Abstract
The comparative study of social relationships within monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs affords a novel and informative approach to understanding how relative genetic relatedness may affect social-interactional outcomes and processes. Some old questions, such as whether MZ twins are more cooperative than DZ twins, acquire fresh meaning in light of social-genetic and sociobiological theorizing. Consider, for example, the two quotations cited above: These statements are generally reflective of the social-interactional tendencies observed between identical and fraternal twins (Frank & Cohen, 1980; Koch, 1966). Psychoanalytically oriented psychologists would most likely offer explanations based on parental attitude, physical similarity, and cultural expectations: “Physical similarity, mutual satisfactions, and reactions of others induce [identical] twins to see themselves as intimately connected and undifferentiated parts of [an] inseparable unit” (Siemon, 1980). A sociobiological view additionally acknowledges the relative genetic commonality in the two types of twins as contributing to their average differences in affiliation. It might be argued that the genetic identity of MZ twins may underlie hypothesized “recognition mechanisms” that could “trigger a series of emotions whose net effect is tribal unity” (Freedman, 1979).
My boys were thrilled to learn that they are definitely identical twins. Why, I don’t really know, but it is a big deal to them.—Mother of twins
They [two identical triplet brothers] are more important to each other than I am to either of them.—Fraternal triplet
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ainslie, R.C. (1985). The psychology of twinship. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W.D. (1981). The evolution of cooperation. Science, 211, 1390–1396.
Barash, D. (1979). The whisperings within. New York: Harper & Row.
Barash, D. (1982). Sociobiology and behavior. New York: Elsevier.
Bettelheim, B. (1969). The children of the dream. New York: Avon Books.
Bouchard, T.J., Jr. (1984). Twins reared apart and together: What they tell us about human diversity. In S. Fox (Ed.), The chemical and biological bases of individuality. New York: Plenum.
Bouchard, T.J., Jr. (1987). Diversity, development and determinism: A report on identical twins reared apart. In M. Amelang (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1986 German Psychological Association Meetings, Heidelberg, Germany.
Bouchard, T.J., Jr., Lykken, D.T., Segal, N.L., & Wilcox, K.J. (1986). Development in twins reared apart: A test of the chronogenetic hypothesis. In A. Demirjian (Ed.), Human growth: A multidisciplinary review. London: Taylor & Francis.
Brewster, H.H. (1957). Identical pair of poliomyelitis patients: A study of twinning. Western Divisional Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.
Bryan, E.M. (1983). The nature and nurture of twins. London: Baillière Tindall.
Bryan, E.M. (1986). The death of a newborn twin: How can support for parents be improved? Acta Geneticae Medicae et Gemellologiae, 35, 115–118.
Bulmer, M.G. (1970). The biology of twinning in man. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Burlingham, D.T. (1945). The fantasy of having a twin. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 1, 205–210.
Burlingham, D.T. (1952). Twins: A study of three identical pairs. New York: International Universities Press.
Buss, D.M. (1987). Evolutionary hypotheses and behavioral genetic methods: Hopes for a union of two disparate disciplines. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 10, 20.
Cairns, R.B. (1986). An evolutionary and developmental perspective on aggressive patterns. In C. Zahn-Waxler, E.M. Cummings & R. Iannotti (Eds.) Altruism and aggression: Biological and social origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cairns, R.B., & Valsiner, J. (1984). Child psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 35, 553–577.
Carter-Saltzman, L. (1979). Mirror-twinning: Reflection of a genetically mediated embryological event? Behavior Genetics, 9, 442–443.
Chagnon, N.A. (1979). Mate competition, favoring close kin and fissioning among the Yanomamo Indians. In N.A. Chagnon & W. Irons (Eds.), Evolutionary biology and human social behavior: An anthropological perspective. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.
Chagnon, N.A., & Bugos, P.E., Jr. (1979). Kin selection and conflict: An analysis of a Yanomamo ax fight. In N.A. Chagnon & W. Irons (Eds.), Evolutionary biology and human social behavior: An anthropological perspective. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.
