Switched at Birth

Jacob Clark
Psych
November 8, 2014
Switched at birth
The first thing i felt after hearing this was indifference. Not because i wasn't listening or it went over my head, but because i have always felt like i was an apple off the same tree as my parents before me. While i am my own individual, it shows that we are related fairly evidently. However, it is this indifference to what was happening to these families emotionally that kept me interested.
Here, we come to the great “nature v.s. Nurture” debate. As an 18 year male i don't feel justified to speculate on such an all encompassing topic. However, in my brief 18 years i have come to conclude on evidence from this audio, and from the rest of the world, that it is neither Nature or Nurture, but both. Generally, there is a yin and yang to everything we do. So it is with Nature and Nurture. Yes, we are born with our genes. Cant change em. Then we are born with genetic pre dispositions. These are things we tend to gravitate towards, but may still choose to act on, or not. Just as well, there is our environment. Up to a certain point we have no control over those that care for us and the situations we are put in. My point being, you can't pin everything to one side or the other.
As far as how they were impacted by the switch, i believe it was fairly insignificant. Yes, there was some slight road bumps along the way. But, being raised by completely genetically different people and turning out decent is a score for nurture. However the “out of place” feeling that can only be explained by the fact that she is indeed in the “wrong” family is a score for nature. Overall, as far as affecting their success into their adult lives, i don't think it hindered them very much.
Terms: personality, nature v.s. nurture,

At first, when I heard the beginning I was a little upset because it said that she knew from the moment she brought the baby home that it wasn't her baby, and had waited so long to tell the truth. The reason they didn't come forward was because they didn't want to disgrace the doctor that they loved even though there was a big mixup. These families obviously knew that the baby that they had weren't their own kids because they didn't look or act like their other children.
While listening to this radio show I first thought of the show Switched at Birth on ABC family. I used to watch this show all the time and it was a really good show. The same thing happened in this show, the daughters in the show were switched at birth and because of a DNA test they found out that the families that they were living in were not their biological families everything changed. At first there was a lot of hate because the families came from two completely different backgrounds. Eventually everything was worked out and instead of two separate families, they became one big family. While listening to this podcast I cant even imagine the psychological toll it would have on these families. While growing up I just thought of all of the mental problems it could cause and how much bullying could happen because they don't look anything like their families. After finding out, I think I would be very irritated if I knew that my parents knew from the beginning because it could have changed their whole entire lives. Now a days, it is not really possible to switch babies at birth because doctors and nurses try to keep the newborn baby with their mother as much as possible to create a bond between the two and nurseries aren't really used as much because of the newly developed suites in the baby departments in hospitals. I know that around here you check into the hospital when the baby is coming and you deliver the baby in the same room you are staying in and they set up the bassinet for the baby as well. So now it is nearly impossible for babies to be switched with another baby. I think that the personalities of the people in this story were not effected that much because they were so old when they found out, I think that the biggest toll on them was growing up being “different” because of their certain biological traits. I think that it all depended on their personalities and I think that they handled it all very well considering what had happened.

Some psychological terms that I used were psychological toll, DNA testing, mental problems, bullying, biological traits, and personality.

After listening to this episode it made me feel bad for the two girls that got switched at birth and did not find out or realize it until they were in there early 30s. I feel bad for them because the one set of parents that noticed that the baby they brought home the first day was not their baby, and knew that for a fact because she did not look like any of the other babies they have. I also felt bad when they found out that they were not in the right families and the mothers would do weird things For example, the girl that was actually a mcdonald, received a letter from her no biological mother with a brochure that tells her who her real uncle is and who her biological brother is. I would feel so lost and out of place even more than I already was if I was them. I thought it was kind of interesting how the girls starting paying attention to the way their biological families acted, and how they acted more like them, rather than the family they were raised and brought into.
From what I know about scientific aspects of nature and nurture from the textbook, the one that was most influential in the development of these children into adults was nurture. This was a big influence because even though the children are not theirs, they still took care of them like they were. Also, the one family did have this feeling of knowing that their daughter was not actually theirs right when they brought her home. They did not treat them any different for the most part, but the girls personalities were very different from the families they were raised in.
The people’s personalities were impacted by this switch because like I said before, the girls personalities were a lot different than the families they were brought up into. Ruth, the sister of one of the girls, took her other siblings and had their boyfriends drive them 17 miles away from home to the mcdonald church so they could see if they could find anything about their sister. They noticed that Sue, the daughter brough up in the mcdonald family, had a lot of the same characteristics of theirs, and of the their parents. The way she walked was one that really stuck out to them. Another way the personalities were impacted by the switch was when sue was in high school she was always the odd man out, and always felt different from everyone else, mainly her brother. She noticed her brother was more outgoing than her because they were at a wedding, and she noticed that he danced with everyone but her. Sue said it brought her back to when she was in high school and no one danced with her because she was different.
All in all, I think this switch made things really difficult, made people upset and confused. I could not imagine finding out that my parents were not actually my parents. In a way, I would feel a sign of relief because after awhile even the two girls noticed changes and differences between them and their families, which after finding out that they were actually switched at birth.

After listening to this episode I felt many emotions. I was mad at the Miller’s for keeping this secret for 43 years. If they knew that the child they brought home was not there’s from the get go than why did they not say anything about it? If I were in that situation I would have told right away because nobody deserves to go through that situation. It’s best for children to be raised by their biological families. During Act I they were talking about how there is always that one ‘odd’ child in the family but you are still able to tell they are part of that family. The babies that were switched were completely opposite of that theory though because they had nothing in common with their brothers and sisters.
When it comes to the debate of nature vs. nurture I believe that nature was the most influential in the development of these children into adults. I believe it was nature was the most influential in the development of these children into adults because like I said before the children were nothing like there families they were raised with so there biological traits took over and they acted like their biological family and not their family they grew up with.
Their personalities were greatly impacted by the switch because growing up they knew they were nothing like their families and they were always that ‘odd’ child. One of the children even asked her ‘mother’ “Am I adopted”? I believe they were also greatly impacted because I know if I grew up with the wrong family I would definitely feel uneasy about it and I would feel like I was lied to my entire life. Even though both children reacted differently to the news I believe they were still impacted the same amount. I can’t even imagine the toll the switch took on these children and their families.
Some psychological terms I used were nature vs. nurture, development and biological traits.

I didn't really have a lot of emotions towards it. If anything I felt kind of bad for the kids who were not given the chance to be raised by their biological parents. This happens with adoption, but the parents wanted to raise their kids, but not given the chance. It is also kind of sad that to think of it from a parental standpoint. They doubted that the kid was theirs by the way it looked, acted/behaved, etc. Imagine after being raised by a family for years, finding out that they aren’t your real parents. I feel like it would be an extremely traumatic experience for me. It changes the person based on who they are being raised, and it makes you wonder what would be different if they were raised by the proper parents. Nature vs nurture is an interesting discussion. Which has more of an effect on things? The genes come from the genetics of their parents. It has also been shown that a person’s body composition and BMI (body mass index) is much more likely to be closer related to the biological parents. In physical aspects such as appearance, nature is dominant to nurture. Nurture can have a good effect on personality. Nurture can be things like how they are treated in the family, environment they grow up in, opportunities that the person is given, etc. I believe nurture has a bigger effect. The child may grow up in a higher class family and be able to go to college. This could have a positive or negative effect. There could be a family that the child could benefit or damage the child's future. Nature has an effect, but I believe nature is much more important to development. The babies that were switched at birth most likely had altered their possible personalities compared to if they would have been raised by their biological parents. However, it also had an affect on the parents as well. Especially the parents who knew that they had been given the wrong baby. It had an extreme effect on them. I could not imagine knowing that I took home a different kid and had to keep that secret for 43+ years. I feel like I would almost go insane. Personality can be altered based on how they are raised, because it is made up of many beliefs. Many times, our parents that we are raised by instil those beliefs in us. We grow up around them so we start to think like them. That is not always the case, but more than not, it is true.

terms: biological, nature vs nurture, genes, genetics, personality, development,

This week’s radio show was about two babies that were switched at birth and found out after 40 years. This show was as interesting as it was unsettling. I think the weirdest part of this story is how this was kept a secret for so many years. If I found out that I brought home the wrong baby, I’d be back at that hospital getting MY child. I think it was worse to wait that many years, when everyone’s life is on track and the two girls are living their own lives with families of their own. I think that after 40 years, I would have just let it go, there isn’t really a point to rock the boat and jumble everyone’s lives around when everything they’ve known was wrong.

I learned a lot about personality from this show. Throughout the chapters of our textbook we’ve been learning about the concept of nature vs. nurture and which one is the basic component to our lives and how we evolved. For this example, I think nature had a lot to do with the two daughters and their different personalities. Both the mothers and daughters in this story talked about the two girls and their different characteristics that differentiated them from the families they grew up with. Mrs. Miller talked about how she knew Marty was not her biological daughter because she was unlike the rest of her children; she had blonde hair and wasn’t as serious as the others. The way that Marty grew up, or was nurtured, had nothing to do with these personality traits.

When listening to this part of the story, thought back to our chapter and the section on how our personality is affected by genes and the environment. In this section many adoption studies have collected evidence stating that two children who are not biologically related but raised as siblings in the same household tend to be no more alike in personality than any two strangers on the street. Genes make an impact of the personality of a person, also studied with the five-factor theory. Also, the way the two girls were described explained temperament. Temperament is the general tendency to feel or act in certain ways. This sense of your own personality is broader than just personality traits. Opposite from nurture, temperament is the innate biological structures of personality. The way that Mrs. MacDonald describes Sue being very serious about everything and not joking around portrays Sue’s temperament.

The personality of the two girls’ was impacted on a grand scale because of the switch. The major personality change that happened was that both girls’ felt that they did not fit in with their families. If they had grown up and were raised by their biological parents, this would not be a part of their personality. I think that the switch also influenced their self-esteem. Because the two didn’t particularly feel like their belonged, lowered their self-esteem and didn’t feel good enough. I think another one of the most important concepts presented throughout the story is how drastically the two girls’ self-schemas changed. They had each grown up with a certain schema of their life. With the knowledge of themselves being the daughter to their families or sister to their siblings always being in their schema, it was shocking to think of removing that from their life. The way the girls’ saw themselves was completely changed, and thus their personalities were different. One’s sense of themself makes a big impact on personality and I feel that there was no way two girl’s could be the same after such a drastic change.

Psych Terms: personality, nature vs. nurture, genes, five-factor theory, temperament, self-schema, self-esteem

Switched at birth blog response
11/11/14

This episode made me feel somewhat upset actually, the way the families (both of them) dealt with the situation at hand was very poor. Some that believe in the theory of situationism would say that if they wouldn’t have been put in such a bad situation they wouldn’t reacted in such a poor manner. It can be seen clearly that both families are put into to tough situations, yet both react very differently to the situation. I personally would take on the beliefs of an interactionist, those who believe that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying traits. As we see, there was some reasoning behind Mrs. Miller not coming forward and saying that she had the wrong baby. First, we need to account for different social norms. Her husband told her that he didn’t think they should make a fuss about it, this was in the 50’s, she didn’t want to undermine her husband, and possibly be left by herself with six children, so she kept her mouth shut. Also, they need to be in good standing with their doctor to be able to afford proper care for their children. All very understandable things, and to add, she was busy fighting for her life for the next 7 months of her life, and didn’t have a lot of time to worry or think about it. At the same time, does that make what she did right? Mrs. McDonald didn’t seem to think so, and I guess I don’t have a good answer. What I will say is that I believe Mrs. McDonald reacted poorly in her situation. After 43 years, she didn’t seem to care that blood isn’t the only thing that makes a family, even though she got to raise her beautiful daughter, she still was outrageously upset, not even once hinting at the fact that she was happy the way it turned out.

In this chapter, a term named basic tendencies was talked about. Basic tendencies are personality traits that are largely determined by biology and are stable over time. I think this story proves that to be true. It can definitely be seen that these girls are very different than the families they were raised in, and uncannily similar to their “blood” family. This shows that biology has huge effects on a person’s personality. Environment doesn’t have that much to do with it. Temperament is one of the biologically based tendencies; it deals with activity level, emotionality and sociability. Marty, was raised in a family that didn’t really do sports, were very studios, and straight forward yet she was light hearted and very active just like her real family the McDonalds. Sue was just the Millers, but she was raised in the household with fun-loving and easy-going people. Both of these girls’ temperaments came from their genes.

I think that finding out this information did impact them. Some things that we learn that are affected by environment are personal morals and beliefs. If the girls would’ve been in different households, their outlooks on things might be different. Also, it could have possibly made their life easier, being able to fit in with their own families better. One thing I would like to point out, is that I think it made the girls, at the age of 43 somewhat travel back into adolescents. It brought out all their insecurities about themselves, and lowered their self-esteem. Essentially both of them did an upward comparison with one another, and felt like they had came up short and that neither family would want them, which didn’t turn out to be true in either situation. It also essentially ruined their self-concept. What they believed they had been their whole lives, changed in just a matter of days. This would be a hard thing for anyone to deal with.

