Explain the effect of parenting on the formation of personality by stating the findings of at least three research studies

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANS: Students' answers will vary.
Although Freud was the first theorist to emphasize parental influences on the formation of personality, virtually every theorist thereafter has echoed his views to some degree.

There are various examples of how parental behaviors can determine, or undermine, specific aspects of personality, such as self-efficacy, locus of control, learned helplessness or optimism, and subjective well-being. Parental behaviors can influence primarily inherited traits such as sensation seeking.

A study of adolescents in Singapore found that those whose parents were authoritative had greater confidence in their abilities and were better adjusted socially than those whose parents were authoritarian (strict, harsh, and demanding obedience) (Ang, 2006). A large-scale analysis of parent–child relationships found clear evidence that parents who were high in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to new experience behaved in more warm and consistent ways toward their children than parents who scored low on those factors.

Parents in Arab cultures tend to be more authoritarian than authoritative. A study of mothers who had immigrated with their children to Canada showed that the women from collectivist cultures such as Egypt, Iran, India, and Pakistan were more authoritarian than women from individualistic countries in Western Europe (Rudy & Grusec, 2006).

Another study found that mothers characterized by negative emotions and disagreeableness had children who scored higher in defiance, anger, disobedience, and other behavior problems than did mothers who did not exhibit negative emotional qualities (Kochanska, Clark, & Goldman, 1997).