Cheney, D., Seyfarth, R., & Smuts, B. (1986). Social relationships and social cognition in nonhuman primates. Science, 234, 1361–1366.
Cohen, D.J., Dibble, E., Grave, J.M., & Pollin, W. (1973). Separating identical from fraternal twins. Archives of General Psychiatry, 7, 3–9.
Corney, G., Seedburgh, D., Thompson, B., Campbell, D.M., MacGillivray, I. & Timlin, D. (1981). Multiple and singleton pregnancy: Differences between mothers as well as offspring. In W.E. Nance (Ed.), Twin research 3: Twin biology and multiple pregnancy. New York: Alan Liss, Inc.
Crawford, C., Smith, M., & Krebs, D. (Eds.) (1987). Sociobiology and psychology: Ideas, issues and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Dallapicolla, B., Stomeo, C., Ferranti, G., DiLecce, A., & Purpura, M. (1985). Discordant sex in one of three monozygotic triplets. Journal of Medical Genetics, 22, 6–11.
Dumont-Driscoll, M., & Rose, R.J. (1983). Testing the twin model: Is perceived similarity due to genetic identity? Paper presented at the 13th annual Behavior Genetics Association meeting, London, England.
Eisenberg, N. (1982). The development of prosocial behavior. New York: Academic Press.
Elwood, J.M. (1985). Temporal trends in twinning. In H. Kalter (Ed.), Issues and reviews in teratology, 3. New York: Plenum.
Engel, G.L. (1975). The death of a twin: Mourning and anniversary reactions. Fragments of 10 years of self-analysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 56, 23–40.
Essock-Vitale, S.M., & Fairbanks, L.A. (1979). Sociobiological theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism and their relevance for psychiatry. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 167, 23–28.
Farber, S.L. (1981). Identical twins reared apart: A reanalysis. New York: Basic Books.
Frank, R.A., & Cohen, D.J. (1980). Preadolescent development: Case studies in twins. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 53, 471–483.
Freedman, D.G. (1979). Human sociobiology. New York: Free Press.
Freedman, D.G. (1986). The biology of behavior with inquiries into the inheritance of temperament, stone age art, and the peopling of Australia. Proceedings of the International Meetings of Variability and Evolution, Rome.
Freud, A., & Dann, S. (1951). An experiment in group upbringing. In U. Bronfenbrenner & M.A. Mahoney (Eds.), Influences on human development. Hinsdale, IL: The Dryden Press.
Fuller, J. (1983a). Ethology and behavior genetics. In J. Fuller & E.C. Simmel (Eds.), Behavior genetics: Principles and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fuller, J. (1983b). Sociobiology and behavior genetics. In J. Fuller & E.C. Simmel (Eds.), Behavior genetics: Principles and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fuller, J., & Hahn, M.E. (1976). Issues in the genetics of social behavior. Behavior Genetics, 6, 391–406.
Galton, F. (1875). The history of twins as a criterion of the relative powers of nature and nurture. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 5, 391–406.
Greenson, R.R. (1968). On sexual apathy in the male. California Medicine, 108, 275–279.
Hamburg, D. (1977). Invited Lecture, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel.
Harnes, R. (1979). Relatedness and interaction among the Ye’Kwana: A preliminary analysis. In N.A. Chagnon & W. Irons (Eds.), Evolutionary biology and human social behavior: An anthropological perspective. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.
Hamilton, W.D. (1964a). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–16.
Hamilton, W.D. (1964b). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. II Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 17–52.
Hémon, D., Berger, C., & Lazar, P. (1981). Some observations concerning the decline of dizygotic twinning rate in France between 1901 and 1968. In W.E. Nance (Ed.), Twin research 3: Twin biology and multiple pregnancy. New York: Alan Liss, Inc.
Hinde, R.A. (1983). Primate social relationships. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Holmes, W.G., & Sherman, P.W. (1983). Kin recognition in animals. American Scientist, 71, 46–55.
