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1. .025 points, At least 25 words > The documentary we started this course out with on 

A01
, 
Three Identical Strangers (2018), archived 

here Links to an external site.

, turned Peter Neubauer’s twin study into a mystery. This wasn’t difficult, considering Neubauer restricted the public from accessing its findings. Take a second and think about what would happen if we took the mystery part out of this documentary and didn’t have to worry about the fact that Bobby and David and all of us don’t have access to Neubauer’s findings. What, exactly, is 
Three Identical Strangers (2018), as well as Neubauer’s twin study, about? The institutional power of social psychology in the late 1950s? Adoption? Something else? Be sure to explain and defend your response.

02. .025 points, At least 25 words > Does evolutionary psychologist and behavioral geneticist Nancy Segal think Neubauer’s twin study was about the institutional power of social psychology in the late 1950s, adoption or something else? Back up your answer with reference to Nancy’s book 
Deliberately Divided (2021), originally assigned on 

A02

.

Deliberately Divided, Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart

 (2021)

· Read the “Preface” and the following chapters

· 01 – Illustrious and Ignoble: Twin Studies

· 02 – Policies and People: Separated by Design

· 03 – How Did It Work? Inside the Twin Study

· 04 – Twin Brothers and Twin Sisters: Familiar Strangers

· 10 – “Three Versions of the Same Song:” Identical Triplets

· 20 – Over or Unfinished? Continuing Controversies

03. .025 points, At least 25 words, Note the word count change > The following passage comes from the 
New Yorker article by Lawrence Wright, discussed by Wright himself in 
Three Identical Strangers (2018). You can actually read the article 

here Links to an external site.
if you want to, but you absolutely don’t have to. You only need the passage below. Anyways, would you say this passage characterizes Eddy Galland’s experience of discovering he was one of three triplets? Be sure to explain and defend your response. If you can’t remember who Eddy was, click back to 

A01

 or 

A02
.

“The separated-twins story is a chestnut of American journalism – one that is guaranteed to gain national exposure, along with stories of pets that have trekked across the country to find their masters. The appeal of the separated-twins story is the implicit suggestion that it could happen to anyone. Babies actually do get lost or separated, and, however rare such an event may be, it feeds the common fantasy that any one of us might have a clone, a doppelgänger, someone who is not only a human mirror but also an ideal companion, someone who understands us perfectly. It is not just the similarity that excites us but the difference: the fantasy of an identical twin is a projection of ourselves living another life, finding other opportunities, choosing other careers, sleeping with other spouses; an identical twin can experience the world and come back to report about choices we might have made. But the story has a darker and more threatening side, and this may be the real secret of its grip on our imagination. We think we know who we are. We struggle to build our characters through experience; we make ourselves unique by determining what we like, what we don’t like, and what we stand for. The premise of free will is that we become the people we choose to be. Suppose, then, we meet an Other who is, in every outward respect, ourself. It is one thing to imagine an identical Other who, having lived a separate and distinct life, has been marked by it and become different from us. But what if, in spite of all the differences, we and the Other arrive at the same place? Isn’t there a sense of loss? A loss not only of identity but of purpose? We are left wondering not only who we are but why we are who we are.”

04. .025 points, At least 10 words, Note the word count change > Rewatch, roughly, from the 47 minute marker to the 53 minute marker of 
Three Identical Strangers (2018), first assigned 

here

 and archived 

here Links to an external site.
. What does Natasha Josefowitz think upsets people so much about Neubauer’s twin study? Natasha was one of Neubauer’s research assistants/associates and came up earlier on 

A01
, see Q16.

05. .025 points, Fill in the chart, Note the word count change > Take some quick notes about the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA) via another Nancy Segal book. I personally find this Nancy book a tough read but if you just use the chart I made for you below the link to the book it won’t be that bad. Also, scroll down and read through the rest of the questions on this assignment so you can see where this book comes up again and where we are going with all this. So far in our course we have only covered social psychological research methods, but we will slowly be zeroing in on social psychological theory. And it is way easier to learn both method and theory in small parts, i.e., one little assignment question at a time, then all at once. Trust me!

