Psychology - Life With (or Without) Father Essay

The role of the father, a male figure in a child’s life is a very crucial role that has been diminishing over the years. An absent father can be defined in two ways; the father is physically not present, or the father is physically present, but emotionally present. To an adolescent, a father is an idolized figure, someone they look up to (Feud, 1921), thus when such a figure is an absent one, it can and will negatively affect a child’s development. Many of the problems we face in society today, such as crime and delinquency, poor academic achievement, divorce, drug use, early pregnancy and sexual activity can be attributed to fathers being absent during adolescent development (Popenoe, 1996; Whitehead, 1993). The percentage of

Table 3-1 examines the correlations between selected characteristics for the identical twins separated at birth and the twins raised together. When compared to each other, they both have very similar brain wave activity, blood pressure and heart rate in the physiological characteristics. The Raven intelligence test was very similar, but the WAIS IQ displayed a bit of difference when compared to the other comparisons made. Personality wise, they typically had similar personalities at the same rate as twins raised together. Psychological interests were off a little bit, but still very similar. The twins that were separated at birth had less similar psychological interests compared to the twins

Twin studies are a mainstay of the nature verse nurture debate because they allow researchers to conduct “natural experiments” on human beings. When researchers try to determine the relative importance of genetics and environment with regard to a certain condition, they have a hard time because they cannot generally get people with the same genes. This is where twin studies come in. Twins studies are part of the method used in behaviour genetics, which includes all data that are genetically informative. E.g. siblings, adoptees, pedigree data etc. Researchers use this method to estimate the heritability of traits and to quantify the effect of a person 's shared environment (family) and unique environment (the individual events that shape a life) on a trait.

The Minnesota Twin Registry started in 1983 and its goal was to establish a registry of all twins born in Minnesota from 1936 to 1955 to be used for psychological research.., T.J. Bouchard, working in conjunction with the University of Minnesota, started exploring the similarities and differences in characteristics like personality, career interests, and a variety of personal interests between identical twins who were reared apart. Research was conducted on twins from all over the world. The Minnesota Twin study gave scientists a new insight of the role of nature vs. nurture on human development and personality; it was the hope that twin studies would be able to tie genes to specific behaviors. From the study, we understand that twins who were separated at birth and raised in different families

How beneficial or detrimental is the effects of parenting from the penal system for the children and families involved? How much of an influence is the effects of parenting from the penal system is affecting the child’s developmental skills? Is parenting from the penal system, exposing the children to the risk factors that may increase the chances of them being incarcerated? These are the typical questions and concerns that are being questioned when researchers are gathering their conclusion.

In 1991 mothers with newborns were recruited from hospitals at 10 different data collection from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development across the United States (Vazsonyi, 2010).Their mainly focused was when the child was 4.5 years, 8.5, and 10.5 from the 1,155 families that were recruited. For instance, all those cases were review yearly to focus on the behavior if the child was engaging any misbehavior within the years. For example, if single parents were going to have more issues controlling their children misconduct or has they are getting older was the probability for them to change. However, they used different scales to evaluate. For example, descriptive statistics of the study construct a scale score that mothers will complete to include a self-control analysis, another scale was about the correlations among the parent’s self-control and deviance. Also, they tested if at

In the article “Beyond Absenteeism: Father Incarceration and Child Development”, it discusses how father incarceration rates effects children (Amanda Geller, 2012). This was similar to the study above. In this article the analysis came from the Fragile Families study. The Fragile Families studies included around 5,000 couples with children that were born from 1998 to 2000 in twenty fairly large cities within the United States. The parents were surveyed around the time of their child’s birth and then there were follow-ups when the child was one, three, and also five years of age. The findings were tied to aggression from the children. This resembles the above study, where children who were missing their father due to him being absent were more

In this study, they are used several type of method, one of the technique is used two or more test instrument to ensure the adequate coverage, for example the participants were given a battery of personality and mental ability tests, interest and value inventories and psychomotor tests. In addition, separate of examiners administer the IQ test, life history interview, psychiatric interview and sexual life history interview. The twin also complete questionnaire independently under the constant supervision of the staff members. Twin studies are valuable to researchers because identical twins share 100% of their genes and fraternal twins share, on average, 50% of their genes. Both identical and fraternal twins share certain aspects of their environment (e.g. religious practices in the home). This allows researchers to estimate the heritability of certain traits. Participants are asked about academic ability, personality, and interests; family and social relationships; mental and physical health; physiological measurements. Of interest to researchers are prevalence of psychopathology, substance

Most mothers and fathers love their kids with all their heart. As a child begins to age, parents begin to influence their kids and will mold them as they mature. However, parents without much care for their kids will leave a long-term effect on their children and in this study, the main impact is the father.

