ETICS AND EMICS OF CHILD-REARING

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ETICS AND EMICS OF CHILD-REARING
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LECTURE OUTLINE

• Introduction Etics and Emics of Child-rearing
• Etics Parental-Acceptance-Rejection Theory
  (Rohner)
• PAR model
• How PAR is studied
• Key issues
• PAR and personality
• PAR and coping
• Consequences of PAR
• Evaluation of PAR

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Lecture Outline (cont)

• Emics Amae
• The anatomy of dependence (Doi)
• Yamaguichis theorizing on amae
• Conceptual elaboration and ecological
  validity
• Amae and dependence
• Amae and attachment

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Lecture Outline (cont)

• Emics Filial piety (Ho)
• Characteristics
• Measurement
• Determinants
• Filial attitudes and behaviours
• Filial piety, child-rearing and psychological
  outcomes

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Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory
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Convergence of Methodologies
Case Study
Comparative Holocultural
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Convergence of Methodologies
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PAR ITEMSMy mother..

• Pays no attention to me
• Enjoys having me around
• Sees me as a big nuisance
• Hugs and kisses me when I am good
• Yells at me when she is angry

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Subtheories

• Personality subtheory
• What happens to children who perceive
  themselvees to be loved or unloved by their
  parents?
• To what extent do these effects extend into
  adulthood and old age?
• Coping subtheory
• Why do some children and adults cope more
  effectively than others with the experiences of
  childhood rejection?
• Sociocultural subtheory
• Why are some parents warm, loving, and accepting
  and others cold, aggressive, neglecting, and
  recjeting?
• how is the total fabric of a society, as well
  as the behaviour and beliefs or people within the
  society, affected by the fact that most parents
  in that societz tend to either accept or reject
  their children?

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PAR and Personality

• Emotional need for positive response is a
  powerful motivator in children
• Parental rejection leads to hostility,
  aggression, impaired self esteem, emotional
  unresponsiveness and instability

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PAR and Coping
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Consequences of Parental Rejection

• Depression
• Behavioural problems
• Substance abuse

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PAR and Mental Health Outcomes
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Evaluation of PAR

• Almost 2000 empirical studies since the 1930s
• Convergence of results across methods, cultures
  and over time
• Approximately 25 of the variance in adolescent
  and adult adjustment accounted for by PAR

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How to understand Japanese
The typical psychology of a given nation can
only be learned through familiarity with its
native language. The language
comprises everything which is intrinsic to the
soul of a nation, and, therefore, provides the
best projective test there is for each
nation. Doi
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Clarifying Amae (Yamaguchi)

• Amae the presumption of indulgence, which
  involves an acceptance of inappropriate behaviour
• Elaboration of amae
• Amae and dependence
• Amae and attachment

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Filial Piety

• Guiding principle governing patterns of
  socialisation
• Prescribes how children should behave towards
  parents
• Justifies parental authority over children
• Demands obedience, honour and respect

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Filial Piety Measures

• Moral dilemmas (e.g. Lee, 1974)
• 1. Material benefits to parents
• 2. Emotional and spiritual support for parents
• 3. Care, love and obedience in parent-child
  relationships
• 4. Mutual care and love in relationships
• 5. Actualizing ethical ideals.
• Psychometric scales
• e.g. Filial Piety Scale by \Ho and Lee (1974)

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Filial Piety Determinants

• Education
• Age
• Gender
• Socio-economic status
• Nationality
• Continuities and departures form tradition
• To which extent are filial attitudes reflected in
  filial behaviour?

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Filial Piety, Child-rearing and Psychological
Outcomes

• Authoritarian moralism (Ho, 1993)
• Cognitive conservatism (Greenwald, 1980)

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Research evidence consistently points to negative
psychological consequences of filial piety from a
contemporary perspective on human development.
Ho (1996, p. 165)
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Concluding Questions

• What are the positive and negative consequences
  of filial piety?
• Can Amae be studied across cultures?
• Is PAR a convincing etic theory? Why?