For this assignment, listen to the Prologue, Act 1, and Act 2 of the This American Life episode #360 called Switched at Birth. If you have a smartphone or tablet, the easiest way to listen to this, and all the other radio shows for the class, is to download the This American Life app. Once you have the app you can quickly find shows (by title or episode number) and listen right then and there. You can also go to the website www.thisamericanlife.org and search on episode number. I've found it for you here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/360/switched-at-birth click on launch player and listen to the show.
How did this episode make you feel? According to what you know about scientific aspects of nature vs nurture as presented in your textbook, which was most influential in the development of these children into adults? How were these people's personalities impacted by this switch?
Provide the psychology terms you used in your response at the bottom of your comment.
This episode made me feel a lot of emotions, and they changed as I listened. When I heard about Kay McDonald and how she was talking about Mary Miller dropping hints to her for so long, I thought it was kind of amusing and a little odd that she didn’t grasp that Mary was trying to tell her that their daughters had been switched at birth. After all, she suggested it outright, and someone would likely become kind of suspicious of that as a result. But, after I heard Kay talking about how she was so confused as to why Mary wouldn’t just come out and say something to her, I got a little upset, because you shouldn’t keep someone else’s baby when you KNOW it’s not your child. But after hearing Mary’s side of things, and knowing the culture of the 50’s household, I can understand why she might not want to have crossed her husband. In short, this radio story made me feel many emotions.
As far as nature versus nurture goes, I was really surprised that the two girls didn’t take on more of the personality traits that they were raised with. Yes, they never would have looked like their families with such different genes, but I would have thought that some cheerfulness would have rubbed off on Sue, or some solemnity would have affected Marti’s personality. Instead, the two girls virtually retained the personalities that they were predisposed to with the genes that they had, the personalities of their true parents. This speaks to the importance of nature versus nurture, and in this case, nature seems to have won out in affecting personality. Because the girls were more affected by their genetics in terms of their upbringing, it shows that in this case at least, nature has more prevalence than nurture.
In truth, I was really surprised when I found out that the two girls weren’t like their families. They looked like their birth parents, but because of their genetic predispositions, they acted more like their birth families. I fully expected some remnant of their upbringing to affect their personality, but based solely on the information provided by the interviews, it appears that their activities, social lives, interests, and overall traits were affected very little by their (non-biological) parents.
I would like to add that if this EVER happened to me, and I was in the position of Mary Miller, I would not hesitate to tell the other parents that I had their baby, as soon as I found out myself. I understand Mrs. Miller’s reasons for not doing so, but at the same time I believe she should have disregarded her husband’s misgivings and told Kay McDonald far sooner, as it wasn’t fair of her to withhold another woman’s child simply because she didn’t want to embarrass the doctor, or because by the time she was healthy enough, six months had passed. That’s a flimsy excuse, and I do understand her reasoning, but I’m still really upset.
emotions
nature versus nurture
personality
traits
genetics
predispositions
biological
This episode of This American Life made me feel all sorts of ways. I felt confused, angry, and heartbroken amongst many other feelings. I think that it was an extremely difficult situation for everyone involved for a number of reasons. Everyone was affected in different ways, but that doesn't lessen any of their struggles in learning to cope with what happened.
The episode made me think back to when I would watch the TV series called, "Switched at Birth". It was similar in many regards. Families awkwardly trying to gain a connection with each other, jealousy of the new connections being made, and some hurtful actions or words. The same concept is in place in both stories. But then I think about it. That TV series is just that. It's on TV and not real. The episode of This American Life actually happened to these people. I can't even begin to imagine how I would feel in any of their shoes.