Juel-Nielsen, N. (1966). Individual and environment: Monozygotic twins reared apart. New York: International Universities Press.
Kitcher, P. (1987). Précis of vaulting ambition: Sociobiology and the quest for human nature. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 10, 61–71.
Koch, H. (1966). Twins and twin relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Krebs, D., & Russell, C. (1981). Roletaking and altruism: When you put yourself in the shoes of another, will they take you to their owner’s aid? In J.P. Rushton & R.M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Krupnick, J.L. (1984). Bereavement during childhood and adolescence. In M. Osterweis, F. Solomon, & M. Green (Eds.), Bereavement: Reactions, consequences, and care. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Kummer, H. (1968). Social organization of hamadryas baboons: A field study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kurland, J.A. (1977). Kin selection in the Japanese monkey. In F.S. Szalay (Ed.), Contributions to primatology, 12. Basel: S. Karger.
Leonard, M.R. (1961). Problems in identification and ego development in twins. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 16, 300–320.
Levy, J. (1981). Lateralization and its implications for variation in development. In E. Gollin (Ed.), Developmental plasticity: Behavioral and biological aspects of variations in development. New York: Academic Press.
Lightcap, J.L., Kurland, J.A., & Burgess, R.L. (1982). Child abuse: A test of some predictions from evolutionary theory. Ethology and Sociobiology, 3, 61–67.
Littlefield, C.H., & Rushton, J.P. (1986). When a child dies: The sociobiology of bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 797–802.
Loehlin, J., & Nichols, R. (1976). Heredity, environment and personality. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.
Lykken, D.T., McGue, M.K., & Teilegen, A. (in press). Recruitment bias in twin research: The rule of two-thirds reconsidered. Behavior Genetics.
MacDonald, K. (1984). An ethological-social learning theory of the development of altruism: Implications for human sociobiology. Ethology and Sociobiology, 5, 97–109.
Madsen, M.C. (1967). Cooperative and competitive motivation of children in three Mexican subcultures. Psychological Reports, 20, 1307–1320.
Magnus, P., Berg, K., & Bjerkdal, T (1985). No significant difference in birth weight for offspring of birth weight discordant monozygotic females. Early Human Development, 12, 55–59.
Marcus, R.F. (1986). Naturalistic observation of cooperation, helping, and sharing and their associations with empathy and affect. In C. Zahn-Waxler, E.M. Cummings, & R. Iannotti (Eds.), Altruism and aggression: Biological and social origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Merriman, C. (1924). The intellectual resemblance of twins. Psychological Monographs, 33, 1–58.
Mittler, P. (1971). The study of twins. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Mosteller, M., Townsend, J.I., Corey, L.A., & Nance, W.E. (1981). Twinning rates in Virginia: Secular trends and the effects of maternal age and parity. In L. Gedda, P. Parisi, & W.E. Nance (Eds.), Twin Research 3: Twin Biology and Multiple Pregnancy. New York: Alan Liss, Inc.
Mowrer, E. (1954). Some factors in the affectional adjustment of twins. American Sociological Review, 19, 468–471.
Newman, H.H., Freeman, F.N., & Holzinger, K.J. (1937). Twins: A study of heredity and environment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nichols, R.C., & Bilbro, W.C., Jr. (1966). The diagnosis of twin zygosity. Acta Genetica Statistica Medica, 16, 265–275.
Nyiszli, M. Auschwitz: A doctor’s eyewitness account. New York: Fawcett Crest.
Nylander, PPS. (1975). The causation of twinning. In I. MacGillivray, PPS. Nylander, & G. Corney (Eds.), Human multiple reproduction. London: W.B. Saunders.
Omark, D.R. (1972). Peer group formation in young children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago.
Osterweis, M., Solomon, F., & Green, M. (Eds.). (1984). Bereavement: Reactions, consequences, and care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Paluszny, M., Selzer, M.L., Vinokur, A., & Lewandowski, L. (1977). Twin relationships and depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 988–990.
