Final Reflection

Final Reflection

            My blog postings were about myself and my twin brother Matthew. I wanted to try to understand why we’re as close as we are. I didn’t know if it was because we were twins, or maybe because we haven’t lived apart from each other for a long period of time. Through a lot of research and reading, I was a little disappointed. I didn’t really find a definitive answer to my question, but I did find good information.

            Through scientific research and studies, several doctors looked for reasons for different behaviors between identical and fraternal twins. Identical twins showed a lot of similarities with their traits compared to fraternal twins. Unlike the studies, Matthew and I have a lot of similarities, so that seemed to discredit those findings. Another conclusion one scientist came to, was that when identical twins had an advantage of very similar behavior because they’re the same sex. Matthew and I are different sexes, but we’re still similar. I put those findings aside and moved towards different studies and research amongst twins period.

            A study about twins was conducted when they were younger. Those findings were compared to non-twin siblings and the conclusion those doctors came to was nothing definitive. Scientists couldn’t figure out what made twins the way they are. It showed that twins are just as close as any other set of siblings that has years between them. Not only did all of this research amongst two studies and three different types of research done not answer my question, I was confused.

            After thinking long and hard and going through our lives together, I’ve come to the conclusion that Matthew and I are close because we choose to be. Nobody can give an answer as to a twin’s behavior, so that question would need to be answered based on my feelings and emotions. Once I started this project I started to spend more time with Matthew. It made me feel like I wanted to be around him more. Doing this type of project in a non-traditional way definitely helped. I had to continue to look for research and get more information. It lead me to a lot of information I didn’t know about twins at all, but it also made me even more closer to my brother.

Close Forever

Close Forever

            Matthew and I have come a long way together. We have been through our ups and downs, and we still have a strong bond. That bond grows stronger as we grow older. As twins we have always thought that’s why we are close, but throughout my research that bond is not only because we’re twins, it’s because we choose to be close.

            Several different studies have been done to try to understand twins (Emde, 1992). Not only have these studies been continuing for years, nobody can ever seem to get the right answers (Emde, 1992). In a study on temperament amongst twins, results have never been very clear as to what makes a set of twins’ temperament the same or different at a young age (Edme, 1992). The study videotaped twins’ behaviors with each other, and when that approach didn’t give good results scientists turned to parental questionnaires (Edme, 1992). The list of questions was done for sets of twins ranging from infancy to young adults (Edme, 1992). That information showed evidence of some influence genetically, but it also showed evidence of parents exaggerating differences between identical and fraternal twins (Edme, 1992). Both approaches yielding less to nothing in results, so scientists moved on to a different characteristic between twins.

            Emotionally, twins can be very different. There was one assessment that was done among a small group of twins, showed strong genetic influence (Edme, 1992). One example would be when a twin was to be approached by a stranger (Edm, 1992). The study also says that more positive emotions like laughing or smiling were not attributed to genetic influence (Edme, 1992). Putting both results together, it was assumed in that small group study, that negative emotions were attributed to genetic influence and positive emotions were not (Edme, 1992). No matter what the results were though, scientists have concluded that a larger group of twins need to be studied to gain more conclusive results (Edme, 1992).

            Matthew and I make our own rules. We might not agree on some things, but for the most part we react to similar situations the same way. For example, when our mother does something that we knew she was going to do before she did it; we always look at each other and start laughing. We don’t get that from her, we have always been like that. Our mother has done several different questionnaires when we were younger with other mothers of twins and her answers were different than theirs. Actually all of the answers were different amongst the mother’s, there were no similarities. Our mother concluded that every person is different and there is nothing wrong with that.

            There are a lot of similarities between Matthew and I, and we gain a lot of our knowledge from our mother. She has made us the strong, young adults that we are now. We have so much to thank her for and we do every day. Matthew and I keep ourselves close and we love to spend time together. Our mother still loves the fact that we stay close and we make it a point to have that closeness we have made between each other.

Emde, R. (1992). Temperament, emotion, and cognition at fourteen months: The MacArthur longitudinal twin study. Health & Social Work. Retrieved January 30, 2012 from Health & Social work database.