When I think about what Mary did, I can't help but to feel conflicted. I would consider myself strong-willed and I would like to think that I would have stood my ground against Norbert, but I also realize that things were different back then. I still think she should have done the "right" thing, which in my opinion was to immediately inform everyone of the switch. But because she did not initially do that, I have to wonder if I would have brought it up after over forty years. I honestly do not think I would. These children have families of their own now. At that point, it isn't just a few people that are impacted, it's many. I think that personally I would rather let myself feel guilty for the rest of my life than to bring that emotional grief upon all of those other people. Maybe that seems selfish to some people for not letting them know their biological families, but I think it would be better that way. After all, nobody else would feel like they were left in the dark about it because they weren't at all suspicious. And why should they have been? I would expect to receive the child I gave birth to from the hospital, too.
After reading the chapter from the textbook, I was not surprised to hear about how the girls were not alike to their families that they grew up in. Instead they were more similar to the family that they shared a genetic relationship with. The chapter discussed how shared environments were less important than genetic factors to personality. So, clearly, it makes sense that they would not look like the families they were raised by, but they also did not share many of the same personality traits due to their genetic predisposition. That still does not mean that the parents should have suspected getting the wrong child. I know many families with children who aren't exactly the same as the rest of their siblings, including myself. In this case, nature just beat out nurture as it often does, and resulted in the overturn of a number of lives.
Vocabulary Terms: feelings, emotions, biological, genetics, shared environment, personality, predisposition, nature versus nurture
This episode definitely pointed out to me the impact of nature on personality. Although I am sure nurture plays a part as well, the switching of these two girls seems to prove that nature plays an equal if not greater part. Despite being raised from birth by the wrong family, these girls continued to display the qualities of their birth parents throughout their lives. Sue, who was raised by the McDonalds but was really a Miller, not only differed from her parents and brother in that she was skinny and dark haired, but her personality also differed. Her family was lighthearted while she was very serious and nervous. She was never popular and was often jealous of her brother was popular and outgoing. Sue also was more of a religious fanatic like the Millers. Marti also displayed the personality of her birth parents, the McDonalds, despite being raised by the Millers. She joked and was lighthearted, popular, and interested in athletics and other activities that her family didn’t value. Clearly, personality traits are partially inherited and are imprinted in us by our genes. I found this very surprising because I am quite different than my sister, and yet when I think about it I do see that we have similar dispositions that could be because of genes.
One thing that I considered when listening to this is how the girls must have felt about the life that they could have had. If I were Sue or Marti, I would spend a great deal of time thinking about how different my life would have been had I grown up with my actual biological parents. Although the girls would have probably fit in better with their biological families because of their personalities, I do agree with the Miller sisters that Sue “lucked out.” I was thinking about this before Sue read the letter from Faith. Sue was able to grow up in a more forgiving, fun, and relaxed household while Marti had to suffer through her parents’ strict rule which I am sure hampered her fun loving and popular nature.
The one thing that I feel very strongly about from this episode is the way that Mrs. Miller decided to handle this whole situation. Although I do understand that she didn’t want to disrespect the doctor and didn’t want to get into a fight with her husband, I think that overall these families would have been much happier had she done the right thing and fixed the switch. Clearly her decision to keep Marti as her own ended up causing pain for both families as well as the families of the switched girls. Even after Mrs. Miller decided to keep Marti, she told her suspicions to people in the church, wrote to the McDonalds, and even confronted Mrs. McDonald about the possibility of them being switched at birth. I thought this was reckless on her part and it caused much embarrassment for both girls as well as Mrs. McDonald when people in the community told the girls that they had always suspected. I also thought it was unfair that she wrote to Sue first, Marti much later, and not at all to Mr. and Mrs. McDonald. Overall, I really think that Mrs. Miller had some health issues both physically and possibly mentally that impeded her ability to think through these decisions to help her do what’s best for both girls and families.
Vocabulary: Nature, nurture, personality, inherited, genes
This episode was just kind of disturbing to me. The idea that someone could actually take home the wrong baby is really scary, even though I know we have much better technology at hospitals nowadays. I’ve never even considered that something like this could happen, so I spent the first part of the program just trying to wrap my brain around it. I also didn’t like how both Mr. and Mrs. Miller kept this a secret for so long. They really should have cleared this up right away, or at least told everyone. The girls and the McDonalds all had a right to know, so that made me kind of angry.