Terms: Situationism, Interactionists, Social Norms, Basic Tendencies, Temperament, Self-Esteem, Upward Comparison, Self-Concept

This episode of This American lifeshow was about two women who were switched at birth. It makes me feel sad and at the same time shocked me. This podcast was talking about two families who were totally different with different beliefs, traditions, style of lives and so on but their daughters were switched. I can't even imagine how these women felt themselves, when your mom is saying that she is not your biological mother. What was the most weird and surprising is that mother (Ms. Miller) who wrote the letter to both of her daughters knew the truth from the first day. I cannot understand how she could keep this secret more than 40 years. How a mother could voluntarily give her own child to another family and live with her in one neighborhood. All this years she was observing how her own daughter was calling another woman mom, how she was growing, how she studied at school, when she got married and other important aspects of her life. However she only could watch as a stranger to all her life events. At the end of the episode Ms. Miller was explaining why she did that. First after giving birth she was really sick and even though she could not survive. She even thought about who will be a new mother for her 6 children. She was sick for more than half a year. After that she could not say the truth to the family who was raising this little girl that they are not biological parents to her. Also her husband was disagreeing and she didn't want to argue with him because as she saying it could lead to divorce. I am really confused because it seems like it is a storyline of one of this dramatic movies or TV-shows which we are watching in cinemas or TV. It looks like it is a fictitious story written by scenarios with very good imagination. However it is a true story with real people.
Both nature and nurture plays important role in our development. Our personality directly impacted by both nature and nurture. I development of these particular girls I think nature played more important role. Sue McDonalds who were so serious and quiet was growing in a family of easy going, sociable people. She had a dark hair while everyone in her family was with blonde hair. People were asking her is she adopted. Same as Sue, Marta Miller was totally different in her family. She had a blonde hair, was outgoing, laughed a lot, joked around, liked music and was even cheerleader in her school. While all in her family were very serious and devoted to church. Thus biological factors had a huge impact in their development of personality. According to textbook, some adoptions studies proved that genetic is essential and paramount in developing of personality. In these studies two children who are mot biologically related but rose as siblings in the same household tend to be more alike in personality than any two strangers randomly plucked off street. The reason is that these siblings do not share genes. Moreover the personalities of adopted children bear no relationship of their adoptive parents. Thus personality between siblings and between children and biological parents definitely has some genetic component. As I know from the chapter our temperament are innate. Temperament is general tendency to feel or act in certain ways. This sense of a person is broader than personality traits. Life experience can alter personality traits, but temperaments represent the innate biological structure of personality. Thus Sue and Marta had their temperament from the first days of lives. Marta was sociable laughed at everything and joked around, while Sue was totally different.
However environment also plays important role and switch impact their personality in certain ways. Genes and biological factors served as a foundation of developing their personalities but they had to be adapted to the environment. Millers had 6 children; all girls had to help mother with cleaning the house, washing dishes, doing laundry from the early age. There was a lot of money; they had certain hobbies that were shared within the family members. They were devoted to church. In contrast, McDonalds had only three children and had different life. I think these aspects of their environment changed their behavior and had influenced personality development.
Terms used: Personality, nature and nurture, temperament, adoptions studies, personality traits, genes, biological factors.

Well after listening to this story I have many feelings about this episode. I always wondered what it would be like to know if you were switched at birth or not. I never felt like I was or anything because my mother and I look exactly alike but I have always felt like the odd ball in the family or like I didn’t belong. The one thing about listening to this episode that has me puzzled is the fact that Mrs. Miller went 40 years before telling the ladies that they were switched at birth. She knew right when she brought the baby home that it wasn’t hers. Maybe it has to do with it being back in the day and it wasn’t a big deal then but now I feel like people will do any and everything to get their real baby back. She was really nonchalant about the whole deal. For some reason I felt like she was scared of her husband and since her husband said that it was fine and just keep someone else’s baby then that’s what she did.
The biggest thing that this show told us was the nature vs. nurture part of psychology. Marti and Sue were the women that were switched at birth and once they found out about it and contacted their biological families they seen a lot of similarities. This proves that genetics and personality do happen because of nature and not so much because of nurture. Sue was really a Miller but she was switched with the McDonald family. Even though she was now a McDonald she looked just like the Miller family resembling them with her features and dark hair just like them. She had the same traits as her biological family did. The McDonald family had blonde hair. When she asked her mother about things like this her mother would just tell her a story about how she took after an aunt or uncle. One thing that I also thought was very interesting while listening to this story was the fact that everyone knew about it. Everyone including one of the mothers that had the switched daughter knew about the children not really being a part of the family and no one chose to speak up on it. Now days I feel like as soon as there is even an accusation about that it will get around and fast.
Listening to the reactions of each individual was also interesting. Each of them felt a different way about the situation. Mrs. McDonald and Mrs. Miller had completely different outlooks on the situation. I think the reasoning behind that is the fact that Mrs. Miller knew the whole time. Mrs. McDonald was much more sensitive about the situation her being the one who did not know the whole time. Mrs. McDonald is the one who raised Sue and found out that Marti was her real daughter. This was a very stressful situation for Mrs. McDonald it being the only girl that she raised. She did not kick Sue to the curb for one second because she knew in her heart that Sue was just as much as her daughter because she raised her as well. Mrs. Miller on the other hand was in the state of mind of getting to know her real daughter Sue. Mrs. McDonald seemed to be very impacted by the switch and soon had to be put on medicine for it.
Terms: personality, nature vs. nurture, genetics, psychology, traits

When I first started listening to this episode I was immediately shocked within the first few minutes. The prologue starts out with a woman saying she took home the wrong babe, and she even knew she had the wrong baby! It’s almost like stealing a baby, I couldn’t imagine being the kid who grew up with the wrong family. When the family even started to notice the differences in personality between the families other children; her traits were the complete opposite of her siblings; her greater self esteem, not needing to get the glasses, and they still did not say anything. Sue’s friends started noticing and saying things like “you must be adopted because you're nothing like your family” and when Sue asked her parents, they lied. I couldn’t imagine the feeling. Especially because she's afraid her real parents would not like her, that she would have been replaced, but when she meets the Miller’s she realized how much alike all they were. It is such a crazy situation! It made me think about how I am the complete opposite of my family I grew up with. I am the most jokingly, obnoxious, talkative person you’ll ever meet. My family on the other hand is quite reserved and professional. I know me having the wrong parents isn’t a possibility considering I look exactly like my mom, but it was interesting to think about!
The most influential component of these girls development was clearly nature. When switched at birth the differences between the personalities was already quite relevant and as they grew up they became more and more noticeable from the way the looked, their health, their personalities, how they acted, even how they walked! Nurture played little to no role in the development of Sue and Marty. As they continued to grow up they accepted the differences they had with their families. Marty and Sue were both even told while growing up they act a lot like their biological parents and of course this would be jokingly being said or they were told they had to have been adopted because they are nothing like the rest of their family.
The families are already complete opposites when it came to personalities, The millers were more quiet, a lot more serious, and not as jokative. The Mcdonald's were described as quick to joke and very easy going. The girls definitely kept their personalities they were born with, when Sue grew up she kept the same personality her family had. More quiet and reserved. Marty was very outgoing, peppy, and always joking around just like the Mcdonalds did! Marty felt her tendency was to be athletic and friendly, complete opposite of what her family thought. Both of the girls never experienced characteristic adaptations, they were how they were and nobody was gonna change that! In our book it says that personality is affected by environment, but In this situation I do not see that. Both the girls were out of place with their families they grew up with.
Terms: personality, traits, self esteem, nature, nurture, tendency, characteristic adaptations, environment, development

This episode was really sad. it is just crazy how Mary Millers knew about having the wrong baby, but she didn’t straighten it up. She kept it quiet, it was just sad how both girls grew up with someone who aren’t their biological parents. Not mentioning that they didn’t look physically to any of the people in the family. This is where the nature vs nurture come in. Sue was inherited most of her biological parent’s believe. Plus, Sue has mentioned that she was thinking what exactly her biological parents believed in. Sue was a serious girl,, but she lived in a easy going and sociable family. Same with Marti, she was a fun and outgoing person just like her biological family, but living in a serious family. They were growing up in the wrong family that they couldn’t fit in. They both were acting nothing like her family, they had a hard time trying to fit in the family. Also that they never meet their expectation. Over the years, Marti had to work hard all her life, because it was just the way the Millers want their kids to be. On the other side, Sue was not belong to the family, her brother and her weren’t getting along because they had nothing in common.

I believe both of them were mostly influenced by aspects of nature, because from the episode we could infer that they were having a hard time growing up at the family, that they couldn’t fit in or feeling like they weren’t belong there. Their temperament as kids were already totally different from the families. Their personalities also got changed in the environment that they living. For example, Marti was a fun and popular girl in school, but the family never went to see her cheerleading at the games because the Millers thought that sports weren’t something big to them. Also growing up in the wrong family doesn’t help boost Sue’s self-esteem either because her brother Bob was so popular growing up, but she was just a shy girl in school and nobody wanted to hang out with her. She felt left out. Even when they were both adults, she didn’t feeling the care from her brother toward her. Both of the girl experienced the characteristic adaptations to the families. So every aspect of nurture could also influence their development as growing up.

The families were already opposite when coming to personalities. So it was hard for the girls to grow up in the opposite families. I personally think that the girls were a little angry toward Mrs. Miller. Because she should have straighten this up from the beginning, but she chose to listened to Mr. Miller and stayed silent for all those years. The girls just don’t understand why Mrs. Miller spoke up after that many years staying silent. I feel really bad for both moms and daughters, growing up in the wrong families is hard, but raising the wrong child is much harder for Mrs. McDonald. Because she didn’t know it, and Marti was her only daughter, she had to experienced the hardship in the family that she lived in. It was just upsetting at the end of the episode to listen to everyone’s aspect in the story.

terms: nature, nurture, biological parents, personality, environment, self-esteem, temperament.

Having two babies switched at birth is not something that you think about happening in real life. Sure, it makes a good premise for a TV show, but you never really expect something like that to happen in real life. You would think that the doctors would be able to take better care of making sure that the right baby went to the right parent, and you would think that maybe the parents would be able to tell whether or not the baby was there’s. In this episode of This American Life we hear about an instance when the doctors did make a mistake and the two babies were given to the wrong set of parents. Listening to this shocked me mainly because of the fact that Mrs. Miller knew that she had the wrong baby from the very beginning, but didn’t tell the doctor that she thinks he made a mistake because her husband didn’t want her to make the doctor feel bad. If I were that sure I would want to make sure that I got my actual baby back. This story does do a good job in proving one thing though. That thing is that genetics does play an important role in the personality of people. We can see this in the differences that Marti and Sue had with the respective families that they grew up with, and the similarities that they have with their biological families. Marti growing up was always looking to joke and was a happy and carefree girl. The family that she grew up with though, the Millers, were not. They were a serious type that looked at things very matter-of-factly and didn’t do much in the terms of joking around. Marti’s biological family, the one that she should have been with, was much like her in that they were very care free and would love to joke around. Sue on the other hand, who grew up with the McDonald’s is not very joking and instead a very serious and studious woman, much like the Miller’s. This shows that genetics do play a part in shaping your personality. These two grew up without ever being close with their biological parents, and yet, they are more like their biological parents then the parents that raised them. The impact that the parents that raised them had on their personality was not covered as much as the likeness that they had to their biological parents, but both of the women agreed that they still consider themselves members of the families that they were raised in even if they share no biological relations. One thing that can be seen from the nurture perspective is religion. The woman were raised in the religion that their parents that raised them had, so religion is one thing that can not be transferred through genetics from their parents and is much more nurture than nature.

Terms: Personality, genetics, nature, nurture

After listening to this episode, I was very confused as to why Mrs. Miller had not spoken to Mrs. McDonald, or anyone about the slight doubt she had after noticing her baby was two pounds lighter than what she was told after she gave birth to her. Even though the babies were raised for so long without any communication, it was the right thing to do to tell the other family what had happened. As Sue and Marti grew up they noticed differences between them and their families they had grown up with. Sue was raised as a McDonald, but had dark hair, was shy, very devoted to church, but was not outgoing. All of Sue’s traits were that of the Millers and were opposite of her brother Bob, which troubled her. In a similar manner Marti was raised a Miller, but had blond hair, very outgoing, and popular. All her characteristics were that of the McDonald’s. This is where we look into Nature vs Nurture about what aspects impacted these individuals. Both girls were raised in different families and nurtured to be the best they could be regardless of seeming odd, or sticking out compared to everyone else in their families. However, their biological nature was dominant in them and it showed in their personalities. Since temperament is the aspect of the personality that is most determined by biology, which involves three things: activity level, emotion, and sociability. Both families were clearly different since both Sue and Marti had opposite characteristics and behaviors than their family. In the end, the switch made people very upset and confused. Each person reacted differently and although it is difficult for me to talk about this, since I cannot even begin to imagine this happening to me, it must have been incredibly difficult for the girls and families involved.
Terms: personality, nature, nurture, traits, characteristics, temperament, communication.

This episode made me feel like two people in this world lived a very interesting life. I think that it is extremely wrong that Mr. Miller didn’t let his wife say something about the switch. I don’t think that the doctor would have been very upset if it we so obvious that a switch had been made. It seemed to me that it was pretty obvious as the baby weighed two pounds less than the one she actually gave birth to. I am glad that Mrs. Miller did finally gain the courage to tell her daughter about the situation. I completely understand why there were so many mixed feelings in the air after this was announced. I also feel like it was wrong that both mothers kind of neglected Marty after this was all out in the air. She was still some ones daughter and she still grew up in a household and she should have been treated exactly the same. I am also very interested in the fact that all of these hints were dropped and the girls had been told things several times and nobody figured out about the switch. It is very interesting that a lot of people in this small town knew about this switch and never told Mrs. McDonald about this either. I know in most of the small towns I have been in nothing was a secret, especially if several people knew about it. I don’t think that something like this would happen in today’s society.
The most influential aspect for these two as they became adults was their genetics. They always seemed to have personalities that were similar to their biological parents. I found it interesting that they could see these personalities at such a young age. Long-term implications of temperament probably have the most to do with that. The type of personality that you have as a child really helps to show who you will be as an adult. Basic tendencies has a lot to do with how these two girls turned out. The personality they developed was based a lot on the biological factors they had. Personality stability which was in our book also shows why this is true. It says that your personality does not change very much throughout your entire life. Since these two got these traits of personality from their biological parents they really stuck them out through their whole life.
Key terms: genetics, personality, long-term implications of temperament, basic tendencies, biological factors, and personality stability.

