The Specificity Principle in Adoption asserts that specific setting conditions for adoption of specific adoptees born to specific birth parents and adopted by specific adoptive parents at specific times moderate specific domains in all members of the adoption tetrad by specific processes. Understanding adoption depends critically upon what is studied in whom, how, and when. This article defines, explains, and illustrates the Specificity Principle as applied to adoption. Research hypotheses about adoption can be more adequately tested, inconsistencies and discrepancies in the adoption literature can be more easily identified and resolved, adoptions can be refined to be improved for all parties, and adoption policies can be brought to more differentiated levels of effectiveness if the specificity principle that governs adoption is more widely recognized and applied.

《领养中的特殊性原则》认为，领养由特定亲生父母所生，由特定领养父母在特定时间领养的特定被领养者的特定设置条件，会通过特定过程来缓和所有领养成员的特定领域。对采用的理解至关重要，这取决于在谁，如何以及何时进行研究。本文定义，解释和说明了适用于采用的“特异性原则”。有关收养的研究假设可以得到更充分的检验，收养文献中的不一致和差异可以更容易地得到识别和解决，收养情况可以进行改进以改善各方利益，