The textbook says that our development and personalities are from both nature and nurture. I think this episode really proves that nature has a huge part of development. Mrs. Miller’s letter said that Martha was nothing like the other children. When Martha’s biological brother called her after he found out that she was his actual sister, he recognized the way she talked and realized how much like her biological mother was. Both Marti and her brother were popular in high school, and had so much in common even though they didn’t know each other and didn’t grow up together. Sue and her brother never got along growing up, because they had nothing in common. They naturally didn’t get along. From this program, I’m thinking that nature was more influential in the development of these girls.
This episode got me wondering about what parts of your personality are natural and what parts develop. I’m thinking that the core part of your personality is natural, not nurtured. Marti was naturally perky, friendly, and sociable. This reminds me of the extraversion part of the five-trait test mentioned in our book. Marti would naturally score very high on this test, along with her brother. Marti’s family tried to teach her to be less outgoing, like encouraging painting and discouraging cheerleading, but they couldn’t nurture her into changing her extraversion. I think that these five core traits are traits that we are born with, not ones that we learn from experiences. They also seem to be heritable, as Sue and the Millers were all shy and quiet and Marti and the McDonalds were all loud and friendly.
I think that the girls’ personalities were affected somewhat by the switch. I think Sue definitely got the brunt of the effects of the switch. Sue was naturally a quiet, shy person, and living in the shadow of her perfect blonde family made her feel even more insecure. The pain of being overlooked in high school and not danced with followed her into adulthood, when her brother wouldn’t dance with her at her nephew’s wedding. She grew up in her brother’s shadow, and that made her feel shy, small, and unnoticeable as she grew into adulthood. Marti also suffered some effects from the switch, but in the opposite way. She grew up with seven quiet siblings, and was used to getting all the attention.
Terms: nature, nurture, personality, inherited, traits, five trait test
As I was listening to this episode I found myself feeling so many different things. At first, when they talked about Mary and how she knew all along I felt angry at her. I couldn’t understand why she did not tell the doctor and Kay sooner. In this, I felt similar to Kay when she found out through Sue and other people that Mary had known for a very long time. Listening further, however, I realized that there were several factors that had proven it very difficult for the situation to have been brought up and been believable. For example, Mary was very sick the first 6 months of the baby’s lives and therefore after she was well it was a lot harder to mention it given the girls’ age. Along with this Mary did not wish to go against her husband which was a popular thing back in the late 1900s in marriage. Mary chose to be respectful of her husband and did not wish to cross him. After hearing this I felt a little less angry and more sorry for what Mary had to go through to not tell Sue sooner.
Towards the end of the episode, when they were talking about the get togethers that the families put together, whether for weddings, funerals, or otherwise, I felt happy that everything had been smoothed out and that Sue and Marti had been able to keep in contact with both sets of parents. This would not be easy but it seemed like a great compromise given that neither of them wanted to lose the parents that raised them. I also felt that it was still a little odd that in the end Sue and Marti were both Millers and McDonalds.
Along with these feelings, I started to notice the differences in personality and nurturing of Sue and Marti. Marti grew up in a very “strict” household with lots of siblings but was naturally outgoing. In contrast, Sue grew up in a much more laid back household with one sibling but was naturally more “strict” and disciplined than the family that raised her. With this in mind, the book talked a little about the subject of nature v. nurture. The book mentioned several different twin studies and how genetics v. environment affected their personality. The scientists found that both have a component in a person’s personality. There were some things that Marti and Sue had from their biological families such as their temperament but there were also many things that were influenced by the environments in which they grew up. At the very end of the episode Marti and Sue talked about their sleeping arrangements when they grew up. Marti and Sue both expressed that they could not see themselves being raised in the other environment. This is a good indication that the environments they were used to affect how they would raise their kids and also what they found most comfortable. Their personalities were therefore affected not only by the genetics that were passed down from their biological parents but also from how they were raised.