Growing up in a family that you feel wasn’t yours in many ways would be very weird. That is what Marti and Sue went through. For 43 years Mary Miller, Marti’s raised mother, kept a suspicion of her daughter not being hers. Then finally reveals it to both Marti and her biological daughter at the same time in a letter that shocked them both. This for me was a strange episode. It would explain how people we suspective of the two daughters being switched, since they lived in a small town. Also how Mary kept the secret for many years.
The first section was talking about the girls experiences. Both felt out of place in their respective families. They stuck out and even were asked if they were adopted by other kids. While they were growing up many people said that they we actually another families daughter and this felt strange to them. I would feel attacked if people were telling me my mom wasn’t my real mom. This had to be weird because this is who they were raised by and the only mom they knew. They somewhat understood because they would see the differences in how they looked, talked, and acted. In the episode it doesn’t explain many way in which they daughters were changed by the families that raised them, but I am sure there were many cases. When they were told they did feel like it was a strange idea. They had lived their entire life almost a lie. This would be very confusing for me. Then they would try to fit in with their real families and Marti had trouble with that.
Mary the mother who had known first found out by weighing her baby when she got home from the hospital. She immediately knew the doctors had messed up, but her husband did not want to ruin the doctor’s reputation and decided to not look into it. This was puzzling for me. She ended up raising a kid she knew wasn’t hers. In the episode it explains how she would get different treatment from her mother and that probably affected her personality of Marti now. I did not understand how she did not go and get the situation straightened out to solve many questions that the families had.
Mary would also talk to the other mother, who had he child, and say they were sisters. She even brought up the idea that they were switched with her. This would be strange for me. I would probably think she was insane, and not believe her. The other mother would just object the idea completely and was not thrilled when she found out the truth. This stunned her as it would anyone, and thought that she would lose her only daughter.
This whole situation is very puzzling. When you bring up nature vs nurture this defies it and leans very heavily into the nature side. They would explain how the girls were exactly like their biological families and stuck out in their “adopted” families. They didn’t give much evidence for how they were affected by their “adopted” families, but I am for sure there are many. Overall it was a touchy subject because you want for them to be with the right family, but you don’t want them to be rejected by their biological families either. This was also a concern of Marti.

Cassandra Rutledge
Switched at Birth
11/12/2014

This episode made me feel extremely horrible. The one mother that knew that she took the wrong baby home should have immediately taken the baby back to the real family. My question was how did the other mother not notice that the baby was not hers by the key points that they were different then the other children?
Sue McDonald was raised the daugher of the Miller's, this can affect one's child because they do not know the true identity of themselves. This can break someones whole family apart just like playing fifty-two card pick up, and mixing up the cards. This hurts one's self image of all of the pressure of not knowing if the information would destroy what they had with their new families. The first thing that should have happened was a doulbe check before both families left the hospital.
Nature versus nurture is an idea of whether heredity or the environment most impacts human psychological development of a child or a human. How both of the girls were raised were different from what they would have been if they were not switched. This made the nature part difficult because the way they were raised was just so different. Nurture was actually a different because Sue Mcdonald did not get what was needed for an infant for nutrients from the mother. She was not given enough breast milk from her mother. The women were really emotional about the thing because they believed that they women they were raised by were their mothers. Marti Miller was actually really pissed at her mother, Mrs. Miller, that she did not correct the switch back in 1951.
Their personalities were different because they did not act like the families that they were raised by. Their talents were the same as with the other family that they should have been raised by. Like the Miller's were more intellectural, and the McDonald's were more musical, so the girls were immediately different through their talents. They really did not know why Mrs. Miller did not correct the switch because she believed she was not in the wrong.
Terms: Identity, self image, pressure, family, nature, nurture, heredity, environment, impact, personality, intellect

I cannot imagine what it would be like to have your nice, quiet life shell-shocked like this. It seems crazy and fictional, but sadly it actually happened. These women felt out of place their entire lives but forced themselves to cope with it, only to find out after they grew up that their lives were supposed to be very different. I have no idea how I’d respond, and I would feel my loyalties being tested like Sue, like I was supposed to pick one family or the other. But overall, this episode made me think about how a person is affected by the household they are raised in. People usually believe that personality, the thoughts emotional responses, and behaviors in an individual, is a nurtured trait, but according to the book and this episode “Switched at Birth” it falls back on a person’s nature. This idea is supported by theories like the biological trait theory. This theory states that a person’s outgoingness, stability, and constraint are all based on a person’s biological processes. Though personality is influenced by both environment and genes, in the case of Marty and Sue their personalities were mostly based on genetics. Genes affect neurotransmitters, the chemical substances that carry signals between neurons, by regulating how often they release and how much is produced. For example, the genes influence how much dopamine is produced in the body which motivates a person to work and succeed in life. They will have the basic tendencies to be more adventurous and push on the strains of their environment to explore these genetic interests. This can be seen in the Marty’s case. Marty was outgoing and perky, always making jokes and brightening people’s days. While the rest of her family (the wrong family) was quiet and reserved, focusing on studies, Marty was out socializing and getting involved in athletics. She never understood why her family’s interests were so different than hers, but her mother allowed her to pursue her interests because she suspected the girl was not truly her daughter. On the other side, Sue did not fit into her family as well. All of her false siblings were outgoing and popular, while she was shy and reserved, tending to focus on school. She did not get along with her siblings very well, specifically her brother, and felt like and outcast. The similarities between Marty and her true siblings and Sue and her true siblings are too similar to ignore. This proves that personality is affected by genes, therefore is more of a nature aspect. Their personalities most likely would have stayed the same if they had grown up in the correct households, but they would have had more of an opportunity for their personality to flourish and their self be fully realized. Such external influences really have an impact on a person’s mind, such as in the psychodynamic theory. A person is affected by their id, the desire for pleasure, the superego, the conscience of what is moral, and the ego, the resolver of the conflict. These three components are based on outside forces that tell one what is good and acceptable and internal desires. So ultimately, both nature and nurture have a great impact on personality. It’s just up to the person how much they are willing to be influenced.

Personality, emotions, behaviors, biological trait theory, basic tendencies, self, psychodynamic theory, id, superego, ego

This episode sent me on an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. When listening to the families retell the stories I felt sadness, happiness, angry, and frustration. While I was listening to it I was constantly making comments to myself about how ridiculous and how crazy the whole story was. Like, how and why would the mother not go back and get her actual daughter. Yes I understand that they didn’t want to shame the doctor, but the doctor screwed up and you allowed that mistake to continue on for 43 years. Not only did you change just your life but the lives of two families. Especially being the mom that knew the truth, how could live with yourself?! I mean I would still love the girl unconditionally but you at the same time you know deep down she’s not yours so you don’t have to care about her unconditionally if you really wanted to. This whole episode just upset me because it was stupid of her not to return the child to her real mother and she should have gotten her child back as well.
While listening to this episode, I was able to connect to it on a personal level. On my dad’s side of the family we had found out a few years ago that my grandpa had two sons that he didn’t know about. When those two guys found us, they were almost completely opposite from the rest of my dad’s family. When it comes to my dad’s family they’re all loud, sarcastic, pranksters, and loving. But when it came to the two new guys, they were more reserved, quiet, and didn’t really get our sense of humor. The only reason that my dad’s family knew that these two guys were my grandpa’s sons were because they looked exactly like him. So when you look at the whole nature vs nurture aspect sometimes it doesn’t always prove to be true. In the episode the two girls were similar in personality to their real families, but when I look at my family, the personalities weren’t all that similar. From my personal experience, I think that nurture has a huge influence on personality because people tend to act similar to those that are surrounded by on a daily basis. For instance, my two new uncles they are similar to their mother in personality and her side of the family because from what they told us they were extremely religious, strict, and more up-tight. But, if they were brought up by my grandpa and the rest of my dad’s family, they may have been more sarcastic and loud, you never know. On the other hand though, when you look at the families in the episode, their personalities seemed to be influenced by nature. The two girls’ personalities seemed to be reflected by their blood families’ personalities. For instance, the girl who was outgoing, positive, and optimistic was living with a more sullen and soft-spoken family seemed to contradict the whole nature aspect. I think that the two girls personalities weren’t all that impacted by the switch. I don’t know what to think when it comes to how our personalities are determined, and I’m not sure I want to know either. I’m okay with not knowing, the unknown is a pretty cool place.
Terms: nature, nurture

This was a very strange episode. I was thinking about it. I do not know what I would do. I think that it would be bad to be in that situation. The people who you grew up were not your family. It is kind of growing up with strangers when you find out that they are not your family. It was also like hard to not get really mad when they said that one knew. When I heard the reason I was not really mad anymore. It was still strange that they went to the event. It was also strange that they lived pretty close to each other and they knew each other. If I did not grow up with my parents I do not know what I would do. It would be kind of hard to not see the people you grew up with. They kind of are like your parents. They were with you when you grew up. It would be hard to see your real parents. They did not grow up with you. You really have not even seen them.

There biology was a big part of the episode. They talked about how they looked different. The episode also talked about that one of their voices sounded like the actual parent. There biology influenced them when they were growing up. The nurture did not affect them because the episode talked about how they acted different. They did not act like the parents thought they would.

Their personalities were and were not affected because the show talked about how they acted like there parents. So they did not change the way they act so there personality did not change. Their personalities could have changed because of there self-esteem. The book talks about how your self-esteem can change because of what happens in your life. With them being switched this is something in there life that could change there self-esteem. Something else that could have changed their personalities is what they grew up in. The book talks about how your environment affects your personality. This could change their personality. Their basic tendencies were not changed. Their characteristic adaptations were changed. They changed because they were switched. Their personalities could have been changed because of situationism. The book talks about situationism it says that your personality can change because of the situation.

Personalities, self-esteem, basic tendencies, characteristic adaptations, situationism

While I was listening to this audio recording, it made me sad how the two daughters didn’t find out that they were switched at birth until they were adults and even had their own kids. The mothers knew that their kids had been switched at birth the whole time, but didn’t decide to tell their daughters until they were forty-three. I was trying to think of how it would feel to be a kid who was switched at birth and not told who my biological parents were until I was an adult. I find that to be hard to grasp because all this time you think you know who your parents are and then someone comes along says that they’re your biological parent. When talking about the topics of nature and nurture and the development of the daughters, their developments were way different from what their biological parents were. When looking at the nature of the daughters, each of them looked nothing like their parents that they lived with before they were told that they were switched at birth. I find this really hard to believe that someone did not recognize this earlier. In the recording it talked about how there were a couple of times where people said that the daughters looked nothing like their parents that they were with. It also said that during this time, one of the mothers knew that the daughters had been switched at birth. She decided to not say anything to them until they were adults. The daughters’ developments have been impacted a lot because they did not grow up during their childhood with their biological parents, so when they finally started living with their biological parents, it was hard for the daughters to create a connection with their parents. The daughters’ personalities were also impacted because the daughters acted nothing like the families that they lived with during their childhood. One family was very religious because the father was a pastor and the daughter that was with them was easier going. The other family was an easygoing family and the daughter that was with them was more structural in what they did. The daughters also did different things than the family did that they lived with. Being switched at birth can be detrimental to a child because they are not developing during childhood with their real biological parents.

Terms: nature, nurture, biological, personality

After listening to this I feel like there are some messed up people in this world. If I was the mother that noticed this mix up I would have wanted to have my own child. It makes you feel like she didn’t care about her own child’s life and what this could cause. As we can see now it caused a lot of confusion and questions for the daughters. Even though most of their childhood they lived a normal life and adapted the traits of that family. This is an eye opening sort of “experiment”. It shows us how a baby will adapt to the family because it doesn’t know what to believe or think. Once the daughters figured out forty some years later they weren’t in the right family they were almost in disbelief. They always were told small fibs about how they look nothing like their mom or dad, but they always accepted the answers they were given. It makes me think about how their personalities could have been different if they grew up in the right family or how their personalities changed once they knew. It really makes you think about how it could have affected the siblings of them and how they thought about not knowing who their real sister is for most of their lives. I think it would be hard to join a “new” family forty-three and see how different the lifestyle would be. Listening to the daughters you can just hear in their voices that they are still in shock from what happened and always having questions about how their lives would be different. Family meetings would be different as well because the family you grew up with might not accept you even though it wasn’t your fault. The ending of it makes you feel better about what happened because the families are close to each other now and have answered a lot of the questions the daughters had. They are all still close and feel like one big family. They daughters still feel like they belong to both families and both parents love them both.
Key terms: personality

Listening to this story, switched at birth was very surprising to me. I am a fraternal twin and my twin and I look nothing alike, and we have commonly joked that my parents took home the wrong twin from the hospital. This story is truly frightening that this can happen, this story actually takes place just 30 minutes from my home town up in Wisconsin. It shocked me most that the mother noticed almost immediately that she truly took the wrong baby home but had several reasons why she didn’t go back to the hospital to correct the doctor that they have the wrong baby. The families’ personalities and appearances were very different. The one side of the family was dark haired and shy and appearing to not be very social while the other family is bright, blonde and outgoing. These girls had to at one point feel like they were out of place within the families. The daughters seemed to at certain times question their place within the families, and were always told about how they are like some distant relative. When thinking about this story it’s not shocking that these families were able to make it work for so long because families adopt thousands of children yearly and they do not always fit like they are their own but to the parents and kids they are family. I feel that the sibling relationships suffered the most in this story, the nature of the kids were completely different in every aspect, interests, appearance, the way they talked were all different. Mrs. Miller has always been aware that the girls were switched, in fact it was interesting to me that when Mrs. Miller arrived home she confirmed it by weighing her baby and found that the baby she brought home was over two pounds lighter. Mrs. Miller was told to not tell the doctor that he was wrong because the doctor was very good to them for not charging them for medical bills. Mrs. Miller then thought that she would drop constant hints to the other family to help the family realize that they both had the wrong babies. Mrs. Miller had no idea that the choice her and her husband made to not correct the situation changed two families greatly, two mothers who wanted to be with their biological daughters, the siblings grew up with different sisters and different lifestyles. The families seem to have gone through a rough patch when it was out about the switch. I couldn’t imagine growing up and reaching an age where I feel that I have life mostly solved then have my mother confront me and say that they are not my biological parents. I used to think that a person’s personality was highly influenced based on one’s environment but after listening to this story people truly do fit into their own families better than others. I feel that we are meant to be with our families for reasons such as this, our personalities, gene traits, temperament, basic tendencies, and much more can be determined by our biological makeup and if you are put in a family of opposite’s life can be difficult.
Terms- personality- traits- biological makeup- temperament, basic tendencies

I had a lot different mixed feelings about this episode. It made me think about my own family and memories. I think we can relate to feeling like we didn’t fit in with our families at some point. I can remember many times when I wished I was adopted and my real family would come find one day whenever I got mad at my parents. But to actually go through it and have your whole world turned upside would be really crazy and confusing. I know I would feel really conflicted about who I would consider my “real family”. Would it be your genetic family or the family that raised you? I also thought it was sad how the girls never really felt like they fit in with the families raised them and how other people noticed that they were different. It would be hard to be the odd one out all the time and have complete different interests and personality types. It was also weird that the Miller mom wanted to change the girls’ last names to their biological parents’ last names. It seemed pretty heartless that she pushed Marty to her biological parents so much. It was also weird that she subtly tried to tell the other family about the switch by inviting them to dinner and calling the girls sisters.
Looking at the nature vs. nurture debate, nature seemed more influential in this story. Obviously, the girls’ physical appearance were more like their biological parents. But their personalities and interests were more similar to their biological parents as well. For example, Marty was a popular cheerleader who was easy going and always joking. While the parents that raised her, still can’t tell when she’s joking around and made academics more important than athletics. Temperament is something that we’re born with and the environment can have an effect on it. It is hard to figure out if personality is biological or shaped by the environment but cases like this really argue for biology.
Psychological terms: genetic, biological, nature, nurture, personality, temperament, environment.

