Resource Mediation in Childhood and Identification

Abstract

SOCIAL power (French and Raven, 1959) refers to the ability to influence the behavior of other persons by controlling or mediating their positive or negative reinforcements. Workers at the Harvard Laboratory of Human Development (Maccoby, 1959;Whiting, 1960) have proposed social power as a central factor in determining the nature of identification of child with parents. Maccoby suggests that when the child perceives one parent or the other as the more important mediator of rewards and punishments (i.e., resource mediator), that parent is more likely to become the primary model for identification. Studies by Mussen and Distler (1959), Maccoby (1961), and by Bandura and Ross (1962) provide supportive evidence for the importance of resource mediation of the model in the child's sex-role preference, adult role-taking behavior, and imitative learning. All of these behaviors have been conceptually linked to identification.To this point, however, there has been no direct test of the social power theory in terms of the most critical indicant of identification, parent-child similarity. The purpose of the present study was to provide such a test by determining the relationships between the social power attributed to the mother and degree of parent-child similarity for male and female off-spring. A secondary purpose was to examine the relationships between attributed social power of the mother and maternal nurturance and punitiveness.Based upon social power theory, the following specific predictions were made:(1) A positive relationship exists between perceived resource mediation of the mother and maternal identification of both sons and daughters.(2) Children of either sex should identify most with mothers who are both controlling and nurturant compared with mothers who fail to show both of these attributes. This is based upon the assumption that maternal nurturance is an important resource to the child, and the giving and withholding of nurturant responses is an important source of maternal power (Sears, Maccoby and Levin, 1957).(3) Since resource mediation also includes control over negative reinforcements accorded the child, it would follow from social power theory that the mother to whom is attributed more social power would punish greater than the mother perceived as less powerful. METHOD SubjectsMost ^s included in this study were drawn as volunteers from a large under-139

Maternal Childrearing Control History and Subsequent Cognitive and Personality Functioning of the Offspring

“…Heilbrun and Hall (1964) used the PARI in testing out predicted relations from a resource mediation theory of identification and obtained positive results. Rodnick and Garmezy's (1957) theory which relates cognitive deficit of the offspring to a history of maternal control and rebuff via a learned sensitivity to social censure has received substantial support in three experiments (Hall, 1963;Heilbrun, Orr, & Harrell, in press;Heilbrun & Orr, in press).…”

Recall of parent–child experience and performance on the Stroop Test.

“…Heilbrun and his colleagues found inconsistent results with females (Heilbrun & Gillard, 1966;Heilbrun et al, 1965;Heilbrun & Hall, 1964). This led to an increasing tendency to refine the research procedures and to investigate aspects of the theory using only males (Heilbrun, 1968;Heilbrun, 1970;Heilbrun & Tiemeyer, 1968).…”