Born Together, Reared Apart – The Landmark Minnesota Twins Study

 (2012) by Nancy Segal

· Introduction

· Ch 08, Dental Traits* …

· Ch 09, Creativity …

· Ch 10, Family Environments …

*Be sure to notice the comment about Bobby Shafran, Eddy Galland and David Kellman’s smile on page 272, paragraph 2

*A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations from the same variables (e.g., people) over short or long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of observational study, although it can also be structured as a longitudinal randomized experiment

Born that way

So, the big finding of MISTRA is the idea that nature matters a lot when it comes to question of human looks, temperament, personality, identity and behavior. Maybe even more than nurture. (Remember there was a quick question on this subject way back on 

A01
, see Q18). Let’s go deeper into this idea and what Neubauer’s and Bouchard et. al.’s data on this idea can teach us about it.

Teeth

06. .025 points, At least 10 words, Note the point value and word count change > What does Bobby Shafran and Eddy Galland and David Kellman’s literal, physiological smile teach us about the power of genetics? Bobby and Eddy and David of course are our first “singular” unit of analysis for this course 😉 Remember 

A01
? We started with an Anna Zimmerman clone, Anna Hart, and then moved onto Bobby, Eddy and David. Eddy has also already come up again on this assignment, see Q03.

Born Together, Reared Apart – The Landmark Minnesota Twins Study

 (2012) by Nancy Segal

· Chapter 8, Dental Traits* …

*The comment about Bobby, Eddy and David’s smile on page 272, paragraph 2

Quirky, bodily habits

07. .05 points, At least 10 words > Click 

here Links to an external site.
and listen from the 14 minute mark to the end and just tell me what you think Nancy Segal means when she says what interests her the most about twins reared a part are the quirky bodily habits they have in common, i.e., things like “scratching an ear with a paperclip” or “leaving a square of toast on the plate uneaten.” Be sure to explain and defend your response. I first introduced you to Nancy Segal’s work on 

A02
 and she also came up earlier on this assignment, see Q02 and Q05.

Ancestral blood line

08. .025 points, At least 10 words > In 
Twinsters (2015), assigned on 

A02
, Anaïs Bourdier says she doesn’t “feel” South Korean, she “feels French.” What did she mean by this statement? In order to get credit for your answer, you have to actually reference something Anaïs says or does in 
Twinsters (2015). I posted it below for your quick reference.

Gender

09. .025 points, At least 10 words > Read the selections from Amy Ellis Nutt’s book 
Becoming Nicole, The Transformation on an American Family (2015) and just tell me how identical (i.e., DZ) twins Jonas and Nicole Maines describe their respective gender identities. Look out for any time either of them uses the word “feel,” like Anaïs does when describing her national identity, see Q08. And yes! I am giving you yet another set of adopted multiples! Our third, in case you are counting: I.e., Bobby, Eddy and David … Anaïs and Samantha … Jonas and Nicole … Only Jonas and Nicole were raised in the same household and were, therefore, not “reared a part.” Make sure you take note of that! You will be writing on it for Q13 on this assignment.

Becoming Nicole, The Transformation on an American Family

 (2015) by Amy Ellis Nutt

· Part I: Beginnings

· Ch 01: Identical Twins

· Ch 02: My Boys

· Ch 03: Finally Ours

· Ch 04: Gender Dysphoria

· Ch 05: Down East

· Ch 06: Things to Be Careful Of

· Ch 07: The Pink Aisle

· Ch 08: A Boy-Girl

· Ch 09: Wild in the Dark

· Ch 10: Girls with Magical Powers

· Ch 11: A Son and a Daughter

· Ch 12: Transitions

· Ch 13: Getting the Anger Out

10. .025 points, At least 25 words > How is the biology of dental traits both like and not like the biology of gender? In order to get credit for your answer you need to back it up with Chapter 8 of Segal’s book on the Minnesota Twins study above, (see Q05 and Q06, directly above) and Part 2 of
 Becoming Nicole (2015), Beginnings,” Chapters 14-18, archived 

here
. This part of Amy Ellis Nutt’s book hasn’t been assigned yet. I assigned Part 1 for Q09. Be sure to read and then reference Part 2 in your answer for this question!