The psychological debate of nature vs. nurture is one that has been deliberated and refuted for many years. This debate is so controversial because although it is fact that genetic makeup does play a major role in developing a person, the nurture and environment in which a person is brought up in is also an important factor. Although nature depicts the development of a person in terms of their appearance and certain personality traits, nature and the setting and situations in which a person grows up is more important in explaining the development of a person because ultimately a person is an overall reflection of the environment of which they were brought up in. This was evident with Sue and Marti as they both wondered how they would have turned out with the upbringing that the other one had. This episode made me feel sad but made me wonder how the children were switched at birth so easily. Also how could you not want to know if you had the right child? Psychologists are quick to support the nature debate because it deals with the genetic make-up of a person and biological psychology, which is fact. First of all, a person’s physical traits, such as eye color and blood type are genetically determined, even though there are certain ways to alter your look. Personality is proven to be heritable to an extent. The nature debate is credible because of the genetic factors that support how people’s personalities and appearance develops, yet the nurture of a person ultimately overshadows the nature debate because environmental factors better influence the development of a person. Each person comes from different backgrounds, religions, and environments, which are all external factors that play a large role in the development of an individual. Diet, stress, prenatal nutrition, peer pressure, and television are just some of the more specific environmental factors that can affect a person. Clearly, there are many more aspects of the nurture debate that contribute to the argument that a person’s upbringing is what will influence their development. Nurture is more important in developing a person because despite a person’s genetic coding, the parents and the adults that a child is subjected to will play a greater role in the child’s development. Furthermore, nurture is more important in shaping a human being because there are multiple factors that can influence a person differently, even if they have the same genetic background. Overall, the biological traits and genes of a person enable individuals to learn and adapt to their surroundings, thus showing the debate is so closely related that it is difficult to determine which one more effectively contributes to the development of a person. However, the nurture issue states that a person is affected of the environment that they are brought up in, which is a more reliable source of the development of a person because there are more factors that influence environment than the biological aspects of the nature debate. As the two children grew they each noticed that their mannerisms were different from their siblings. They felt like outcast in their own families. I think this supports the nature side of the debate. Even though the nature vs. nurture debate is likely to always be challenged and discussed, it is possible that there may never be a right answer. . The reason for this is that many situations and conditions factor in both the nature and nurture debate and there is reasoning in both cases to support either one as a reliable source. Terms: Nature, Nurture, Environment, Genetic Coding, Parental nutrition, stress, peer pressure.

This episode of This American Life was very interesting. I felt many different emotions throughout the whole thing. The families both lived in the same town, knew each other well enough, and to me, would have to have some idea that one of their children looks like the other family. Members of the town even started to figure it out. For starters, I understand that the Miller family was very religious and that her husband didn’t want to make the doctor’s look bad, but this was something that was important enough to point out and get fixed. I also think Mrs. Miller should have told her secret as soon as she was 100% sure. When you remember your baby weighing nine pounds after birth and weighing her at home the same day, only to find out she’s two pounds lighter; that is something to wonder about. I understand why she may have been hesitant to assume the worst at first, but as Marti grew up the differences should’ve been a red flag. Something that is argued is whether or not nature or nurture shapes a person’s personality more. Nature is described as the traits you receive from the genetic traits passed down from your parents, while nurture describes the characteristics you have based on your life experiences and the environment you were raised in. In this situation, the nature side seems to clearly be more prominent. Marti has blonde hair, very energetic, and a popular girl with high self-esteem, unlike her other 6 siblings. All who have dark hair and were not near as outgoing as she was. Marti’s overall personality was completely different from the Miller’s, because she had the McDonald’s genetic traits. Sue, who was raised as a McDonald, had all of the genetic characteristics as a Miller. She always felt out of place in the family coming from a shy nature unlike the McDonald’s. This is very sad to me. Her attitude was completely shifted into something she wasn’t, where if she were to have been raised in her correct household, she would’ve had more of an opportunity to open up, see her true self, and know her true potential to the fullest.
However, what made me sad was how the Miller’s reacted. Marti, who was raised by the Millers for 43 years was sort of pushed away from them once the truth came out. This was no shock to the Miller’s considering they had kept this secret for so long, so it didn’t make sense to me why they reacted the way they did. No matter the biological similarities or differences, they raised her throughout her whole life and should still consider her as one of their own. Especially after keeping this huge secret from her throughout her life. The McDonald’s hadn’t changed their love for Sue, no matter whose biological child she was and the Miller’s should have done the same.
The psychological terms I used were: personality, nature, nurture, self-esteem, genetic traits, attitude

Listening to this episode made me feel very weird. I realized that even when I was younger this subject was always something that gave me an odd feeling inside. I heard about other kids being adopted, and would think about how that is weird just because of it being different, and my ignorance along with it. But today when I think about the same subject, I realize how sad and uncomfortable it must be to be in the situation these people were in. Not having a clear family to go to, or not quite understanding who to really call your family is pretty disheartening. I wouldn’t really know what to do, and I would probably have developed a very guarded personality at a young age. I can see how later in life it would be much harder for a person who grew up in very similar circumstances to be in a healthy loving relationship because that person would have a very confused idea of what to expect, and what’s to come. The conditioning early on in live has a very large impact on how a person acts and reacts to everything in their environment throughout the course of their lives. In this case, being adopted, and being adopted into such weird conditions would change how any person would deal with their feelings. I was surprised to hear about how the mother pushed the girl more towards her biological parents rather than try to provide a more loving environment in the home she was currently in. I always thought something not so great could come from being adopted, and I often imagined what kind of things could possibly happen. In Nature v.s. Nurture, I feel that neither can really be chosen in deciding which is the most effective in influencing the development of a person. Nature on one hand will shape a person more generally, by showing them dangers and rewards that a person will have to deal with alone. Some might call this the “real world” in a sense, because our whole lives we are sheltered by Nurture, to prepare us not only for Nature, but also so that someday we can Nurture another human being to repeat the cycle. In the grand scheme of things, that whole process in Nature, because it is essentially a process by which we pass on our genes. But, Nurture is also very important in the development of people. Though nurturing, we can persuade and implant supplemental ideas into young minds, which will help them for the better later on in life. Parents can try to relay information that they have learned in their lifetimes to their children, allowing the kids to possibly take those stories into account and be better off because of it. All in all I do not think either one could be chosen because they both have an equal amount of importance on the influence of development. As for how they could have been effected later on in life, I think it really did not matter all that much, besides how they felt different, or didn’t fit in, I do not think the switch really hindered them all that much in their adult lives. It would have just made their childhoods more difficult which can make anyone a better person.
Terms: Genes, Nature v.s. Nurture, Development, Conditioning.

This episode shocked me. I think this realization would be so strange on both sides. It would be so shocking and almost heartbreaking as a parent to realize that you did not raise your biological child. As the child, it would seem almost disappointing, as if your real parents did not care enough to make sure they brought home the correct baby. At first, it almost annoyed me that Mary Miller knew that the children were switched at the hospital. The other parent, Kay, has a right to know that she has been raising a child that is not biologically hers. However, I can understand the thinking behind it. If you have already begun raising a child and providing him or her with love and support, it would be like loving that child, even if it is not biologically yours. In this case, it would probably be incredibly difficult to “return” the child that you have supported and loved its whole life. This is a very complex situation, and it makes me concerned when I have a child. I want to make sure that the child I give birth to is the same child that I will be raising.
The Millers were very religious, and they were very serious. There were seven children in the house, so there were many strict rules in the house. Marti (raised by the Millers) seemed to be more lively and outgoing. The McDonalds, however, only had two kids. That family was very fun-loving and easy-going. Sue (raised by the McDonalds) was very timid and unlike the rest of her family. From these facts alone, it would seem obvious that these children were switched, but considering nature vs. nurture, both families seemed to have raised these two children so they were “opposites”. Nature tends to be more genetic, and nurture tends to be the environmental situations in which the children were raised in. This being said, nurture seemed to have been the most influential in the development of these children. If nature were the most influential, then Marti, who was raised by the serious Millers, should be more serious and timid. In the same sense, Sue, who was raised by the fun-loving McDonalds, should be more easy-going. However, neither of these were the case, so nurture was the most influential in these girls’ lives.
These people’s personalities were slightly changed after hearing the news. Both mothers and daughters stated that they both felt a sense of loneliness. The daughters felt as though their real biological mothers wouldn’t accept them as their real daughters, and the mothers felt that the daughters that they raised would leave to go to their biological families. However, it was clear that both children wanted to be more associated with the families that raised them. I’m sure these girls felt slightly betrayed by Mrs. Miller, who knew of the switch the day after coming home from the hospital. However, after the shock wore off, these girls continue on with their lives as the people they know that they are. I feel that if I were in this situation, I would feel very alone and confused, but I would accept it and go about my life as I always have. This is quite the situation to be in.
Terms: Nature, nurture, personality

Alberto Sveum
I am trying to imagine how I would feel if I was told I didn’t belong to my family. I would probably feel torn in half. What a realization after 43 years of life. I would probably feel a bit upset with the fact that someone knew and never did anything. I think it might be welcoming to know you have two families. The fact that these women were raised by other people must make for a much broader net of support and family, which I would enjoy.

I recall the example from the book of the two fraternal twins separated at birth that found later in life they were related and shared many characteristics. The fact that genetics override environment definitely played into this story, as it discussed the siblings that were raised together shared fewer traits that biological siblings did. When the sister ended up contacting her actual brother, she said they talked for long periods of time, and found they were very alike, which makes perfect sense. Sue even discusses the fact that biological Mcdonalds adapted social tendencies, like popularity, that were alien to her, further showing how genetics really do matter in the development in a person.

It seems to me that the switch did very little to actually affect the two women’s personalities and it sounds that they knew early on they were different than the families they were raised in. Physically, the daughters resembled their actual families, this was clear to the women, especially since they were told countless times they did not look similar to their families. I think that most of the real impact of the switch occurred after the women found out the event actually happened. The episode said that the women had to deal with the “logistical,” which I think makes sense. It seems that both women turned out well, but despite this, it must still have been kind of disconcerting to learn that your flesh and blood has been somewhere else all your life. Given what was said in the chapter about nature vs. nurture, I believe the women adopted very few characteristics from the families they were raised in, but they came to more resemble their biological families.

Psychological terms: fraternal twins, genetics, personality, nature vs nurture

This episode made me feel very angry, especially towards Mrs. Miller. How on Earth could someone take home the wrong baby and be perfectly fine with it?! I could understand if they didn’t know that they had the wrong babies, like Mrs. McDonald, but Mrs. Miller realized the mix up days after the babies were born but yet she did noting about it. It disgusted me so much that I really wanted to punch Mrs. Miller in the face. Then later on when she was interviewed, she laughed about the situation! Her temperament was very calm and relaxed while Mrs. McDonald’s was sad and depressing. My attitude towards this episode was of anger and confusion. What in the hell was Mrs. Miller’s reasoning for keeping this huge secret hidden for all these years? And then she had the nerve to say that SHE needed closure so that’s why she told the truth. I believe Marty and Sue are the ones who needed and deserved the closure. Mrs. Miller was extremely selfish. I’m just so shocked after listening to that episode that my thoughts are jumbled at the moment. Mrs. Miller was so emotionless it seemed. I was appalled when Sue told the story of when she first found out the truth. Mrs. Miller sent her a program of this reception for the McDonalds and circled people’s names saying “this is your brother” or “this is your aunt” as if Sue was now kicked out of the Miller family and should embrace these strangers with open arms. She even had the guts to refer to Sue as Sue Miller-McDonald. Sue defended her saying that this was just her “mother” being herself. Well if this was her being herself then she is sure a terrible person. I don’t know, this episode just brought out so much rage for me. I kept imagining this happening to me and how upset I would have been. My mother is my world, and if I were to find out that she wasn’t my real mother I would be devastated. My self-esteem would have crumbled because I wouldn’t know who I really was. I hate imagining it, which is why Mrs. Miller’s actions hurt me so much. I felt much compassion towards Mrs. McDonald. She didn’t ask for any of this. She was a victim. I also felt for Marty and Sue. I could never imagine how they felt.

Marty and Sue upbringings were parallel opposites of each other, but this did not affect their development. Both girls developed habits that they would later find out matched their biological families. This shows that nature was the most influential factor in Marty and Sue’s development. Marty grew up in the Miller household. The Millers were a large Evangelical family with little money to spare. Mrs. Miller was very strict on the children and made sure they kept up on their chores and had jobs as they grew older. She made sure everything was always in order. Even though Marty grew up in this type of environment, she continuously tried to let loose. She didn’t like the conformity of the Miller household. While she was obedient to Mrs. Miller, she always wanted to try new things and venture out. In the McDonald household, it was only Sue and her older brother. The McDonalds were easy going and were accepting. Sue continuously tried new things like cheerleading, but was never successful. She looked down on herself because of this. She felt as if she was too boring for the McDonalds. She was more tamed and and tended to follow the rules like the Millers. Even though she didn’t grow up in that household, she acted like them, which shows how genetics/nature effects people’s personalities. The same goes for Marty. She was very outgoing and colorful, just like the McDonalds and she had never met them.