Vocabulary: personality, nature, nurture, genetics, environment
Listening to this podcast was very unsettling for me. To hear about the hesitation in telling the doctor and the mother that the children had been switched and just the odd way that the situation was handled was very uncomfortable for me. I understand the difficulty of the situation and the factors that might have made it more difficult to come right out and tell the mother but overall this was an almost disturbing story that makes worry about the fact that this kind of stuff can actually happen.
It seems to me that the nature versus nurture argument is won in this case by nature. The Girls seemed to have more in common with their biological parents than with the parents that they lived with. This makes sense with the textbooks discussion of environmental factors not affecting personality as greatly as other factors like genetics but it’s strange to me that they wouldn’t be more similar to the people they spent so much time with.
I’m not sure if I can say that personalities were directly affected by the switch but I will the that the event definitely left its impression on both girls. Growing up in a family that you dot have much in common with would surely put a damper on your relationship. It’s obvious from hearing some of the stories that the families didn’t mesh as well as they could have and I’m sure that took quite on the emotional toll on both girls. Then on the other side, to go your whole life believing that your family is your family and then finding out that in fact they aren’t would shake anyone to their very core. For these girls to find out there is a whole family of people where they are “supposed to be” but aren’t must be like some sort of crazy out of body experience where you see someone else live the life you were supposed to have but never got the chance to.
This story is actually terrifying to me and my minor paranoia is kicking in and making me wonder if my family is actually my family. Luckily, my sister looks just like me, my personality matches with members of my family, and we share a lot of similar interests so unless this is one huge coincidence, I’m not too worried.
Nature
Nurture
Biological
Environmental
Factors
Genetics
Personalities
Impression
Relationships
Emotional
When I saw this podcast, my initial reaction was something along the lines of “oh, switched at birth, this’ll be very interesting!” It turns out, for most of the show, my reaction was mostly that of anger. I listened to the podcast six hours ago and I’m still just completely baffled as to why this happened in the first place. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that a mother would raise a girl she knew was not her daughter. I understand the whole “don’t want to embarrass the doctor who’s done so much for us” excuse, but embarrassing the doctor seems like a trivial matter when compared to keeping the wrong baby. It blows my mind that nothing was ever about the switch for 43 years. That’s so insane! I could never live that kind of lie, especially when it would have been so easy for the babies to be switched back! It’s not like the Millers and the McDonalds lived on opposite sides of the world, nor was it the case of a mother wanting a baby regardless of whose it was. It’s not like Mary Miller wasn’t going to have a daughter if she reported the switch; she’d just have her own.
I can’t even imagine the psychological damage this could cause to someone. You would think that by age 43 you would feel pretty stable in your chosen lifestyle, especially if you’ve settled down to have a family. Why did Mary choose to tell Sue and Marti at that time? It would throw everything in their life into question. If I was in either Sue or Marti’s position, I would question everything about my life and my identity. It even made me wonder if there was any possibility that I could’ve been switched at birth. Thankfully, my mind was set at ease when I thought about all of the similarities I share, both physically and personality-wise, with both my parents and my brother, but it still made me wonder. I have no idea how I would react in that situation. It’s not one I’ve ever really considered, at least in the context of one parent or one set of parents being aware and choosing to do nothing about it.