Panskepp, J. (1986). The psychobiology of prosocial behaviors: Separation distress, play and altruism. In C. Zahn-Waxler, E.M. Cummings, & R. Iannotti (Eds.), Altruism and aggression: Biological and social origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parisi, P., Gatti, M., Prinzi, G., & Caperna, G. (1983). Familial incidence of twinning. Nature, 304, 626–628.
Parker, N. (1964). Twins: A psychiatric study of a neurotic group. The Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 735–742.
Plank, E.N. (1958). Reactions of mothers of twins in a child study group. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 28, 196–204.
Plomin, R., & DeFries, J.C. (1980). Genetics and intelligence: Recent data. Intelligence, 4, 15–24.
Plomin, R., DeFries, J.C., & McClearn, G.E. (1980). Behavior genetics: A primer. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co.
Plomin, R., & Willerman, L. (1975). A co-twin control study and a twin study of reflection-impulsivity in children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 537–543.
Pepitone, A. (1976). Toward a normative and comparative biocultural social psychology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 641–653.
Reed, T., Norton, J.A., Jr., & Christian, J.C. (1977). Sources of information for discriminating MZ and DZ twins by dermatoglyphic patterns. Acta Genetica Medicae et Gemellologiae, 26, 83–86.
Rose, R.J., Harris, E.L., Christian, J.C, & Nance, W.E. (1979). Genetic variance in nonverbal intelligence: Data from the kinships of identical twins. Science, 205, 1153–1155.
Roskin, M. (1984). Emotional reactions among bereaving Israeli parents. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 21, 73–84.
Rushton, J.P., Fulker, D.W., Neale, M.C., Nias, D.K.B., & Eysenck, H.J. (1986). Altruism and aggression: The heritability of individual differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 1192–1198.
Rushton, J.P., Littlefield, C.H., & Lumsden, C.J. (1986). Gene-culture revolution of complex social behavior: Human altruism and mate choice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 83, 7340–7343.
Rushton, J.P., Russell, R.J.H., & Wells, P.A. (1984). Genetic similarity theory: Beyond kin selection. Behavior Genetics, 14, 179–183.
Russell, R.J.H., Rushton, J.P., & Wells, P.A. (1984). Sociobiology, personality and genetic similarity detection. In J.R. Royce & L.P. Mos (Eds.), Annals of Theoretical Psychology, 2, 59–65.
Rutter, M. (1966). Children of sick parents. London: Oxford University Press.
Sanders, C. (1980). A comparison of adult bereavement in the death of a spouse, child and parent. Omega, 10, 1979–1980.
Scarr-Salapatek, S. (1975). Populations for the study of behavior traits. Commentary I. In K.W. Schaie, V.E. Anderson, G.E. McClearn, & J. Money (Eds.), Developmental human behavior genetics. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co.
Scarr, S., & Carter-Saltzman, L. (1979). Twin method: Defense of a critical assumption. Behavior Genetics, 9, 527–542.
Scott, J.P. (1977). Social genetics. Behavior Genetics, 7, 327–346.
Scott, J.P. (1983). Genetics of social behavior in nonhuman animals. In J. Fuller & E.C. Simmel (Eds.), Behavior genetics: Principles and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Segal, N.L. (1984a). Cooperation, competition, and altruism within twin sets: A reappraisal. Ethology and Sociobiology, 5, 163–177.
Segal, N.L. (1984b). Zygosity testing: Laboratory and the investigator’s judgment. Acta Genetica Medicae et Gemellologiae, 33, 515–521.
Segal, N.L. (1985a). Monozygotic and dizygotic twins: A comparative analysis of mental ability profiles. Child Development, 56, 1051–1058.
Segal, N.L. (1985b). Holocaust twins: Their special bond. Psychology Today, 19, 52–58.
Segal, N.L. (1986a). Not just double trouble [Review of R.C. Ainslie, The psychology of twinship]. Contemporary Psychology, 31, 456.