These people’s personalities were impacted by the switch greatly. During her adolescent years, Sue’s self-esteem was very low because she knew she didn’t fit in but she didn’t understand why. She was constantly falling victim to upward comparisons. These people’s personalities were also impacted after the truth came out. Both Marty and Sue’s well being were in jeopardy. Their stress levels went through the roof. They both had to deal with being accepted in their newly discovered families while also worrying about the one they'd always known. Their sense of identity was also messed up. They had no clue as to who they were. Their whole lives had been lies. Their health also suffered because of the switch. One of them experienced high blood pressure, while another developed severe depression. But they were also able to find some closure. They were able to understand their personalities and as to why they acted like they did and that they weren’t outcasts in their families. They were able to see that their personalities matched their biological families.

Terms: personality, self-esteem, obedience, attitude, stress, health, forgetting, reasoning, identity, emotion, learning, upward comparisons, well being, conformity, and temperament.

I thought this story was crazy. It is weird to think that children could be switched at birth, it always seemed like a T.V./Movie thing to me. With that aside, it makes sense it could happen in the time period it did, with DNA testing today, it would be more unlikely. It is also weird how the whole situation could have been fixed if the mother came forward with her thoughts. I feel no matter what, a stand should have been taken in this scenario. It was HER child, so she should have done whatever was necessary to get her back, instead of waiting a generation or two.

I also found it interesting on how much nature had to do with how the daughters turned out rather than nurture. Although they were not raised with their “families”, it seemed clear that they looked, acted, and talked like their biological parents. This contradicts what was mentioned in the book. It is assumed that nurture plays more of a factor in how children turn out, but it wasn’t the case. If I were to guess, nurture only plays a significant role in development if it is negative towards the child. Nurturing will cause someone to thrive, regardless if they are related or not. Nature seemed to be the defining factor in the personalities of the daughters.

I cannot imagine halfway through your life being told that your family isn’t yours, and having the once normal life, flipped upside down. I would think after being told the news had more of an effect than if nothing had been said. Everyone who is related to either had emotional toll, some good; some bad. I thought it was an awkward and weird situation, but luckily both families had good upbringings, and all turned out okay.

Psychological Terms: DNA, nature, nurture

This episode was very interesting. The weird thing is, it made me think of my sister and my family. I know there’s no way my sister was switched, but she is the only one in the family with blonde hair blue eye, compared to me brunette and brown eyed. How Marti’s mom reacted and told her what happened was really rude. I don’t think I could ever fully forgive her if she was my mom, epically when she says something as hurtful as “I didn’t expect that much from you because I knew you weren’t out child”. That’s crazy, if I knew that that wasn’t my child but for some reason could get my real baby, I would treat it as my own, just like what you should when you adopt. It also makes me mad that her mom didn’t fix things ahead of time when she knew all along. Even though her husband didn’t think so and she was sick right after for a long time, having the wrong baby is a big deal, and she should have stood her ground. I feel like it would have saved lots of heart ache, even though there still would have been some. For which aspects of nature vs. nurturer I think nature was more influential in many ways. Mostly because there personalities are completely different. Marti is very outgoing, popular, and funny while Sue is more serious and shy. I say nature also because each of their family’s personality are like their biological families, unlike their families they were raised up in. These peoples personality’s changed a lot in some ways and not at all in other way. At first is drew everyone away in fear besides the mother that knew what had happened all along. Then eventually both families still loved there ones they raised and accepted there actual biological child, once again besides the mother that knew, she wanted to know everything about her biological daughter and kind of distanced herself from the daughter she rose up. Over all everyone was hurt by this but needed to know the truth.
Terms: nature, nurture, biological, personality

This reminds me of some dramas that I watched in the past where the biological mother would purposely switch her child with someone that is in a wealthy family so the wealth family would take a good care of their child and then it messed up the two child’s life when they found out the truth. Comparing the dramas to this episode of radio blog, How did this episode make you feel? I honestly did not like what Mrs. Miller did, Mrs. Miller should not have listen to her husband. I was feel kind of sad for Sue because she seems to be struggling unlike the popular Marti. When Sue did not get a chance to dance with her un-biological brother, he danced with Marti, the cousins, his mom, and he danced with everyone else but her. The two girls personalities are totally different from each other, where Marti is a popular cheerleader, and Sue is a shy girl who did not get pick when tryout to be a cheerleader. The only thing that they are the same is they stood out of their family because of the differences in personality with the rest of the family member. Sue always seem to be in an upward comparison with Marti because Bob is closer to Marti than he is to her and it cause her self-esteem drop when Bob the brother that she’s growing up with is popular and she just an ordinary girl and no one want to dance with her. The reason why Bob and Sue was not close to each other because they did not share the same gene. These two people personalities impacted by this switch. And it shows clearly when Marti is the one who always joke around and being a social bird while the rest family just sit there. On the other family Sue is also stood out from the rest of the family because her personality was different from other people in the family. This situation explain the biological trait theory in chapter 12 of the book. According to what I know about scientific aspects of nature and nurture as presented in the text book, I the nature was the most influential in the development of these two children into adults because the girls personalities and interest were different compare to the rest of the family. However, Marti did get along with her un-biological siblings that make nurture as a small part that impact her development.
Terms: Personality, Upward comparison, self-esteem, nature, nurture, biological

This episode of Switched at Birth on This American Life was interesting. I definitely felt confusion throughout the whole episode because I guess I just don’t understand why, if the Millers knew all those years, they didn’t confess. I mean, I would understand more if they hadn’t known until after several years had gone by why they would wait to say anything because by then the bond you’ve created with your child would be strong and giving that all up would be nearly impossible but they only had these babies for a few months more or less. They even said that they knew that the babies were switched the day they came home from the hospital because their weights didn’t match up to the original so I don’t see how anyone could justify keeping a baby that they only had for a couple of days if it wasn’t theirs. Of course it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter who your parents are whether they are biological or not because there are many adopted kids who prosper under the care of loving families everyday but you would think that if you had a chance to be with your own biological son or daughter that you would stop at nothing to pursue it. The whole situation just baffles me. After hearing the stories of both families and both girls, I think there is a good mixture of both nature and nurture influences. As far as nature goes, it was evident that the girls were the black sheep of the families and that they had different personalities, looks, and ways of doing and coping with things. However, the nurture side clearly showed that they were able to tweak their natures to be in with their families at the time. I don’t think there is a clear line of nature vs. nurture because of social exposure. The lines get blurry when taking two lives and thinking of what their lives were like and what they could have been like if they had stayed with their biological family. These girls’ personalities were impacted by the switch because they both had to adjust to the different temperaments of both families. The Miller family was serious and the MacDonald family was more lighted hearted and while their personalities already kind of matched them, they were both raised in totally different environments and needed to change their outlooks on life to be able to fully understand the lives of the family they could have had. Their personalities, I imagine, were disrupted and their whole lives were most likely spinning out of control. This whole story simply opens my eyes to the fact that these things happen and it wasn’t even that far away! I travel through Prairie Du Chen every year for apple picking and it’s crazy to think that that could happen to any one of us. The psychological terms I used were confusion, created, biological, nature vs. nurture, influences, mixture, social exposure, temperaments, personalities, and environments.

This episode made concerned about having kids when I am older. I would be devastated if my child got switched with another child. I know that these days things are different and people might be able to tell their child, but sometimes things happen. I was confused when the one dad did not want to take the child back to the hospital to switch the babies around. I would feel bad raising someone else’s baby and not being able raise my own child. To me it would feel like I abandoned my child because I was not there to raise them. I wouldn’t know what to think if I found out about the switch. I would not know how to talk to my actual child and tell them that I wish I could have raised them. I would be scared if they did not want me to be in their life because they really liked how their “mom” had raised them.

As the two girls grew up into adults, people could tell differences between them and their parents. Some people said that they didn’t look like their parents at all and questioned if they were ever adopted. The girls asked their parents and they always said no. The girls also had different personalities than the other members in the family. They were interested in different things. I think that one of the most influential parts in the episode was how well the parents were in the girls’ lives. The one daughter was a cheerleader and her parents, the ones that raised her, did not go to support her. I believe that being active in your childrens’ lives is an important aspect. This helps shape their personality. If the parents joke a lot with their child, the child might have a joking personality and might get along well with other people. However, if the parents do not have an active part in the child’s life, the child might not trust adults. This is very important with being switched at birth. I feel that the two girls’ might have had a hard time getting to know their biological parents if they knew about the switch years earlier. I feel that since one mom knew that she had someone else’s child, she was being selfish. If everyone knew about the switch earlier, I feel that everyone would be extremely mad at the one mom and her biological daughter might not want to get to know her.

The personalities were impacted because the girls were interested in different things than the other members their families. The girls were not able to express their personalities well because no one in their family had the same interests. When they finally found out about the switch and met their biological families, they were able to express their personalities and could tell that they were related to them. I hope that switches do not happen because it can tear families apart.

Terms: personality

11/13/14

In the This American Life episode called “Switched at Birth” we are introduced to two different families. These families are the Miller’s and McDonald’s. Each of the mothers of these families had daughters at the same hospital and time. The babies ended up being swapped. One mother knew from day one, Mrs. Miller. The baby weight about 2 pounds less than she did at birth. However, stupidly, her husband didn’t want to double check because he trusted the doctor. As they grew up they noticed differences. Sue, raised by the Mcdonald’s, was darker, skinnier, serious and did well in school. This was odd because the Mcdonald’s were a playful, less serious family. However Mrs. Mcdonald didn’t find out until 43 years later when Sue found out and told her. Mrs. Mcdonald refused to believe until she heard about the blood tests. When Sue met her biological mother, Mrs. Miller, it all made sense. They looked and acted the same and even sounded the same. They were very happy and excited to meet each other. However Sue was very worried that Mrs. Mcdonald might stray away from her. Sue decided that this would never happen. She was most worried about her brother who connected way better with Marti, Mrs. Mcdonald’s biological daughter. Her brother and Marti would stay up all night getting to know each other. However Sue never connected with her brother in this way. She was afraid that she was going to lose him. They have nothing in common. Mrs. Miller, since she knew from day one was horrified to let everybody know. She had kept this secret in her for decades. You can understand how this would be hard to accept by Mrs. Mcdonald when she found out that Mrs. Miller knew from day one.

If it were my choice I would have done the same. Of course I would have wanted to meet my long-lost daughter. Devastation would come with this. However I do believe that time heals and people forgive. I think that 43 years is definitely too long to wait. If she had an idea from day one she should have gotten tested. Seems almost lazy in a way. It makes me wonder, how often does this sort of thing happen? How many babies are accidentally swapped? My brother doesn’t look like me much and I know that he has been asked if he was adopted. I would have an incredibly hard time accepting it if he wasn’t my biological brother. I firmly stand by the ideology of whoever raises you is your parent. In same sex marriages couples will adopt. These are your mothers or your fathers. It may be hard to accept that they are not biologically your mothers or fathers but that really doesn’t matter. Society makes people believe that they need to be close with their “real” biological parents or siblings. If I were to find out that my biological mother wasn’t the one who raised me I might say “so what?” I might be curious to find out and see relations between myself and my biological mother but I would never give up the one who raised me.

According to what I know about scientific aspects of nature vs. nurture in my textbook, I believe that both played a large role in the development of the swapped daughters. However nature seems to have played a large if not larger role. Sue was raised by the Mcdonald’s in a playful, less serious, less religious household. However she still ended up being religious much like her biological father who is an evangelical preacher. Even though she was brought up in a playful house she still ended rather serious and studious. Marti whom was raised in a serious, religious household still ended up rather playful and funny like her biological family.

Terms: nature vs. nurture, personality.

This episode ran me through a few emotions. First, I felt rather amazed. I was always aware that this kind of a thing happens occasionally in hospitals but hearing a real story about it is completely different. After a while I felt very sorry these families. I can’t imagine finding out that the child you raised was not the one you gave birth to or finding out that the family you were raised in wasn’t really your family (biologically speaking). However I’m a firm believer that the parents who raised you are the people who are really your parents. Thats because how you were raised or how you were nurtured has a huge effect on how you mature from a child into an adult.
I understand how they might have felt, like they don’t belong in their family because of how different they were. Both of my brothers were academically intelligent and athletic. They were well liked in school and had an abundance of friends. However I was academically average and the opposite of athletic. I wasn’t well liked and for the longest time my friend group consisted of two people but I can’t imagine just having my life be thrown upside down and finding out that you aren’t related to people you thought you were. By not being raised in the “correct” families these people probably turned out completely different, but there is no real way to tell. It’s impossible to say how someone would turn out if they were raised in a different situation and under a different set of beliefs. Not all children turn out to be like their parents in a personality type way.
Terms: nurtured, personality,

This was very strange and weird episode. I was surprised that this can actually happen. It’s one of those things they base TV shows and books on and it’s not something that really happens all of the time. I guess I was naive because I thought it was something that never happened. This episode really got me thinking and now I wonder if I have any friends that were switched at birth. Sometimes you have friends that look nothing like their parents and it always makes you wonder. When it comes to nature vs nurture I believe that they responded more towards nurture instead of nature. They were not raised naturally and their parents nurtured obviously nurtured and cared for them. That’s just my opinion because these two kids were not raised by their natural parents and therefore I believe had to be completely raised with nurturing. I believe their personalities had to be impacted dramatically. Growing up they had always felt like they had not belonged and they weren’t part of their family. As a child I can not imagine that feeling. I honestly have no idea what it would be like to feel like you don’t belong at all in a family and like the family that raised you is not in fact your real family. This episode is very strange to me and I am so glad that I look almost identical to my dad or else I might be afraid that I too was switched at birth.

Terms used: personality, nature vs. nurture

The first thought or feeling I felt was worriedness and sadness. The most influential part of development for children is their personality. I think that if someone has any doubt that their babies were switched then they should check. Children can have their biological temperament from their parents, but they can have character adaptations. I think that the women’s personalities were not as impacted as much as you would think. Sue and Marti both were the different or outcast of the family. Their families both loved them, but never really considered that they were switched. The girl’s basic tendencies were like their biological parents traits and not by the parents that raised them. Mrs. Miller did think at the beginning and all through her daughter’s life that they were switched. I have no idea what I would do, because it is something that does not happen very often. I would probably say that I would confront the doctor if I had a doubt, but it would be extremely hard for everyone, but that would be when they were still babies. Then it would not be so hard and everything would be fine. Although the Millers and the McDonalds have a unique circumstance, the good thing to come out of that would be that it was one big family. If I found out when my children were older that they were switched then I would be confused and angry and sad. I would be hurt that the doctors were not taking proper precautions to make sure nothing was mixed up. Even though both girls grew up healthy, they had a lot of psychological issues when they found out. If I were them I would probably feel unloved in a way, because what I had known was a lie, and now I have a whole different life. I would have to have the perfect mixture, because I would want to stay in the family I was raised in, but I would want to get to know my biological family also.
The terms I used were: personality, temperament, basic tendencies, and characteristic adaptations.