Becoming Nicole, The Transformation on an American Family

 (2015) by Amy Ellis Nutt

· Part II: The Sexual Brain

· Ch 14: The Xs and Ys of Sex

· Ch 15: Perpetrating Gender

· Ch 16: Nature’s Anomalies

· Ch 17: Being Different

· Ch 18: Becoming Nicole

11. .025 points, At least 10 words > What made Jonas and Nicole Maines “identical” in terms of their looks, temperament, personality, identity and behavior? Defend and explain your response with reference to any of the parts of 
Becoming Nicole (2015), assigned for Q09 and Q10.

12. .025 points, At least 45 words, Note the word count change > Say you only had Anaïs Bourdier and Jonas Maines as your sample. What seems to be the qualitative difference between a human’s sense of their ancestral identity and their gender identity? By “ancestral identity,” I just mean things like race and ethnicity and religious and linguistic identity. And by “gender identity,” I mean the social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman or other gender identity, including sex-based social structures and gender expression. In order to get credit for your answer you must specifically reference something Anaïs does or says in 
Twinsters (2015), see Q08 above, and something Jonas does or says in 
Becoming Nicole (2015), Part 1 and some of Part 2 assigned for Q09 and Q10, respectively. Remember, Jonas is the twin who doesn’t decide to transition from male to female. In addition to garnering you a possible .05 point on this assignment and towards your 

final letter grade

 for this course, your answer to this question will also count for one of your General Education Assessments, see 

GEA1

. General Education Assessments do not affect your 

final letter grade
 for this course in any way. They are purely a tool to assess and quantify how well nameless, faceless students are acquiring different academic skills at this university.

13. 3 points, At least 250 words, Note the point value and word count change > Which pair of twins best support the findings of MISTRA and why?

· DZ twins Anaïs Bourdier and Samantha Futerman

· Who were reared a part in different countries and cultures, speaking different languages

· First introduced on 

A02 Q12

 in the documentary 
Twinsters (2015)

·
Or DZ twins Jonas and Nicole Maines

· Who were reared in the exact same household in Maine, USA, but whom identify as different genders

· First introduced on this assignment, see Q09 and Q10, as well as Nutt’s 
Becoming Nicole (2015)

You must choose one of these options over the other and explain and defend why you chose the option you did. Obviously, this is the first time you are writing something like a formal essay for this course, rather than just a quick answer or discussion post, so I posted some advice on how to ensure you get the full 3 points for your answer.

How to get your full 3 points for this question

Write at least 250 words • In 1-2 paragraphs, explain what MISTRA is by specifically referencing Nancy Segal’s book, 
Born Together Reared Apart (2012) and be sure to describe this study’s findings. Want a quick summary of MISTRA so you don’t have to deal with Nancy’s book again? Read 

this Links to an external site.

2017 abstract by Mudhaffar Bahjat • In 2-3 paragraphs compare and contrast the stories of DZ twins Anaïs Bourdier and Samantha Futerman and Jonas and Nicole Maines • In 2-3 paragraphs explain which set of twins better support MISTRA’s findings, making sure to note that while one set of twins, (Anaïs and Samantha), might better fit the study since they were “reared a part,” the other set of twins, Jonas and Nicole, might better fit the study, since they offer a way to truly understand what “genetic make-up” means

Please do not (waste the day you are working on this and) expend more than 20-30 minutes writing this essay. The point of it is for you to express some ideas based on whatever you have retained from 

A01
, 

A02
 and this assignment, not write some perfectly polished piece of writing. Treat this as if an in class exam or something where you only have so much time to respond 😉 Like Q12, in addition to garnering you a possible 3 points on this assignment and towards your 

final letter grade
 for this course, your answer to this question will also count for one of your General Education Assessments, see 

GEA2

. General Education Assessments do not affect your 

final letter grade
 for this course in any way. They are purely a tool to assess and quantify how well nameless, faceless students are acquiring different academic skills at this university.

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