 yrs and 115 adoptive families with 194 children in the same age range. Ss were assessed for introversion-extroversion and neuroticism, measured with the Differential Personality Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Inventory, and A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 1981-05, Vol.40 (5), p.885-898
Main Authors: Scarr, Sandra, Webber, Patricia L, Weinberg, Richard A, Wittig, Michele A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adoptive Parents
Genetics
Human
Personality Traits
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Summary:Studied 120 biologically related families with 234 children aged 16-22 yrs and 115 adoptive families with 194 children in the same age range. Ss were assessed for introversion-extroversion and neuroticism, measured with the Differential Personality Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Inventory, and Activity Preference Questionnaire. The modest degree of personality resemblance among biological relatives exceeded the minimal similarities of adopted relatives. The estimated heritabilities for the personality measures were much lower than those obtained in studies of identical and fraternal twins, which suggests that twin studies have exaggerated the degree of genetic variation in personality. The results indicate that most of the variance in personality measures is due to individual differences among siblings within the same families. (31 ref)
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.40.5.885