During this episode I felt bad for Sue and Marty. Not because one of them was raised better or in a family that had more money, but because what they were living was in a sense a lie. Each one of them was fulfilling a role in a family that was not theirs. This could have been completely avoided if Mrs. McDonald had came forward and had said there was a mix up, but she did not because her and her husband did not want to disgrace their doctor. I don’t agree with this decision personally, knowing my biological child was with a different family and that I was raising their biological child wouldn’t sit right with me.
From what I know of nature vs nurture I’d say nature played a larger role within the development of these two women. Yes, both ladies were able to adapt to the families that they were in. However, both of them felt out of place within their families for one reason or another. It may have been the fact that they were in sports and nobody else in the family was, or in Sue’s case how she wanted everyone to know about god and yet her family didn’t place a huge value on it. Those are just a couple examples, their personalities differed also, along with hobbies and social life. For example, to this day Marti’s “parents” and “family” still do not know when she is being sarcastic, she tended to be the only jokester around the house while everybody else was serious. Also how Sue never was as popular as her older brother had been, nobody would dance with her at the dance because of how serious she was. They also had physical traits from their biological parents that set them apart from their families. These included facial features and things such as how Sue walked. Ruth said that when they went to see Sue she noticed that she walked the same as her mother. She also noticed how similar she looked to them. I find it interesting that both women ended up more like their biological families then the family that raised them. Yes, the families did have influences upon them, and yet both were still so extremely similar to their true family. This shows what a strong role genetics plays. I still feel bad for both ladies. I would hate ever being put in such a situation.
Key Terms: Nature vs Nurture, Development, Personalities, Physical Traits, Biological, Genetics

It made me feel sad for the two daughters and it was emotional. The part that got me emotional was when Sue said that how her brother did not dance with her at the wedding and when she said after her parents are gone will her brother ever going to talk to her or care about her. Their parents are not their parents, someone else raised them. They did not find out till they were in their 40's. If I were to find that out I would be in complete shock. I would not even know how to respond to that, what to think, what to say, I would go completely blank. If I was the mother I would have told them when they were in high school or old enough to understand. I know that my mother's friend had a daughter and she gave her to her brother in law who had not daughter and wanted one and I always wondered how does the daughter feel and how would her life be different if my mom's friend had not given her daughter. My only question is why did she wait this long and why did she think that this was the right time to reveal that. It would have been a right thing to do. But the part that I most liked was the part when sue went to her biological parents, but the psychological troll that they had must have been very hard.

In nature vs nurture part, in nature the way that sue looked it was different from the family, that she grew up in. She looked more like her biological parent. In nurture part it could be that some of the things that sue did like day-to-day activity she did it the way that her family did, that raised her. But nature played a big role in it, the switched at birth girls were nothing like their parents and their biological traits then took over. Sue and Bob were not close to each other maybe biological factors have a lot in that. When Bob called his biological sister he did say that, the way that Marty talks is very similar to the way Bob's mom talks, they both had similar personality and they just connected, but had hard time connecting with sue, because she was not his biological sister. Sue was very different then her brother. There personality was very different. Sue was very shy and was not popular like her brother Bob was. Bob was very popular and had his own band when he was in high school. So their personality was very different so that is where the nature part comes in. Also Sue and Marty did feel like they did not belong in the family they were raised in.
Sue and Marty personality was very different than the family they were raised in. Sue did question if she is adopted, but her mom always said no. I think that Sue than just left it thinking it was her own self-schema. Sue was also religious like her biological family. Sue and her brother Bob their personality was very was different and Bob and Marty's personality was the same because of their biological parents were the same.
Psychological terms- nature vs nurture, personality, Self-schema, biological.

After hearing the episode on how children and babies are sometimes mixed up in the hospitals was very disturbing to hear. For the parents to go through all of those months and really the anticipation, than to not even bring home the ride kid? That would be tough. This episode made me confused and upset at the same time. Confused because, how could you nurses or people that work at the hospital mix up the babies. That just seems like a very very very tough thing to do. The upsetting part was me thinking of that situation happening to me when I was older. If I would ever find out that happened, I would be furious.
Now talking about Nature v.s. Nuture, and I think that it’s both. I actually just learned about this in biology class about a week ago. Some of the genes you’re born with has very high heritability which means the environment won’t really have any affect at all. They can’t change and you are born with that certain gene. However if you’re born with low heritability traits or genes. Than the environment will have a rather big impact on those genes. So it’s important that you live in a good environment, so if it does have an impact on your genes than it’ll be a good one. This is very important. Sometimes we may not have full control over what happens around us, and we are put into situations that won’t help us, but that happens to everyone.
This was a huge impact in both the child's and parents life. You have a kid out there who has your genes and some of your very own DNA that should be raised by you, but they are out with another family because the hospital switched babies on accident. That seems like a very big impact to me. Being positive, both families are still very lucky to have to bring home a child, since some parents are unable to conceive and have one. Hearing the child saying she felt “out of place” makes me feel very sorry for her, the environment isn’t right for her and she knows it. She should not have been put in that situation, and that is why I feel really bad for her. Overall in the long run, I don’t think it will ruin the rest of their lives, but I do believe it will affect them up until they reach their full level of maturity.

Terms: Nature V.S. Nuture, High Heritability, Low Heritability, Maturity

Ricardo Garza
After watching this episode I had a couple different feelings. Primarily, I felt really bad for the children. Secondly I felt kind of angry towards the Millers because they decided that it would be better to keep the fact that the twins were separated a complete secret for over forty years. I feel that since they knew that the wrong child was being raised within their own home, they should have the form of urgency to find the correct child instead of hiding it. Personally, I have two twin cousins that look almost exactly the same, and I feel that if they were to be separate and have no idea, then their lives would be completely different. I think that Mrs. McDonald’s reaction the whole situation was what made me even angrier at the mix up of the children. But if you look back at it, although I am angry, I know that everything does in fact happen for a reason and maybe the switch was meant to actually happen.
According to what I know about scientific aspects of nature vs nurture the most influential with the development of these children into adults is the scientific aspect of nurture. I say this because as the children grew up not biologically belonging to their mom and dad, not biological mother and father, they were still cared for and nurtured. The children were both taken care of even though both families knew that the child was not their own. I think that this is important especially from a biological standpoint. I say this meaning that even though some traits, genetics, and characteristics that each child possessed were not like their own parents, they still were nurtured and treated equally disregarding the personality.
As a whole the personalities from both the families and the children were effected. As far as the children are concerned, the personality change was a huge roadblock in their lives. This meaning that as they grew up they began to realize that the surroundings that they were in did not really match their personality, making them feel as if they did not fit in. The children simply did not share some of the personality traits and characteristics that others in the family held, making them feel like an outsider. Even something like the talents of the two girls were seen as being different. This made it very difficult to fit in. As far as the mothers in the situation, their personalities were seen as being sad. They knew that they would not have the opportunity to raise their actual child.

Terms: Biological, personalities, genetics, traits, nurtured,

After listening to this episode, it made me feel really bad for the girls and also really sad. I could not imagine having to go through something like that. Like if i was told right now that my parents weren’t my real parents, it would probably break my heart. I also thought that it was interesting how Mrs. Miller knew about this situation but did not act upon it. I just don’t understand why she didn’t want the girls to know the truth about the whole situation. Another interesting thing from this is how they didn’t catch on that it wasn’t their own child. Everyone in my whole family has the same traits: brown hair, brown eyes, average weight and height, and outgoing personalities. So it surprised me that they wouldn’t realize it wasn’t their daughter, since she probably didn’t carry the same characteristics that the rest of the family did.
I think that nature is more of a dominant trait in this than nurture. Nature is more of the persons physical aspects, like hair color and personalities, for example. Both of the girls had very different personalities/ characteristics and weree involved in different activities than the families that they grow up with. I thnk that nurture did have a smaller impact, though. The nurture for this episode is how the girls were raised, and what kind of environment that they grew up in. This could have an impact on how the girls acted since they were in different households, but I think that nature had a bigger impact; like their actual characteristics and how they act due to their parents genes. I think that people’s personalities were easily impacted by this switch. First off, the babies that were switched could have easily switched their personalities because of having to grow up in a different environment without their biological parents that are more like them. They would tend to act more like the parents that they are around longer, and have the same beliefs like them, and also think the same as them, too. For example, if your parents have a certain religion, then it’s kind of a given that you will have the same religion as them, too. I also think that the parents personalities were impacted too, especially the one who knew about the switch in the first place. It would always make them wonder “what is my actual biological child like?” It would probably haunt them for the rest of their lives, and maybe even make them go crazy about it. I think that personalities could easily be impacted by this, because it is kind of a traumatic event.
Psychological terms: traits, characteristics, dominant trait, nature, nurture, genes, biological, environment

It doesn’t make sense to me why someone would not want to get their suspicions of a possible mix up in babies just to not disgrace a doctor. Everyone makes mistakes and this is a huge one, basically taking someone’s baby away from its family. The consequences for not taking action right away has just complicated matters within the family and messed up the sense of family that the brother had for the ‘adopted’ member. Even worse is being told nothing is really expected of you because you’re not really your parent’s daughter, like it was with Marty. The way Mrs. Miller handled the situation couldn’t have been worse. Not only did she deny the mistake for years, but she also acted like Marty wasn’t a part of her family anymore and had seemingly forgotten that she had raised her at all, hurting her self-esteem.

When looking at the nature vs. nurture concept, the nature aspect is emphasised well in this story. Not only did the daughters look like their biological families, but they also acted the way their family acted. Marty was a fun, spirited girl who was athletic and talented. But in her family with the Miller’s, she stood out with her blond hair and natural self whereas the Millers were darker, more serious, and not prone to being all that fun. Sue, on the other hand, was nothing like the McDonald’s, who acted and looked in the same way Marty was described. She was the serious and quieter one in the family, and stuck out by the way she acted and her dark hair and looks. Because Mrs. Miller knew about the switch, she didn’t really treat Marty the way a daughter should be treated, and Sue was lucky to get full support from Mrs. McDonald and the family who raised her. This is a crappy situation and it didn’t have to complicate everyone’s lives so much if the Miller’s had just taken care of the mistake right away.

Terms: Personality, Nature vs. Nurture, Self-Esteem

Psychology blog
11/13/2014

In the blogs we were assigned to listen to the “this American life” episode number 360 called switched at birth. I was shocked right at the beginning when they has said she knew it wasn’t her baby right away. I don’t understand why she waited to tell someone about the mistake that happened. I understand that they didn’t want to get the doctor who they were close to in trouble or ruin his name but the parents of the other child still had a right to know that their baby who they had brought home was not theirs and their actual baby is with a different family. Not only did I feel bad for the other parents but I felt bad for the actual kids. They had to go most of their life living a lie. They grew up with the parents that they were around instead of their biological parents. The mother instantly knew because not only did they not look the same but the weight of the baby from when they got home did not match the weight the doctor weighed it at the hospital after it was born, causing her to know that this child was not hers. She had good intentions not getting the doctor in trouble but they deprived the child of the chance to get to know their real parents and who they actually came from. Children learn the most from the environment they grow up in. because they live in different environments the two children are completely different. I understand that most of the time family can be non blood related and it would be kind of like adoption which many kids go through everyday. But the family did a very wrong thing and had made me felt many different emotions. I felt this way because of the children who were switched could be a completely different person if they hadn’t been switched or that the millers came forward and told someone about the mistake right when they noticed that it wasn’t their baby. At the end of the episode the miller couple eventually decided to tell the child and the other parents which ended in many different ranges of emotions but they had agreed to keep the kids in the situation that they were in sense day one because it would completely mess up each child’s life even more. So they agreed to keep them where they were but the families became close so each could still spend some time with their own child. I think this is very sweet because in the end even thought the switch was rough the families became closer. I cant even begin to imagine what the couples felt like after receiving the news that the child they had raised was not even their child. But It all could have been resolved if the millers would have just confessed what they found out right away instead of keeping it a secret for so many years.
Terms: switched at birth

When I first heard this broadcast I was annoyed not quite upset. many questions running through my head wondering why they wouldn’t say something sooner. I am still unsure as to why they waited so long to relay the message, especially if she could tell right away. This situation is really similar to a show I used to watch on ABCfamily called switched at birth and once they found out about the mix up they had so many questions about what would have been. The families from the podcast are so different in the upbringing and in their personalities. The Miller family was more on the poor side, had six other children, and were strict people. It sounds as though they were more about growing up and getting down to business rather than living life; religion was their only life. Then we have the McDonalds who all have fair colored hair, upbeat personalities, and are sociable. The McDonalds also made religion an important part of their life however they also made time for other things such as sports, and social events.

I believe that both women were affected by their upbringing most definitely. It sounds as though if this information would have been brought up sooner than 40 years, the two families could have found a common ground. I understand that it is not easy to raise a child not knowing if they are really yours but you have to think of what is best for the child. Both women shared that growing up they felt different from everyone around them. They did not look like anyone in their families or act like anyone. Feeling accepted is very important in a young girl's life, I personally think that they should have known sooner. It didn’t matter when you would have told them everyone would have many questions and opinions about the situation.

When it comes to the understanding of nature vs nurture, I personally think that nature was very influential in the development of these ladies growing into adults. Both families raised their children differently and both ladies felt different. These children were nothing like the families they grew up with and nurture took effect when growing up and they both took their biological traits.

The Overall problem with this entire situation is that they aren’t really talking to each other. Mrs. Miller seems to be really petty by slowly pushing marty the daughter she raised out of the family. Like you raised this person from birth, a child is a child raise them and accept them for them. Stop tiptoeing around the situation and put everything out there. The families needed to get together the minute they found out and “share notes” I guess, or at least share their life experiences. I say this never actually being in this situation. I feel bad for Marti because it seemed as though neither families wanted Susan and no one wanted Marti but two people.
Hearing the child saying she felt “out of place” makes me angry, to know that because of a mix up that was not her fault has her feeling so down. She should never have been put in that situation, and that is why I feel really bad for her.

