Chapter 1
Rationale
INTRODUCTION
Passive-Aggressive relationship between parents and children has been one of the major problems in a family. This constitutes the passive way the child relates to his parents. This means, the teenager does things on his/her own without even bothering to care about his/her parents with the constant feeling of indifference towards them. The parents begin to try to reach out to the teenager in a seemingly aggressive way, making quite a strain in their relationship. Sometimes, it goes the other way around; when the parents lack attachment to child and regard him/her passively, the child becomes aggressive for attention.
Psychologists have studied the relationship between parents and children numerous times; specifically, they examined the relationship between the parents’ childrearing style and the child’s pro social behavior and the child’s sociometric status. Factor analyses of parental behavior revealed two factors: Authoritative/Democratic and Authoritarian/Restrictive that appeared to be predictive on both the child’s pro social behavior and sociometric status (PsycINFO Database Record, 2010).In addition, an article entitled Theorizing the Father-Child Relationship: Mechanisms and Developmental Outcomes (Paquette, 2004) proposed that fathers play a particularly important role in the child’s openness to the world. There had been a lot of contradicting results that were gathered by psychologists that until now the root cause of the conflicts that happen between parents and their child remained vague and unclear.
Most families have not been able to overcome their differences with each other for they do not understand the root of the conflicts they are in, in the first place. They are also uncertain on how to approach and resolve the problem without being able to hurt one another. Most families will fall farther and farther apart if this friction between them would not be resolved. In understanding the very important relationship that every person is involved to, both parents and child should be understood (Simon and Schuster, 1996).
According to Stephanie Manley (2011), a good relationship brings freedom; there is no manipulation, control or suspicion. In a relationship, there should be respect for the other person and an understanding that one could not escape conflicts with each others’ likes and dislikes (Manley, 2011). This concept is also applicable to a parent-child relationship. For Robin McClure (2011), parents should accept their child for who he/she really is and allow him/her to be who he/she really is. Without some degree of caring, there can be no relationship. We live in a world that is almost robotic, and as a result, emotions are very often numbed. So, it takes parents and teenagers to be unselfish to maintain a good and strong lifetime affiliation (Graham, 2010).
One of the concerns of the rationale is to determine all the factors related in the study. The environment in where our respondents are exposed to is highly considered, and how each variable relate to each other. With different environment and different generation, it is inevitable for the teenagers and their parents to have misunderstandings and differences. Due to these differences, many parents have unknowingly made mistakes on handling their children and teenagers had been increasingly indifferent with their parents in fear of rejection.
The assessment of the factors that affect their communication can be administered on teenagers belonging to different kinds on environment and social status to find out how teenagers of different class group relate with their parents. Different kinds of environment can generate different kinds of influence on the teenagers’ view on family relationship. The different factors that each teenager is exposed to will be tested and evaluated to come up with more narrow ideas.
HYPOTHESIS
The more aggressive the parents are to their child, the more passive the child will be towards them, the more problematic their relationship can get. Most of the teenagers who belong to the middle-class and the lower class, with a patriarchal family will likely to have this kind of relationship. The more passive the parents are to their child, the more aggressive the child will be towards them for attention, and the more difficult the situation will be. This can mostly happen to upper class and the lower class with a problematic family setting. There may be interchanges in the situation but results would be based on the majority.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The study aims to know the reasons behind the development of a passive-aggressive relationship between parents and teenagers. Specifically, the study aims to:
1. Determine the contribution of parents to the development of a passive behavior of teenagers.
2. Determine other factors that could influence the teenagers into developing a passive attitude to their parents.
3. Classify a passive attitude.
4. Determine whether teenagers cause the aggressiveness of their parents towards them especially in terms of decision making.
5. Determine other factors that cause the development of an aggressive behavior of parents towards their teenagers.
6. Classify an aggressive attitude.
7. Determine the cause of the development of a passive-aggressive behavior.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will address to the increasing number of parents and teenagers having relationship problems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the factors on family relationships and figure out how the interaction of the teenagers to their parents affect the way their parents relate to them and vice versa. This study can help ascertain the real trigger to the diminishing relationship and find possible solutions for it. In determining the trigger, this can make both parents and teenagers aware of how to interact with each other and avoid more complications in their way. They can be more aware of the aspects that affect their relationship and stay away from those that can cause negativity in their bond.
This study will help both parents and teenagers realize their expectations and limitations. By doing so, parents will not have any reason to meddle with their teenager’s right to decision making. Teenagers will no longer have any reason to rebel against their parents. Thus, mutual trust and respect will develop. This study will make parents and teenagers realize the worth of open communication in a family. In addition, this study will help for the promotion of a better family connection.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Study Framework (Chapter III)
Personality refers to the combination of the individuals’ emotional, attitudinal and behavioral response patterns. We, individuals pass through series of stages in the process of personality development. Failure to fulfill the needs of the individual in each stage would lead to the development of personality disorders.
Passive-Aggressive is a form of personality disorder. In order to have an in depth understanding of the factors that triggered to the development of such personality disorder, we incorporated three personality development theories in our study.
Psychodynamic Theory
According to Sigmund Freud (1920), human behavior and relationships are shaped by conscious and unconscious influences. This theory emphasizes the overriding influence of instinctive drives and forces, and the importance of developmental experiences in shaping personality.
Freud (1920) placed great emphasis to the individuals repressed or unconscious thoughts that we cannot voluntarily access, and the conflicts between conscious and unconscious forces that influence our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Conscious thoughts refer to our wishes, desires, or thoughts that we are aware of, and we can always recall at any given moment. While unconscious forces refer to our wishes, desires, or thoughts that, because of their disturbing or threatening content, we automatically repress and cannot voluntarily access.
For the theorists that followed Freud, it was impossible to uncover an individuals’ unconscious. But Freud introduced three techniques to uncover the unconscious; Free Association, Dream Interpretation, and Freudian Slips.
Psychosocial Theory
Like Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson (1968) believed that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages but unlike Freud’s psychodynamic theory, Erikson focused on the impact of social experiences across the whole lifespan. Erikson (1968) theorized that the course of development is determined by the interaction of the body (genetic biological programming), mind (psychological), and cultural (ethos) influences.
One of the major elements of Erikson’s theory is the development of the individual’s ego identity. It refers to the conscious sense that an individual develops through social interaction. It is continually changing due to the new experiences and new information that an individual acquires in his/her daily social interaction with others (Erikson, 1968).
Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the individual will feel a sense of mastery, which Erikson (1968) sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the individual will emerge with a sense of inadequacy. In each stage, Erikson (1968) believed that individuals experience conflict that serves as a turning point in development. In Erikson’s point of view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure (Erikson, 1968).
Interpersonal Theory
According to Harry Stack Sullivan (1953), our personality is shaped almost entirely by the relationships that we have with other people. The quality of a certain relationship is very important for Sullivan (1953), because he believed that a relationship has the power to transform an immature preadolescent into a psychologically healthy individual.
Sullivan (1953) viewed personality as an energy system that holds tensions (potentiality for action) and is capable of energy transformation (the actions themselves). He further subdivided tensions into needs and anxiety. An individual’s needs include tenderness and intimacy from other people especially that of the mothering one, while anxiety develops due to the empathic relationship that an individual have with his/her mother (Sullivan, 1953).
According to Sullivan (1953), through social interactions an individual develops a personification of himself/herself and others. These personifications for Sullivan (1953) are mental images that allow an individual to better understand him/her and the world. There are three basic ways that an individual sees himself/herself; the bad-me, the good-me, and the not-me (Sullivan, 1953).
The bad-me represents the aspect of an individual that is considered negative and is therefore hidden from others and possibly even from the individual himself/herself. The good-me represents the part of an individual that is shared with others while the not-me represents all the things that are so anxiety provoking that an individual cannot even consider them as part of him/her (Sullivan, 1953).
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework
As shown above in figure 1, personality development is a continuous process supported by three personality development theories. Failure to attain the needs of an individual in each stage of personality development would lead to conflicts that would result to the developing of a personality development disorder.
Figure 2: Conceptual Framework
Personality is what makes an individual unique as a person. Personality development occurs by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character and environment.
As shown in Figure 2, personality development starts as soon as the child went outside the mother’s womb (Freud, 1920). Personality develops through a set of genetically determined traits that determine the child’s approach to the world and how he/she would learn about the world. There may be no genes that specify personality traits, but some genes do control the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behavior.
Personality is developed through the direct social experiences of the child with hi/her parents. The growth of a child’s personality is motivated the affections that the child receives from his/her socializing with others. John Bowlby (1969) contributed to this new emphasis on the child’s relationship with his/her parents in his books on attachment parenting. Bowlby (1969) argued that the nature of the child’s relationship to the caretakers and especially to the mothering one created a profile of emotional reactions toward adults that might last indefinitely.
Everyone has our favorites. Even when an individual is still a fetus he/she has subconsciously made his/her “favored–parent”. The fetus would then proceed to subconsciously take-on the behavioral patterns and pattern-ideas of his/her “favored-parent”. This personality would further develop when the child mingles with the society.
Passive-Aggressive relationship would develop if a child was brought up in a bad family scenario. The child would be embodied with a negative outlook towards life that would lead to complications and personality problems. If the child also doesn’t socialize well he/she would have a bigger tendency to develop an anti-social personality.
Figure 3: Operational Framework
As shown in figure 3, there are a lot of factors that influences the individual’s personality development. The child’s personality is dependent to his/her parents, school, friends and the society. The quality of the parent-child relationship is also dependent to the above mentioned variables. These independent variables were acquired from the great personality theorists; Freud, Erikson, and Sullivan.
Passive-Aggressive is a form of personality disorder. In order to have an in depth understanding of the factors that triggered to the development of such personality disorder, we incorporated three personality development theories in our study.
Psychodynamic Theory
According to Sigmund Freud (1920), human behavior and relationships are shaped by conscious and unconscious influences. This theory emphasizes the overriding influence of instinctive drives and forces, and the importance of developmental experiences in shaping personality.
Freud (1920) placed great emphasis to the individuals repressed or unconscious thoughts that we cannot voluntarily access, and the conflicts between conscious and unconscious forces that influence our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Conscious thoughts refer to our wishes, desires, or thoughts that we are aware of, and we can always recall at any given moment. While unconscious forces refer to our wishes, desires, or thoughts that, because of their disturbing or threatening content, we automatically repress and cannot voluntarily access.
For the theorists that followed Freud, it was impossible to uncover an individuals’ unconscious. But Freud introduced three techniques to uncover the unconscious; Free Association, Dream Interpretation, and Freudian Slips.
Psychosocial Theory
Like Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson (1968) believed that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages but unlike Freud’s psychodynamic theory, Erikson focused on the impact of social experiences across the whole lifespan. Erikson (1968) theorized that the course of development is determined by the interaction of the body (genetic biological programming), mind (psychological), and cultural (ethos) influences.
One of the major elements of Erikson’s theory is the development of the individual’s ego identity. It refers to the conscious sense that an individual develops through social interaction. It is continually changing due to the new experiences and new information that an individual acquires in his/her daily social interaction with others (Erikson, 1968).
Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the individual will feel a sense of mastery, which Erikson (1968) sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the individual will emerge with a sense of inadequacy. In each stage, Erikson (1968) believed that individuals experience conflict that serves as a turning point in development. In Erikson’s point of view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure (Erikson, 1968).
Interpersonal Theory
According to Harry Stack Sullivan (1953), our personality is shaped almost entirely by the relationships that we have with other people. The quality of a certain relationship is very important for Sullivan (1953), because he believed that a relationship has the power to transform an immature preadolescent into a psychologically healthy individual.
Sullivan (1953) viewed personality as an energy system that holds tensions (potentiality for action) and is capable of energy transformation (the actions themselves). He further subdivided tensions into needs and anxiety. An individual’s needs include tenderness and intimacy from other people especially that of the mothering one, while anxiety develops due to the empathic relationship that an individual have with his/her mother (Sullivan, 1953).
According to Sullivan (1953), through social interactions an individual develops a personification of himself/herself and others. These personifications for Sullivan (1953) are mental images that allow an individual to better understand him/her and the world. There are three basic ways that an individual sees himself/herself; the bad-me, the good-me, and the not-me (Sullivan, 1953).
The bad-me represents the aspect of an individual that is considered negative and is therefore hidden from others and possibly even from the individual himself/herself. The good-me represents the part of an individual that is shared with others while the not-me represents all the things that are so anxiety provoking that an individual cannot even consider them as part of him/her (Sullivan, 1953).
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework
As shown above in figure 1, personality development is a continuous process supported by three personality development theories. Failure to attain the needs of an individual in each stage of personality development would lead to conflicts that would result to the developing of a personality development disorder.
Figure 2: Conceptual Framework
Personality is what makes an individual unique as a person. Personality development occurs by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character and environment.
As shown in Figure 2, personality development starts as soon as the child went outside the mother’s womb (Freud, 1920). Personality develops through a set of genetically determined traits that determine the child’s approach to the world and how he/she would learn about the world. There may be no genes that specify personality traits, but some genes do control the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behavior.
Personality is developed through the direct social experiences of the child with hi/her parents. The growth of a child’s personality is motivated the affections that the child receives from his/her socializing with others. John Bowlby (1969) contributed to this new emphasis on the child’s relationship with his/her parents in his books on attachment parenting. Bowlby (1969) argued that the nature of the child’s relationship to the caretakers and especially to the mothering one created a profile of emotional reactions toward adults that might last indefinitely.
Everyone has our favorites. Even when an individual is still a fetus he/she has subconsciously made his/her “favored–parent”. The fetus would then proceed to subconsciously take-on the behavioral patterns and pattern-ideas of his/her “favored-parent”. This personality would further develop when the child mingles with the society.
Passive-Aggressive relationship would develop if a child was brought up in a bad family scenario. The child would be embodied with a negative outlook towards life that would lead to complications and personality problems. If the child also doesn’t socialize well he/she would have a bigger tendency to develop an anti-social personality.
Figure 3: Operational Framework
As shown in figure 3, there are a lot of factors that influences the individual’s personality development. The child’s personality is dependent to his/her parents, school, friends and the society. The quality of the parent-child relationship is also dependent to the above mentioned variables. These independent variables were acquired from the great personality theorists; Freud, Erikson, and Sullivan.
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