It also blows my mind how nobody noticed. I know people mentioned it to both of the girls at various times, but did anyone ever really seriously consider that that was a possibility? It seems like it should’ve been obvious, especially because they had mutual acquaintances and had interacted several times before. All of it, the earth-shattering revelations and the additional stress of another family and the tensions between the daughter, her biological mom and the woman who raised her could have been avoided with what could have been a very simple decision. Honestly, the whole question of nature vs. nurture comes into play here, and it’s possible that although their genetically-inherited personalities shone through, they would have excelled at different things or had other acquired personality traits had they been with the correct family. It has to be agonizing to wonder what would have been. Those women wouldn’t currently be questioning who they are and who they could have been if Mary Miller had told the doctor that the babies were switched. This whole story just kind of drove me crazy, because it was all so unnecessary.
genetics, inherited, nature vs. nurture, personality
This episode made me feel quite an array of emotions. After hearing the preface to the story, I was both appalled and angry. This seems like something that would happen in some T.V. show drama, not in real life. (I actually think there is a show, or a couple of shows, about babies being switched at birth…) Mixing up babies in a hospital, and raising a child that is not biologically your own for 40 something years is really just jaw-dropping. I also felt initial rage towards Mrs. Miller. If she knew the second she brought Marty home that she was not her biological daughter, than why wouldn’t she say something! Throughout the episode as I got to listen to both girls and Mrs. Miller herself talk, I realized the situation was not as black and white as I was making it out to be. This lessened my anger only slightly though. If something as monumental as mixing up babies happened in my life, no matter the circumstances, I would make sure that problem got addressed! I am also not terribly religious, but my understanding of faith in this situation would be that this was definitely not God’s will. To use that as an excuse is definitely, as was mentioned in the episode, a cop out.
In this episode, it is very apparent that the nature aspect of nature vs. nurture was very much at play in this situation. This is so because several times it was mentioned throughout the episode that the girls’ personalities were much more similar to their biological families’ as opposed to the families’ that they were raised with. Even after 40 some years of being a part of their non-biological family, both girls displayed obvious traits that could only be found in their biological family. So even when there was the opportunity for the nurture aspect to influence the girls’ personalities, nature was still much more influential. These differences are most obvious in this case because the two families’ personalities were very distinct. The Miller family was much more reserved and studious, with religion being a central part of their lives. Sue, the Miller’s biological child but was raised with the McDonald’s, exhibited many more of the Miller family tendencies. The McDonald family was much more lively and outgoing, and their biological daughter Marti also showed a lot of these same characteristics. So despite being raised in a household that had immensely different personalities, both girls maintained the personalities given to them genetically from their biological parents, further emphasizing the nature aspect.
Terms: Nature, nurture, biological, genetics, personalities
This American Life episode reminds me a lot of the Switched at Birth television show. I have many mixed emotions about this episode as I listened. The idea that someone can actually take home the wrong baby is kind of scary to me and the fact that one of the mothers knew right away and didn’t say something astonishes me and makes me hope that this does not actually happen as often as I think it does.
As far as nature versus nurture, I was surprised that they did not take on more personality traits that they were raised with. Instead the two girls retained the personalities that they were predisposed to with the genes that they had, the personalities of their true parents. This speaks to the importance of nature versus nurture, and in this case, nature seems to have won out in affecting personality. Because the girls were more affected by their genetics in terms of their upbringing, it shows that in this case at least, nature has more prevalence than nurture.
I found it interesting that these two girls were not more like their families. They looked like their birth parents, but because of genetic predispositions, they acted more like their birth parents then who they were raised with. I would have thought that the people they were raised with would have affected them in some way, but instead it was like they had not affected them at all.
The one reason this just really makes me think of Switched at Birth is because of the way that Mrs. Miller acted when she had figured out that her child had been switched for another, it happens to be just like the mother, Regina Vasquez who is played by Constance Marie. I just find it interesting the way that Mrs. Miller decided to handle the situation, I understand not wanting to upset her husband and not wanting to make the doctor feel as if they themselves are incompetent, but if you have a question pertaining to your child I feel like you should ask it, no matter how dumb or stupid you think that question may be. Clearly her decision did cause pain, especially considering how long she decided to wait to come out with her suspicions. The fact that she told people of her suspicions instead of keeping it to her family and the MacDonald’s family like she should have. There was no reason to make this into a societal affair.
