Michigan State Twin Registry

In psychological research there are often similarities and differences among the studies that are being conducted or have been completed. The similarities could be two or more studies looking at similar subject matter or two or more studies using similar methods in their research. With the amount of ongoing and completed psychological studies there is a very high chance of their being two or more studies that share similarities. Even though there can be similarities among psychological research studies there are also differences among psychological research studies as well. So in other words it can be very easy to find two or more studies that are both similar and different from each other. An example of two studies that share multiple similarities …show more content…
Alexandra Burt is looking to see how the environment and genetics play a role in twins’ antisocial behavior and is using the Michigan State University Twin Registry to help with her research. Professor S. Alexandra Burt is a professor and a researcher at Michigan State University, and she helps run the Michigan State Twin Registry. The Michigan State Twin Registry is a twin registry that is located and is a part of Michigan State University’s psychology department. Some of the research assistants in Professor S. Alexandra Burt’s lab interview twins and their families who are a part of the previously mentioned twin registry. During the interview session the twins and their parents are asked to fill out questionnaires and are asked to play with etch-a-sketch. The twins and their parents are then filmed playing with an etch-a-sketch, in order for the research assistants to gain a better understanding of their behavior and to see how they interact with each other.
Another part of Professor S. Alexandra Burt’s lab is called the Neighborhood Informant Study, which gathers its data by sending questionnaires to the neighborhoods that the twins in her study live in. The questionnaires in the Neighborhood Informant Study contain questions about fear of crime, personality, life satisfaction, and informal social control. The participants in this study have an option of answering the questionnaires that are sent to them online or by …show more content…
In the Armstrong study the participants were asked about their views on collective efficacy in relation to their neighborhood and they were also asked about crime that occurred in their neighborhood (Armstrong, Katz, & Schnebly, 2015). The Neighborhood Informant Study questionnaire contained questions that were about informal social control and fear of crime. The informal social control questions in the Neighborhood Informant Study questionnaire asked participants about how much they believed they would or their neighbor would help another. The fear of crime questions in the Neighborhood Informant Study questionnaire asked participants about how much they fear crime in their neighborhood and what type of precautions did they undertake in order to avoid being a victim of