In the text Juvenile Delinquency Theory, Practice and Law by Larry J. Sigel and Brandon C. Welsh, chapter 8 talks about the family and delinquency (277). Two examples of the possible connection between Family Breakup and delinquency are children who parents breakup are at risk of displaying antisocial behavior (284). According to the text, studies have shown that married couples can produce children who are confident and dependable (283). In addition, research has shown that if a child is being raised with one or neither of their parents, they are at a high risk of participating in antisocial behaviors (283). However, when problems start to occur within the home, often time’s children are free to explore in delinquent behaviors (282).

Christiansen, O., K. (1977). Preliminary Study Of Criminality Among Twins. USA: George Allen and Unwin.

There was one limitation within the Font and Berger (2015) research that should have been considered when considering the results of the study. I believe that there may be other important aspects of parenting behaviors and practices, such as parent attachment styles, that were not considered throughout the study. The parent’s play a major role within the child’s maltreatment and if the parenting style was considered frequently throughout the child’s development more evidence could be provided for answers of when maltreatment or abuse would occur, along with how severe the situation or maltreatment is throughout the child’s development. Childhood development begins and starts with how they create relationships with other caregivers and people

Another study that has been done was with separated twins. Each twin was raised in a completely different environment than the other. Genetically, they were both identical in every way, but the environment that they were raised in was very different. One twin was raised in a very hostile setting and slowly became violent as an adult while the other twin was

At the age 8 stage it measured two variables that were called constructive behavior and compliant behavior. Constructive behavior was measured with a separate score that involved three different items (Pulkkinen, Nygren, & Kokko, 2002, p. 256). The compliant behavior was measured the same way as constructive behavior. With this came the teacher rating, which was based on a score form zero to three with three standing for prominent characteristics (Pulkkinen, Nygren, & Kokko, 2002, p. 256). Following age 8 was age 14 and it was measured through grade point average (GPA) and school motivation. GPA was measure through the schools computer system and school motivation was measures by the teacher’s ratings of one to four (Pulkkinen, Nygren, & Kokko, 2002, p. 256). Age 27 measured child-centered parenting, socioeconomic status (SES), and controlled parental drinking. Child-centered parenting was assessed during an interview and collected a score through five separate variables that are: good parental relationship, good relationship with the father, maternal support, maternal supervision, and lack of physical punishment (Pulkkinen, Nygren, & Kokko, 2002, p. 256). SES was assessed by gathering the mother’s and father’s economic status and rating it from one to five, with one being low social status and five being high social status (Pulkkinen, Nygren, & Kokko, 2002, p. 256). Controlled parental drinking was assessed based on how much the parent was depended on alcohol

Methods: Data was collected from what they call a “3-wave study”. The authors studied 523 Spanish families all with children ranging from 9-13 years in the first wave (2007), 10-14 years in the second (2008), and 11-15 in the third (2009). Out of the 523 participants, 216 were boys and 307 were girls. The participants were randomly selected from 17 different schools in Madrid, Spain. The methods they used were assessing parental behavior from the Child Report of Parent Behavior Inventory. This uses three dimensions to assess both mothers and fathers. The three dimensions used are: Communication/ Positive Affect, Positive Control, and Kindness/ Hospitality. These measures reflected the instability of the mother or father’s behavior throughout the years and was able to be considered a quantitative component in the relationship between the parent and child. As part of the study the children were asked to take a survey during the session once a year for three years, the session normally lasted 1.5 hours, and participation from the students was voluntary. The survey consisted of a variety of questions about their