Vocabulary: nature vs. nurture, personality traits, personalities, predisposed, traits, genetics.
I felt quite the rollercoaster of emotions as I listened to this radio broadcast hearing both sides and not exactly knowing how to feel about the whole situation and not being able to decide whether what Mary Miller did was right or misguided. I thought it was interesting hearing from all sides and getting the feel for how everyone felt about the situation. I felt really bad for Kay McDonald and a little angry at Mary for not mentioning the possible baby swap, but then hearing from her side how this decision tore her apart made me sympathize with her. I especially sympathized when she talked about not wanting to tell them because this might have horrible adverse effects on the children having to switch mothers at such a critical age. This kind of event could be very bad considering the developmental stages the babies were in. I also started to feel bad for Sue during this situation because to her it seemed like she was being pushed away from both families while Marti was being let into both openly. Overall it didn’t seem like their was a distinct way to truly feel about which decision may have been the right decision at the time.
Personality-wise for the two children going into adulthood it seemed from the families stories that their personalities and looks were very much nature based coming from their original families. As described Sue was much more solemn taking after Marti’s religious family while Marti was very outgoing and popular taking after the affluent personalities of Sue’s family. It was surprising to me that Marti didn’t end up being more solemn and straightlaced considering the religious and conservative home that she came from, however I think this shows just how much genes have an effect on your personality and what predisposition you may have behavior-wise. I believe that overall within their personalities the genes shared between them and their biological parents were the most prevalent, however their childhoods did in some ways shape who they are as adults. I think that Marti’s bookish part of her personality may have been more apparent however due to her non-biological parents and less apparent with her biological parents. I think that this switch also gave the two a slight sense of not belonging. They both said in their interviews that at some point in their lives they experienced a sense of not feeling like they belonged to their families because they seems so contrasting. I think this experience didn’t give them that kind of anxiety about who they are to the point of psychologically scarring them as children, but I think that it sounded like that particular experience did kind of set them apart from their families as they grew and possibly set up barely visible barriers between them at times. I’m not certain if they talked specifically about this in the radio broadcast, but I’m sure that how they were raised did have a bigger impact on which organizations and groups they joined as children more than their genes would have determined.
Terms: predisposition, genes, personality, developmental stages
While listening to this episode, I felt confused, embarrassed, and outraged. While I’m not sure how I would handle the situation if I was in the middle, I felt like the entire situation could have been handled better on everyone’s part. The first (and most important) thing that concerned me was that the children were mislabeled. I just can’t comprehend how a nurse or doctor could “swap” the two babies. I feel like that just shouldn’t happen and that there is no excuse for it happening. When the families returned home and one of the mothers (the names have completely confused me, and I can’t remember what family is what and whose child is whose) KNEW that the baby she brought home wasn’t hers, I felt sorry for her because her husband said that it was a ridiculous idea and that they shouldn’t disgrace the doctor by even suggesting that a switch could have happened. But knowing that she was very sick when they returned, I can somewhat understand how the idea was dismissed. When the genetic differences between the children and their “families” started to become more apparent, I think the families could have done something about it. I know writing in an essay that a family should take their child to a doctor for genetic testing is a lot easier said than done, but I think the trauma would be less if they found out after 15 years as opposed to 40.
When the children were old enough to start showing a distinct personality (as opposed to temperament), I was very surprised that they were acting similar to their biological families. I had never realized how much genetics influenced personality. This episode made me look back at my family and figure out how much of our personality is genetic and how much is “nurture.” After going through my family’s personality, I could easily understand how other people could see the resemblance to the children and their biological families.
I don’t think that the personalities of the children were affected that much; I think that the learned to suppress their “bad” traits. For example, the girl who was more open and living with the quiet, religious family probably learned to be quieter around the house and to fit in with her “adoptive” family. The differences between the girls and the family were probably just pushed aside without much thought because no one is exactly alike and everyone has their differences, even within the family.
Genetics
Personality