Heritability of MMPI Harris-Lingoes and Subtle-Obvious subscales in twins reared apart.

A large sample of identical and fraternal twins who had been reared apart was used to examine the genetic and environmental architecture of the MMPI Subtle-Obvious and Harris-Lingoes subscales. Univariate genetic analyses indicated significant heritability for all 28 of the Harris-Lingoes subscales (estimates ranged from.23 to.61), all five Obvious subscales (estimates ranged from.37 to.56) and four of the five Subtle subscales (estimates ranged from.27 to.35). Two randomly constructed scales were analyzed as controls; neither of these scales showed significant heritability. Exploratory correlational findings suggested that three of the Wiener-Harmon Subtle subscales may tap aspects of psychological health, naivete, or repression. Ma-S may come closest to Wiener and Harmon s intent. Although they apparently diverge from their original purpose, it may be too early to abandon the low face valid items of the Subtle subscales.

Individuality and relatedness of the self: an autophotographic study.

Using R. C. Ziller's (1990) method of autophotography, the authors studied the duality of relatedness and individuality. A total of 226 young adults used photos (and words) to portray "who they are". Photo essays were scored for objective codes (e.g., people touching) and subjectively rated for individuality (richness of self-depiction). As predicted, persons who emphasized their personal rather than social identity depicted greater individuality; relatedness was associated with social and collective identity. Other results replicated earlier gender differences in relatedness and associations of individuality and relatedness with the 5-factor model. In the 2nd wave of the sample, individuality was associated with higher ego development, maturity, and self-directed values; low individuality was associated with restrictive conformity and security values. The authors suggest that the combination of individuality and relatedness is optimal for human development.

Heritability of MMPI personality indicators of psychopathology in twins reared apart.

This report presents Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) findings from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. Data from 65 unique pairs of monozygotic twins reared apart (MZA) and 54 unique pairs of dizygotic twins reared apart (DZA) were analyzed. As in other results from this sample, MZA twins evidenced substantial similarity, highlighting the influence of shared genes. Biometric modeling yielded estimates of heritability for the MMPI's standard validity and clinical scales and for the Wiggins content scales ranging from .26 to .62 (M = .44), echoing previous findings from the twin and adoption literature on personality. The pattern of MZA and DZA correlations suggested nonadditive genetic effects for 3 MMPI scales. Multivariate profile analyses also suggested genetic influence on both profile elevation and shape.

Normal personality characteristics in identical twins discordant for schizophrenia.

The authors examined normal personality characteristics of monozygotic (MZ) twins discordant for schizophrenia. Twenty pairs of discordant twins were analyzed; 11 pairs of MZ twins concordant for schizophrenia served as a comparison group. Personality was assessed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1995). Among discordant twin pairs, twins with schizophrenia were more deviant than normal co-twins on all but 4 of the MPQ's scales. Analysis of MZ twin correlations among the discordant twin pairs revealed substantial erosion of personality similarity as compared to normal individuals, although a cluster of scales related to Constraint/Psychoticism showed significant correlations. The results highlight striking personality divergence related to nonshared environmental influences. It is not possible to determine the point at which the twins diverged, although previous findings from this sample suggest that the observed personality differences may reflect effects of schizophrenia on normal personality.

Domains of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale: relevance for diagnosis and treatment.

The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was factor analyzed. Three factors emerged: Social Impairment (SI), Negative Emotionality (NE), and Distorted Sensory Response (DSR). Unit-weight factor scales showed moderate-to-good internal consistency. Cross-sectional analyses demonstrated that autistic (AUT) subjects were distinguished from subjects with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) and nonpervasive developmental disorders (NPDD) by higher scores on SI. An SI cutoff score of 26 classified individuals as autistic vs. nonautistic with 78% accuracy. Longitudinal analyses showed that DSR was stable over 6 months of treatment, with little indication of symptom reduction. SI decreased over time across the diagnostic groups, but still showed significant continuity over the period. NE was most malleable and apparently sensitive to the effects of treatment.

Personality and psychopathology: genetic perspectives.

Genetic factors exert an important influence on adult personality traits, accounting for anywhere between 30% and 60% of the variance. Heredity is also important for most forms of psychopathology and plays a major role in several theories that relate personality to psychopathology. Despite this, there has been surprisingly little multivariate genetic research reported on joint analyses of personality and psychopathology. The small amount of available data suggests that genes may account for over 50% of the observed correlation between neuroticism and state symptoms of anxiety and depression. The mechanisms behind such strong genetic correlations are crucial for understanding the causal relationship between a personality trait and a disorder because genetically influenced biological systems may operate as exogenous "third-party" factors that are responsible for what appear to be phenotypic cause-effect relationships. We illustrate how recent analytical advances in behavior genetics can use multivariate family data to address questions about the causal role of personality in psychopathology.

Age of symptom onset in young children with pervasive developmental disorders.

Data from 39 young children with autism or other pervasive developmental disorders were examined to determine the relevance of the age of social symptom onset and language symptom onset to other developmental variables. Contrary to the authors' hypotheses, earlier onset of social symptoms was not indicative of a greater severity of autistic symptoms, retardation, or incidence of insecure attachments. Early speech loss was associated with lower IQ, greater social deficits, and poorer language development, while the presence of useful speech at age 2 was related to better functioning in multiple domains. Thus, language functions, rather than the social behaviors examined, carried the greatest predictive power regarding short-term outcomes.

Compulsive compliance: the development of an inhibitory coping strategy in infancy.

This study explored the development of young children's behavioral strategies for coping with child abuse. It was hypothesized that infants exposed to the controllingness and harshness of interaction with an abusive mother would first learn to inhibit behavior disagreeable to the mother and later learn to comply with maternal demands. It was expected that this developmental change in abused children's behavior would be adaptive in the short term because it would reduce the probability of continued abuse. In the long term, however, compulsive compliance was expected to be maladaptive because it distorted the child's perception of, and response to, reality. In addition, it was hypothesized that the compliant behavior pattern would be used only with controlling interactants during the first 3 years of life. In other words, the descriptions of defensive patterns of behavior applied indiscriminantly by older abused children were not expected to apply to infants and toddlers. Both hypotheses were supported using data drawn from videotapes of mother-child and other adult-child interaction.