No abstract

Research with normals and schizophrenics has indicated the importance of maternal childrearing control and nurturance. The first experiment tested whether patterns of maternal control and nurturance would relate to the son's subsequent cognitive performance under conditions involving social censure. Ss were 63 college males. Ss rating their mothers as highly controlling-low nurturant (rejecting pattern) were poorer in conceptual performance than Ss whose mothers were rated as low controlling-highly nurturant (accepting pattern). The same results were obtained when 74 males were divided into paternal childrearing pattern groups and their conceptual performance compared. It was proposed that social censure elicits responses which interfere with effective cognitive performance in Ss whose rejecting childrearing histories have mediated low self-esteem.

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