Differences in Paren’ting Styles Jordan Downs psym 1 2/2/13 Mika Maruyama For my course of research I opted to do a study on the differences in paren’ting styles between men and women. I chose to go about the study using naturalistic observation as well as interviewing. In this study I used two of my best friends, one female, and one male. They are engaged and have two children. Their youngest is a boy and oldest is a girl. The respective ages of these two is two and three. In this study my independent variables were the mother and father as well as the two children.
My dependent variables in this study were the situations in which the parent’s were put in for dealing and handling the children. My theory about the study is there will be a difference in the way the kids are treated by mother and father. I think the father will be more likely to not discipline the daughter as compared to the son. I also think this will work comparatively with the mother. She will find it easier in disciplining the daughter as compared to the son. My reasoning in this theory is its difficult to be sthrong handed in dealing with the opposite sex as children.
While thinking about this subject in depth I have hypothesized that we as human beings find it easier to discipline the same sex. I believe this happens because we as male and female have been through somewhat of the same things in life therefore know what forms of discipline a younger one can handle. Whereas in contrast I don’t know what its like to be a little girl, so I am going to act differently when it comes to disciplining her. I conducted this study using natural observation as well as interviewing.
For the tudy I stayed with my two friends, one female and one male, as well as their two children of opposite sexes. During the observation I would wake up in the morning with either mother or father and the two children. During this time I would sit and observe the way both parent’s would interact with the children. The results were pretty much what I thought I would find. At these times the mother would be a lot sterner with the daughter as compared to the son. Also this would work the same way with the father, he would be more stern with the son as compared to the augnter. nen asKlng tne parent’s togetner wny tnls was tney Olan’t even realize It. After deliberation they coincluded that it must be because they are tired when they wake up in the morning. Oddly when asking questions to both mother and father separately I received totally different responses. The mother stated that the son listened better in the morning than the daughter. The father said the daughter was the better listener in the morning as compared to the son. I believe the aanswers I received separately were the more honest aanswers.
Finishing up this research I believe I proved in some state my theory and hypothesis to be true. I believe parent’s do treat their sons and daughters differently. Doing this study I have learned that the mind rationalizes certain actions to be able to complete them, which is highly interesting. I do believe I had limitations in doing this study. One of those limitations was the time at which I conducted the study. I would observe in the morning when everyone first woke up, the people I studied are not really morning people.
In the future I believe I could conduct the study all day to get more accurate results. I also believe I could have conducted this study with both parent’s and children at the same time. I believe it would have been interesting to see the way they handled both children while around one another, and to see if my theory and hypothesis would still ring true. In the end I feel very happy with my findings in this study. I am glad that I could learn so much about the actions of men and women with their children. I will be looking forward to improving upon this study in the future.
