adoption study: heston

Question 1

what was the aim?

Answer 1

test the assumption that a parent could be the cause of schizophrenia by creating a distorted family environment

Question 2

describe the sample

Answer 2

• 30 males, 27 females
• 50 controls
• born between 1915-1945 to Sz mothers
• mothers had diagnosis, evidence of Sz behaviour, no diseases and separation from birth
• matched on sex, length of time in childcare and type of eventual placement

Question 3

describe the procedure

Answer 3

• secondary data collected to assess psychiatric status eg police/school/hospital records, newspaper reports
• primary data eg personal interview
• 2 psychiatrists and Heston assessed blindly and independently
• diagnosed with Sz if all agreed

Question 4

describe the results

Answer 4

• rate of Sz born to Sz mothers compared to controls was 10.6% to 0
• differences in psycho social disability (80.1 vs 65.2) , Sz and time spent in institutions
• no differences in marriage rates, social groups or children

Question 5

what was the conclusion?

Answer 5

findings support influence of genes in Sz, inheritance also contributes to psycho social disability

Question 6

generalisability

Answer 6

• ethnocentric, only american ppts

Question 7

reliability

Answer 7

• good agreement between raters
• 4th psychiatrist consulted if disagreement
• researcher bias minimised

Question 8

application

Answer 8

• sz due to genetics
• treatments
• removes blame

Question 9

validity

Answer 9

• matched pairs, eliminates ppt variables
• evaluations were blind, no bias
• qual data eg clinical interview - rich and insightful
• social desirability
• small sample size

Question 10

ethics

Answer 10

• testing and interviewing may be distressing in light of research aims
• informed consent gained