Adoption Studies

• What are 2 Strengths of Adoption Studies?

  Strength - Easier to separate genetic and environmental factors as adopted children are separated from biological family.

  Strength - Studies concluded correlation between adopted children and their biological parents.
• 2 Limitations of Adoption Studies

  Limitation: Information about biological family not always available.

  Limitation: Age of Adoption may mean the adopted children have already been influenced by natural parents/foster environment.
• What do Adoption Studies suggest?

  If a child is similar to their biological parents - in terms of criminal behaviour - then a genetic basis of criminality may be suggested.

  If a child is more similar to their adoptive parents, an environmental argument for criminality is preferred.
• What did Hutchings and Mednick (1975) do?


  Studied 14,000 adopted children + found large number of boys with convictions had biological parents with convictions too - Suggests link between aggression and genetics.
• What did Mednick et al. (1994) find?


  Found no relationship between number of convictions of adoptive parents and adopted children. Found significant correlation between number of convictions of the bio parents and their offspring.