Paper Topic:

cross ccultural psychology/ obiedience and conformity

Comparing the Cross-Cultural Strategies of Maternal Control

The article by Sinha (1985 ) dealt with the cross-cultural strategies of mothers to regulate their children 's behavior . She compared three child-rearing strategies of mothers from India , Japan and the United States . It is said that when a mother rears a child , she raises them according to what her own cultural upbringing had dictated her . Any infant 's emerging ability to recognize individuals and to use facial expressions and other body language for social referencing is one kind of social cognition , as is the growing

understanding of others ' emotions and the development of a theory of mind in the preschool years . One could also argue that an internal working model of attachment is a kind of social cognition , as is the child 's self-scheme

In the child 's earliest years , his sole interpersonal relationships may be with his parents , and parents generally present cultural beliefs values , and attitudes to their children in a highly personalized and selective fashion . Yet , even though parents ' own personalities , family backgrounds , attitudes , values , education , religious beliefs socioeconomic status , and gender influence the way they socialize their children , their role in this socialization process - ensuring that their child 's standards of behavior , attitudes , skills , and motives conform as closely as possible to those regarded as desirable and appropriate to her role in society - is crucial (Bee Boyd , 2004

Most parents have some beliefs about the qualities they would like to see their children develop and the child-rearing methods that ought to encourage them . There are many paths to the development of positive as well as negative social behaviors , however , and there is no magic childrearing formula . Parents have to try to adapt their methods to each child 's temperament and needs and to the demands of the culture , but it is important to keep in mind that individual children may develop very differently within the same family situation . This is why Sinha (1985 sought to study the similarities and differences of maternal strategies on how they impose control over their children . Although the parents in India , Japan and USA tend to inculcate obedience in their children , they differ in the strategies they employ . Sinha (1985 ) hypothesized that there is much similarity between India and Japan regarding strategies and the mother-child relationship . Indian and Japanese mothers place more emphasis on internal control , whereas American mothers tend to exert external control . In comparison , Sinha (1985 ) suggested that American mothers viewed their infants as passive and dependent , and their goal is to make the child independent , while Japanese as well as Indian mothers see the child as an independent organism who needs to be brought into a dependency relationship within the family

In to verify her hypothesis , Sinha (1985 ) approached sixty mothers who have one to three children through nursery schools located in Patna India . The families were nuclear and two-parent families . All mothers except nine were housewives . The children selected for the study were not only the firstborns , like what...

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