There is almost no right way to deal with it, but I am glad they were strong enough to share their story. In the end I am glad that they worked it out for the most part.
Terms: nature, nurture, personality, development, switched at birth,

This episode scares me a little. The thought of bringing home the wrong baby is terrifying. It would be such a hard thing to wrap your head around. There is no clear way to go about this. Who do you think of as your mother? The self-schema is an integrated set of memories, beliefs and generalizations about the self. This was thrown into the air when the news was leaked about the switch. Although this is an awful situation is is an incredible chance to study nature vs nurture.

Nature vs nurture explains that both genes and environment affect who we are and what we do. The genes we inherit from our parents affect our physical attributes and the ways we think and behave. Behavioral genetics uses twin studies to examine how genes and environment interact to influence mental activity and behavior. Environment affects brain function and psychological characteristics through plasticity, strengthening neural connections, brain reorganization, and the effects of gender. After looking at the scientific facts I believed that nature was the most prominent part of the development of a person. After listening to the story my opinion changed. Both girls felt like they did not fit into the families that they were raised into. Not just physically but also mentally. They have different interests. One of the girls was athletic in an intellectual home and the other was serious in an easy going home.

From my understanding of this radio show, the girls personality wasn’t affected much by the switch. Instead they just tried to conform to the family that they were in. This would be incredibly hard. The girls seemed to be envious of the families they could have grown up in. At this same time they both try to take life by strides and be thankful for what they were given.

One of the things I found interesting was that humor was associated with nature. This makes sense to me because my whole family shares a similar sense of humor. We are all very sarcastic and quick to laugh. We can tease each other with no hard feelings. It feels good to be around people have similar interests to you. I can’t imagine being the girl who was fun-loving in a serious household. This would make me very unhappy. I tend to joke around excessively. I can completely agree to the need to belong theory because it would have made me sad if a grew up in a place that I felt to be a black sheep in.

If I was in this situation I wouldn’t know what to do. I can completely sympathize to feeling lonely. Although you have more family you do not know how to handle it. Two sets of parents is a headache. The father of the family said that it doesn’t make a difference, a child is a child. I would have a hard time with this as a parent because it was the child that I carried in my womb for nine months. This is an issue I have given thought to before because I used to watch the ABC Family Tv series switched at birth. I can honestly say that I don’t know how I would handle this and I have a lot of respect for people who are going through this. It couldn’t be easy. All I can say is that I am thankful for the family I have and that I feel like I belong with that family.

Psych terms: nature vs nurture, need to belong theory, personality, brain functions, environment, development, generalizations of the self, conform,

After listening to This American Life episode called Switched at Birth it made me feel very questionable on how this situation even occurred. It also made me question the mother that knew she did not have the right baby and still never told anyone about it or bring the baby back to the hospital. That mothers name is Mary Miller. After hearing her story about how she knew for forty years about her child being switched at birth and her not telling anyone made me feel kind of disgusted with her. I don’t understand why she would not want to get her own baby back even if it does mean to hurt her doctor’s reputation. I also can’t understand how the hospital could mix up babies and not realize it. Overall this episode just keeps me questioning all of the actions that the mother and the hospital took.
The most influential of the nature vs nurture debate in the development of the two girls into adults would have to be nature. Nature is the inherited/ genetic part of the debate. I think that nature is more influential in the two girl’s life because of how they ended up and their personalities when they grew up to be adults. For example Sue McDonald, who was raised by Kay but her biological mother is Mary Miller, grew up to be quiet and very serious about her life. This shows nature because her biological siblings are the same way as her, very quiet and not popular. Just because she grew up in a different environment without her biological parents she still acted the same way as her biological siblings because they all came from the same parents and had the same genes. The nurture effect did affect her in ways but the nature aspect overruled her personality and behaviors based on her genes. Another example is with Marti Miller, who was raised by Mary Miller but her biological mother is Kay McDonald, she also shows the aspect of nature affecting her adult life. She was raised in a home that was very religious and very quiet and serious about the future. But as a child she was popular, outgoing, and was a joker. These characteristics came from her biological mother, Kay. This played a role in her life because even though she grew up in a home that wasn’t outgoing, her genes still made her become an outgoing and popular woman. Nurture affects both of these girls in the environment they grew up in but nature takes over and impacts their overall lifestyle.
These two girls’ personalities were impacted mostly by the mothers that raised them. For example with Marti Miller, she was a very outgoing person who could tell jokes anytime during the day, was affected by how she was raised by Mary Miller. This affected her because she grew up in a home that was not outgoing and who didn’t understand any of her jokes. This impacted Marti because she felt that she couldn’t be herself around her own family. This shows the term of temperament. Temperament is the general tendency to feel or act in certain ways. This shows Marti’s personality because while she was with her family that raised her she had to act in a certain way, such as being serious about her future, because her family was that way.
Psychology Terms: Nature vs. Nurture Debate, Genes, Personality, and Temperament.

This episode was a very interesting one. We followed two families, the Millers and the Mcdonalds. What was interesting was that Mrs. Miller believed that they had taken home the wrong baby, but they never did anything about it. The didn't want to disgrace the doctor, and Mrs. Miller was haemorrhaging a lot, she was sick for six to seven months, and by the time she was better it made it more difficult to do anything about the switch, especially when her husband didn't believe her. I mean a baby is a baby right?
It seems very obvious to me that these girls personalities are very much like their biological families. One was blonde and extroverted, she was a cheerleader and nothing like the rest of her family who focused on music and more intellectual things. The other had brown hair, and tried out for cheer leading because that is what was sort of expected for her, but she didn't make the team. It seems to me that nature was overwhelmingly present in these girls, neither of them seemed to belong in their families and both were entirely different families.
I feel like Marti feels like she doesn't really belong in either family because the mother who raised knew she wasn't their child, and longed for her biological daughter, whereas her biological parents had no idea that their daughter was not theirs and did not long for another. It doesn't feel very good being the child everyone wanted less. Though I don't believe that personality was changed as much as it could have been, had the news that they were switched at birth mentioned sooner.
Terms: personality, nature vs nurture, biological

This story told a lot about how its nature and nurture. This story talks how the girls that were switched at birth were different than the rest of the family. The family members even noted this that the family that was easy going and funny had that one child that liked to focus on school work and be anti-social. It was interesting that the new family did not rub off onto the children. This is backing the proof that the genes imbedded in us from birth dictate who we are. These genes tell of how we feel about ourselves (self-concept), our intelligence, and the way we socialize with others. This is also known as basic tendencies. The fact that one woman knew the whole time that the babies were switch pissed me off. Why didn’t she do anything about it? Obviously something was wrong. The baby couldn’t have lost two pounds in a matter of days!
Terms: Nature vs. Nurture, self-concept, basic tendencies, genes

In this episode of This American Life it is very shocking to fund out that two people switched at birth find out over 40 years later that they grew up with the wrong family. Honestly I'm just confused as to why Mrs. Miller would even decide to tell them after all these years rather than during early childhood when it could have been fixed and each child could have grown up with their biological family and maybe fit in better. If you wait that long to tell them its almost pointless to do so because like Sue said she felt as though she wouldn't be accepted in the family she grew up with.
The aspect of nature/nurture can be seen in this episode when they talk about the appearances of the two girls. For the most part the girls didn't look anything like the family they were being raised by, but they were always told they looked like the family that was truly theirs. Appearance is the nature aspect of this and it is determined by genes so their physical development is already predetermined. The nurture aspect of it is how they are brought up. The influence of their family and surroundings makes up the other aspect of their personality, but the genetics can also have effect on this and it is evident in Marti. She is athletic and does cheer leading while the rest of her siblings were much more intellectual. And Sue who was also very different from her brother who was very outgoing, while she was shy and never danced with anyone at a high school dance. So after looking at all the findings in this episode it appears that the nature aspect has more influence because it caused the girls to be different from their family even though they were brought up the same way as them.
The personalities of the people didn't appear to have been impacted too much, but they did try and get to know their true biological family, and also worried that they would lose the family that they grew up with because of the fact that the true daughter of each family are getting to know them and settling in their true spot and taking the spot of the other.
Psych Terms: personality, nature, nurture, biological

I was shocked at the fact that the mother knew she took the wrong baby home, but didn’t say anything. It was interesting how the families knew each other and how Mary kept the McDonald’s family close. I couldn’t imagine learning this at 40 years old, or how the daughter of the mom who knew she had the wrong child felt because she didn’t try to get her actual daughter back. It was funny how the families were completely different, one had 6 siblings and the other only had one other sibling. When Sue was talking she mentioned how her dad, Mr. Miller the reverend, and how he wanted people to know jesus and that they could be saved, and she too had those same beliefs. She didn’t want to tell her mother because she didn’t feel that her mom would still accept her because they always referred to the family as odd, and now she was one of them. When they knew the truth, they would think the same of her and wouldn’t want her but instead spend their time with Marti, the fun loving, popular, and even looks like her. It was interesting hearing Sue talk about how when Marti and her brother met they would dance and they acted like they hadn’t been separated their whole lives. Sue’s personality and Marti’s personality were a lot like those of their biological parents and siblings.I couldn't imagine being Marti and having your mom later tell you “I didn’t expect that much from you because I knew you weren’t our child,” that alone would be so tough to hear because she was her mom, even if it wasn’t biologically. I don’t think as a mother I would be able to raise a child that I know wasn’t mine. I thought it was weird that Marti’s mom who raised her took a program from the 50th wedding anniversary and circled the names of her biological family members. That really surprised me because like Marti I would think that my mom was trying to get the point across that my family I’ve known all my life, all of a sudden isn’t my family anymore because the truth is out. I thought it was extremely rude and out of line, especially Mrs. Miller told Sue first about the truth.

There are many aspects of nature vs. nurture presented in this broadcast. The personalites of the two girls really resembled that of their biological family members. Marti was a lot like her brother; outgoing, popular, and funny. Unlike Sue who was very into music and was interested in all of the hobbies they did. It was freaky when Marti went to her biological parents house and noticed that her parents and her had the same oil painting in their homes. I think biology plays a bigger role in child development other than nature because although the children grew up in separate families, they both fit into their biological families as if they had been around them their whole lives. Like when Marti and Sue were both at the same brunch, Marti was outgoing and talking to everyone Sue on the other hand was tense and shy. It was funny listening to the difference of how the two grew up, like Marti having to crawl through a vent to get to the bathroom and sharing a room with five girls and Sue having her own room.

Both Sue’s and Marti’s personalities were impacted by the truth. Sue was accepted with welcoming arms while Marti had to work for her relationship with her biological family. Sue would feel left out when Marti and her biological brother were at the same place because they would be the ones spending time together. Sue was lucky because the Miller’s wanted sue to be apart of their family, and the McDonalds too still wanted their daughter to be apart of there family, and Marti was feeling left out. I think Mary Miller wanted the best of both worlds because she got to raise a daughter, but also got to follow her biological daughter’s family around but didn’t say anything. She kept tabs on Sue and Kay, and it seems like she kind of stalked them. Then when the truth came out she wanted more of a relationship with her biological daughter than with the one she raised. I feel like Marti was jipped out of a childhood because the whole time she never got her mother’s full attention or support because she knew it wasn’t her real child. I couldn’t imagine what Kay went through having to see this family spend all this time with the daughter you raised, and seeing her slowly slipping away from you, and Marti living in California also not calling often. I think Mrs. Miller should have just told them what had happened, instead of just dropping hints. I understand why she didn’t want to because of all the help the doctor gave them.

Terms: Nature vs. Nurture, Personality

After listening to the show I felt a mixture of sympaty and anger. I was furious with the parents of the Miller family because of how they handled the situation, and I felt bad for the daughters and the McDonald family. At first as I was leading I couldn't think of a good reason for Mrs. Miller to not switch the kids back, I assumed that Mrs. Miller was just a weird nut job who got a kick out of having the wrong kid. After listening to Act II I started to understand Mrs. Miller's position a little better. If she was telling the truth, it was pretty clear that she was scared of Reverend Miller. When she was asked if she was scared of Mr. Miller she hesitated and didn't sound confident at all when she said no. How she answered these questions leads me to believe that she might have been abused, or she is using the story, that Mr. Miller didn't let her return the kids, to save her own skin. Personally, I think Mrs. Miller was just trying to save her own skin. I felt bad for both the girls that were switched and their families, but I especially felt bad for Marti. Marti grew up with the Miller's even though she was genetically a McDonald, so her "parents", the Millers, knew that she wasn't their real daughter and they had less interest in her. Also, her biological parents had no idea of the situation, so they were completely shocked when they learned the news, so they were a little slow to warm up to Marti as part of the family. During this time Marti was stuck in the difficult scenario of not thinking that either family wanted her. I think that the Miller family caused everyone a lot of pain, especially Marti.
I was surprised at how the nurture vs. nature arguent played out in this case. I expected the physical appearances of the girls to be most similar with their biological families because looks is definitely a biological, hereditary trait. I always assumed people have similiar personalities as the rest of their families because of the similiar circumstances that they lived in. Clearly this case is a strong indicator to the role genetics play in the development of personalities. Both girls didn't seem to fit in with their families, Marti was clearly an extrovert in a family of introverts, and Sue was definitely an introvert in a family of extroverts. Even after living with and being raised by the same family for forty years they still seemed to fit in better with their biological families. The physical and personality traits of the girls tended to be more consistent with their biological families than with the families that raised them. This case gives strong evidence that biological traits have more of an impact on personality than learned traits.
Psychological terms: genetic, biological, nurture, nature, hereditary, personalities, extrovert, introvert, traits

This was difficult for me because at first one mother knew the babies were switched but had no proof to show it. It’s hard for me to understand that this can even happen. I understand they didn’t have DNA testing back then but I would’ve said something and fixed the problem before it started. It would be really hard now after everyone found out. For nature vs nurture in this case I think it is nurture. Even though the kids weren’t their biological kids they raised them like their own. There was a little bit of nature though too. In nature they always were a little different than their families. A little of their biological traits appeared to make them stand out from the families they grew up with. The personalities were impacted because they were always a little different in the families they grew up with. Now since they know their family and they act like their biological family I think they can be more themselves because they won’t stand out like if they were with the family they grew up with. Terms used: nature vs nurture, DNA testing, biological traits, personality.