Shields, J. (1954). Personality differences and neurotic traits in normal twin schoolchildren. Eugenics Review, 45, 213–246.
Shields, J. (1962). Monozygotic twins: Brought up apart and brought up together. London: Oxford University Press.
Siemon, M. (1980). The separation-individuation process in adult twins. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 34, 387–400.
Smith, J.A., Renshaw D.C., & Renshaw, R.H. (1968). Twins who want to be identified as twins. Diseases of the Nervous System, 29, 615–618.
Sorosky, A.D., Baran, A., & Pannor, R. (1984). The adoption triangle. New York: Anchor Press.
Strayer, F.F. (1981). The nature and organization of altruistic behavior among preschool children. In J.P Rushton & R.M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Strayer, F.F., Wareing, S., & Rushton, J.P. (1979). Social constraints on naturally occurring preschool altruism. Ethology and Sociobiology, 1, 3–11.
Taylor, H.F. (1980). The IQ game: A methodological inquiry into the heredity-environment controversy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Tec, N. (1986). When light pierced the darkness. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tellegen, A., Lykken, D.T., Bouchard, T.J., Jr., Wilcox, K.J., Segal, N.L., & Rich, S. (in press). Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Thissen, D., & Gregg, B. (1980). Human assortative mating and genetic equilibrium: An evolutionary perspective. Ethology and Sociobiology, 1, 111–140.
Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie, 20, 410–433.
Triseliotus, J.P. (1973). In search of origins. London: Kegan Paul.
Trivers, R. (1985). Social evolution. Menlo Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co., Inc.
Vandenberg, S.G. (1966). Contributions of twin research to psychology. In M. Manosevitz, G. Lindzey, & D.D. Thiessen (Eds.), Behavioral genetics: Method and theory. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Vine, I. (1983). Sociobiology and social psychology-Rivalry or symbiosis? The explanation of altruism. British Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 1–11.
Vogel, F., & Motulsky, A.G. (1979). Human genetics. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Von Bracken, H. (1934). Mutual intimacy in twins. Character and Personality, 2, 293–309.
Wilson, M.I., Daly, M., & Weghorst, S.J. (1980). Household composition and the risk of child abuse and neglect. Journal of Biosocial Science, 12, 333–340.
Wilson, R.S. (1983). The Louisville Twin Study: Developmental synchronies in behavior. Child Development, 54, 298–316.
Wilson, R.S. (1986). Growth and development of human twins. In F. Falkner & J.M. Tanner (Eds.), Human Growth (Vol. 3). New York: Plenum.
Woodward, J. (1986, September). The bereaved twin. Paper presented to the Fifth International Congress on Twin Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Wyshak, G., Honeyman, M.S., Flannery, JT, & Beck, A.S. (1983). Cancer in mothers of dizygotic twins., Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 70, 593–599.
Yarrow, M., & Waxier, C. (1976). Dimensions and correlates of prosocial behavior in young children. Child Development, 47, 118–125.
Youniss, J. (1986). Development in reciprocity through friendship. In C. Zahn-Waxler, E.M. Cummings, & R. Iannotti (Eds.), Altruism and aggression: Biological and social origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zahn-Waxler, C., Cummings, E.M., & Iannotti, R. (Eds.). (1986). Altruism and aggression: Biological and social origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zahn-Waxler, C. (1986). Conclusions: Lessons from the past and a look to the future. In C. Zahn-Waxler, E.M. Cummings, & R. Iannotti (Eds.), Altruism and aggression: Biological and social origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zazzo, R. (1978). Genesis and peculiarities of the personality of twins. In W.E. Nance, G. Allen, & P. Parisi (Eds.), Twin research (Part A). Psychology and method. New York: Alan Liss, Inc.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Segal, N.L. (1988). Cooperation, Competition, and Altruism in Human Twinships: A Sociobiological Approach. In: MacDonald, K.B. (eds) Sociobiological Perspectives on Human Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3760-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3760-0_6
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8338-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-3760-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive