SOCIAL COGNITION AND MOTHERS' RESPONSES TO MISBEHAVIOR

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A fundamental question in developmental psychology is what causes parents' behavior toward their children. Although the consequences of child rearing have long been studied, there has been relatively little attention to understanding the cognitive mediators of parental behavior. The goal of the proposed work is to explicate the links between parental thoughts and parental behavior by examining the social-cognitive processes involved in mothers' responses to common child misbehavior. In particular, mothers' attitudes and rules governing the use of one salient parental disciplinary response-physical punishment--will be studied, organized around a social information processing model. A total of six studies are proposed to test seven different hypotheses about why some mothers rely on physical punishment more than other mothers. In four of the studies, mothers' thoughts and reported responses are probed by an interactive computer program. In two other studies, maternal behavior will be examined. One study is designed to document the circumstances accompanying and maternal responses to episodes of child misbehavior in the home. Another study will compare the observed child management behavior of mothers who rely on physical punishment with mothers who do not use that response. The research will provide new information about the role of both proximal and distal thoughts on parental behavior, a topic that has been largely neglected in the field of child development.