After I listened to this episode I felt kind of surprised and very shocked. I didn’t realize that it is possible for a mistake as huge as this to happen. With all of the precautions and different procedures that go into our hospitals, one would think that a mix-up like this would be damn near impossible. After I got over the initial shock, I felt horribly for these poor girls who were switched at birth. I cannot possibly imagine living my whole life not knowing that biologically, I belong to a different family. I think that the worst part about this scenario is that the women didn’t find out until they were in their 40’s. They lived their entire lives with a family that wasn’t theirs, feeling out of place and confused. In the radio show it talks about how both of the women felt as if they didn’t belong in their family. They looked and behaved differently. Both of them found it difficult to connect with siblings because they did not share similar interests. Not only did they find out so late in life, but it was brought to their attention through a letter. Mrs. Miller sent out two letters by mail, one to Sue, and one to Marti, explaining that they were switched at birth and that the family that they grew up with, really wasn’t their family. Mrs. Miller explains that the first day that she brought home Marti, she knew that it wasn’t her baby. She talked with her husband and he insisted that they shouldn’t do anything about it, and just leave it be. This is the oddest part to me. Why anyone would want to raise another family’s baby, when they know that their biological baby is with the other family, is beyond me. Mrs. Miller would keep track of her biological daughter Sue by asking for Christmas cards, and showing up to events that she knew the McDonald family would be apart of. When Sue was talking about how difficult her relationship got with her brother, I felt like my heart was breaking for her. Her brother danced with everyone at the wedding, including his biological sister, Marti, that he had just met, and never danced with Sue. She said how crummy it made her feel and I felt so sorry for her. When it comes to the nature vs. nurture debate, I think that nature was the most influential in transforming these children into adults because as we heard, the two girls were hardly anything like the parents who raised them. Instead, their biological traits were the main reason that the girls were brought up they way they were. The nature of their genes took over the way that they were raised, and we saw that come out as soon as the women met their real families. Their personalities were strongly affected by this switch because we learned that neither of the girls really felt like they “fit it” with their families. Marti was outgoing and bubbly, like the McDonalds, and her parents never showed her support with her extracurricular activities because athletics was simply not something that they cared about. The same was true about Sue. She shared the same personality traits as the Millers, and had a hard time trying to connect with her siblings, especially her brother, and her parents because of this imbalance of personality traits in the family.
Terms: biology, nature vs. nurture, personaility, traits

Switched at Birth:
Before I listened to the episode I knew that there was going to be a surprised ending. I was shocked when Mary Miller knew this whole time that for 43 years, she knew she had the wrong baby. Both families were somewhat too calm and wanted the secret to come out. The question was: Why did Mrs. Miller hid the truth for this long? This news was scary because of not knowing what to do with knowing that you were raised by the wrong mother for so long. Sue was a married woman that was serious and was different from her “family”, but asked her mother who told her that she was her mother. I felt Sue didn’t really care about who her true family was, but didn’t tell her fake mother because of her health. After taking a blood test she knew that this “odd” family was her’s and needed to tell her family she knew her whole life the truth. Sue was jealous and felt that if she told Kay McDonald the truth that she didn’t want her anymore. The first meeting was confused, awkward, and scary because of not knowing what would happen when the family knew. Sue’s father was determined that Sue was her real daughter and didn’t care what the blood test said. The only person that Sue felt she was going to lose was her brother because growing up they were not close until Marti came in the picture. The brother and sister bond was broken when the real truth was out.
Marti was similar to Sue in ways, but was the opposite of her family she knew her whole life by the way she looked, acted, and was told by her friend Ruth she was related to the McDonalds. Listening to the overall episode I realize that a lot of people knew the truth, but was afraid to say again. The year was 1951 and mistakes was seen, but was never heard because of not wanting to disrespect the doctor’s knowledge. The personalities’ of the daughters were different and you could tell that the families they were with was not theirs. I learned a lot of information in this video and heard sad stories that know human should go through. Switched at birth as become a tv show that I watched a few times tat reminded me of this and the situations that go through a family that learns of a secret that can tear them apart.

Episode: Switched at Birth
Psychology
Before watching this episode I read the title and my first thoughts were how something like this could happen and how scary that would be. This episode made me feel very concerned for both of the families involved. First for the mothers, for having to go through the reality that the child they gave birth to is being raised in another family, and also for the children for growing up and not knowing why they were so different than their families.
In regards to the Nature vs Nurture aspect, I feel there is a more complicated response than simply one or the other. The fact that we are all born with genes from both of our parents gives us certain biological traits that they have and we are drawn towards since birth. Although I also believe that growing up we get influenced by our family and the people closest to us. Because as we grow up we are raised a certain way. Both of these affect how we grow up and what our personalities are like.
As we heard about the two families, I realized that they definitely had been affected in some different ways. Mrs. Miller knew early on that Marty was not her daughter but they did not tell anyone about it because they weren’t sure. I believe that the two daughters were impacted by this whole situation. Such as growing up and never really fitting in with their families and looking different than them. They grew up liking different things and having very different personalities than the people who raised them. And that feeling could be very hard to deal with growing up. Sue grew up with the McDonalds and she was much more introverted and shyer than the rest of her family. While Marty, growing up with the Millers was very energetic and more of an extrovert compared to them. Both of these examples show how the nature aspect of Nature vs Nurture is revealed. While the fact that they were raised by different families and still were accepted into the family shows the nurture part. When the two families were told about the switch and their new relatives, it affected the two daughters and the mothers. The Millers were very accepting of Sue because Mrs. Miller was aware of the fact they had been switched already and some of the kids had their suspicions. While it was hard for Marty as well because the McDonald family was somewhat accepting but also did not want to lose Sue. The son of the McDonalds, however, was extremely accepting of Marty because they automatically connected and became very close. I cannot imagine what these families had to go through when in this sort of situation. It seems very stressful but also very exciting to find out about another family that you can learn to love and become close to.
Key Terms: personality, nature vs nurture, biological traits, introverted, extrovert

I was very surprised just in the prologue of this recording. I could not believe that the mother of Martha had known the day of bringing her home that she was not her baby, but she had not said anything for so long. What it had sounded like to me was that the father did not want to get a DNA test because he “knew for a fact” that she was his own. I was also upset about this. If you know that the child is not yours why would you not return the child to their biological parent? This is very confusing to me. The idea of nature vs. nurture in the textbook fits to this audio recording by, both nature and nurture have an impact on how the two kids were raised. One set of parents pass on genes to their kids that have an impact on the child’s personality, but since the two were switched at birth the way they were nurtured and brought up by the other parents show that how, we are nurtured also has an impact on our personality towards others. An example of this is how we are taught manners and the environment we are raised in. If your raised religiously and raised to be very kind to others then you will go out of your way to say hi to people you know and to hold a conversation with them for several minutes. The other side of it is that you may never go to church, and your parents do not teach you how to be nice to other people.
For the two that had been switched at birth I think being switched had a decent impact on their lives. They had grown up to be decent people in being nice to others and having pretty good jobs and families. While growing up and even after they knew that had been switched they had felt a sense of not belonging. I know what it is like to feel like you do not belong and this has a pretty big impact on your personality. I was surprised that they did not have more psychological problems.

Terms: psychology, personality, DNA, nature vs nurture.

This episode was very sad. I can't imagine finding out that your whole life was basically one big lie or one big mistake. It would definitely rock the foundations of my life. I also can't believe that the infants got mixed up in the first place! But I think it's even more sad that both Marti and Sue, the girls who got mixed up sort of questioned if they were adopted. It would be so rough being raised in a family where you're completely different, like being the only blonde in a family of brunets and just being able to tell that you were different than your family and a different personality than your "siblings".

I think that this is when nature vs. nurture comes in. Even though the girls were raised in the families as their own daughters, nature still played a big role. When one of the girls, Marti, did a "recon" mission, they noticed that in the other family, a daughter walked the exact same way Marti did. I think that would be really scary, finally seeing evidence that you might not belong in your family. Or, I might've thought that my mom cheated with their husband.

I also can't believe the one mother didn't say anything for so long. That is WAY too long to be able to catch up! I'm glad she didn't wait until the other mother died, that would've been a catastrophe. It would take a long time for me at least to build trust in her again and want to be close to her.

Terms:
Personality, Nature, Nurture

The episode of This American Life made me feel partially sad, but at the same time interested me and I think that it was an important thing to have happened for psychological research. I felt sad because I can’t imagine how I would feel knowing the people who raised me aren’t actually my parents, and also because the parents must have gone through a lot knowing the child was not theirs. It would be much more tough dealing with a child who does not act like your others, and does not look like them. There are many things that could be both unfamiliar and harder to push though because I feel that the love for the child would be mildly less. The unfamiliarity would come from the nature side of things, the traits passed on from the real parents may be very different from those shown in the parents caring for the child, many mannerisms and such are genetic and passed down from parent to child, and the child may feel alienated or feel left out because their siblings act and like different things naturally. I feel like over time however, nurture will kick in and become dominate after the child gains the ability to think and care for itself. It seems that many adult attitudes and actions directly come from the way a person’s care givers act. A switched up baby situation would be tough on parents, and tougher on the kids. But a loving household is what will ultimately decide the kid’s future, biology can only determine so much.
Terms: Nature, Nurture, Personality, Genetic, Biology, Psychological research

My first initial thought towards this story was sadness. Throughout the episode, I tried to put myself into the situation of Marti and Sue, but I could not do it. I couldn’t imagine being switched with another child at birth and growing up with the completely wrong family. Not only did you grow up with the wrong people, you also have a whole other new family that you know nothing about. How weird would it be having to learn names of aunts, uncles, and cousins at age thirty that you never knew? I had difficulty putting myself into this situation. I also tried to imagine learning that one of my siblings was not actually my sibling. This was actually even harder for me, believe it or not. Overall, this was quite mind blowing for me to understand. I felt angry at first when the mother suspected something right away, however; I can somewhat understand why she couldn’t do anything about it dealing with her severe sickness. There are so many ‘what-ifs’ in this story. Everyone’s lives in this story could have been so much different. The nature vs nurture debate is very alive in this situation. While listening, there were obvious signs that stood out causing people to wonder which daughter belonged to who. The two daughters had personalities that did not exactly match their households, and people around town noticed it. The idea of the switch at birth had been brought up a couple of times, however; nothing ever amounted to anything. The idea of this actually happening was simply unthinkable. Never in a million years would something like this ever happen, especially to them. Clearly, these girls were not genetically related to their families, yet still developed personality traits similar to those possessed by the family members they lived with. The nature of these households were vastly different, and Marti and Sue’s personalities reflected that. Genetically, they were programmed differently than the siblings they lived with, but they adapted to and began to engage in the behaviors showed throughout their household, just as normal kids growing up would. On the grand scheme of things, this tragic event changed the lives for many people, the two mothers and daughters especially. It must have been nearly impossible for Mary Miller to write letters to Marti and Sue explaining the situation. At the end of the day, this was a very tragic event to have happen, and after hearing about the toll it took on these families, I hope it never happens again. Terms: Nature vs Nurture, genes,

Ricardo Garza
The topic of psychological disorders has always been one that people tend to find inherently interesting. We see this in films, news articles, and in story books. We are interested in this topic because it is different from our typical social norms and psychological norms. When we hear of something or someone that has a psychological disorder we are interested because of how they are performing differently in everyday lives and because of the way that they think is far different than the way we think. When we think of regular problems or forms of sickness, we think of maybe a disease or virus. But when mental illness is involved, we go deeper into diagnostics. We begin to see cases that involve schizophrenia, bipolar cases, and personality disorders that have a huge toile on the lives of these individuals. Doctors undergo several x-rays of the brain, or a biopsy and find different disorders in the brain. So people find all of this interesting because of how it is completely different form the normal procedures and normal interactions and physical presentation than we are accustomed to.
But what are the actual causes of psychological dysfunction? While the causes are not actually completely known, we do know some reasons. One being genetics and hereditary. When doctors see mental illnesses they link them to abnormal functions of nerve cell circuits that connect to different brain regions. The nerves in these regions communicate through neurotransmitters. An illness is seen whenever a defect or loss of communication is seen in the brain through a biopsy. With this knowledge, I have realized that my thoughts and understanding of psychological disorders has changed after reading this chapter. They changed because I never knew about all of the different disorders. For example, I had never heard of agoraphobia, which is the anxiety disorder marked by the fear of being in situations where escaping the situation is difficult. I thought that this disorder along with all of the others opened my eyes to the world of psychology and I am impresses with the researchers and doctors who find out the information and perform the studies to find these disorders. That is how my perception changed.
From the reading the topic that most interested me was the topic that talked about the two types of phobias. I have always thought of phobias as being very interesting and that is why the topic interested me from an early start. The topic says that the two types of phobias are specific phobias and social phobias. Specific being the fear of something that is disproportionate to the threat, and specific being the fear of being negatively evaluated by others in a social setting. An example of specific phobia is if I was so afraid of snakes that if I even see a picture of one my heart pounds in my chest and I immediately feel the need to have to run away. An example of social phobia is if I worried intensely that I will say or do the wrong thing around other people and they will think badly of me. I found this topic interesting because I had never heard of two types of phobias, I originally thought that there was only one type.
The most surprising thing that I learned from the reading was the development of anxiety disorders. I found this topic most surprising because although I have heard of people simply having an anxiety disorder, I rarely hear of the development of it. I learned from this topic about the etiology of various types of anxiety that are researched through biopsies. I lastly learned that when someone develops an anxiety disorder, it is usually learned not caught like the flu. We develop this fear of something as a child or young adult and never let that fear go or cope with it. That is how it develops into a disorder.

Terms: Biopsy, anxiety, anxiety disorder, etiology, phobia, social phobia, specific phobia, nerves, neurotransmitters, illness, psychological disorder, agoraphobia, psychology, psychological dysfunction, genetics, hereditary, schizophrenia, bi-polar