Mother and child interaction essay

The mother and child interaction behavior observed is influenced by the earlier experiences of a mother that can tell the different socialization patterns expected from male to female.

The perspective of social-cognitive theory explains the impulse of a mother towards a certain type of interaction style with their kids; an early mirrored image of what they thought was right or wrong for a boy or a girl. The observations and their development on gender roles indicate that kids are socialized by the social expectations and perceptions into their appropriate gender roles (Jessica McNaughton 2000). Parents have this mental blueprint that is believed to be the direct product of their own experiences culturally and environmentally. The differences in gender are instilled upon kids by their parents along with social life of today starting from the day they were born.

Block’s assertion stated that due to their own early socialization, parents are not likely to reinforce independence and self assertion in girls. They are more likely to do that with the boys all the while they are encouraging relationship based interactions with the girls (Block 1983, Dunn, Bretherton Munn, 1987) is consistent with the social cognitive perspective. For example, in today’s society the color pink is associated with baby girls. In most parts of the world that color is just too girly for boys and that’s why they don’t wear that color at all. Gender inclinations are seen in a mother to child interaction patterns where there are emotional impressions, feelings that are talked about in a mother-daughter interaction verses the mother-son interaction. In the book, You Just Don’t Understand, Tannen (1990) stated that boys have the tendency to perceive as a hierarchy. Females display very different tendencies.

Block (1983), found that females emphasized on interpersonal relationships, human relationships, the ability to be so expressive, a more empathetic gender, and can decipher emotions from non verbal cues than the males could. A lot of theories try to explain the differences between the two genders in communication patterns and expressiveness, and the origins for the motives that control emotional expression. Mothers have the tendency to use a different style when they are communicating with their kids. The mothers speak with their sons in an active manner, focusing on their son’s activities rather than solving their problems (Fitzpatrick and Vangelisti, 1995). I believe that this can have positive outcomes with the mother-child interactions. The child can grow up nto their own person with great qualities for a being successful person and having a successful career into whatever the child chooses to be when he or she grows up. On the other hand the child could also grow up with some confusion or grow up being angry because maybe they felt that their parents didn’t explain something thoroughly and that is why they may have a sense of being lost trying to find their calling in life.

The child could grow up loving just about everything with a carefree attitude or they could grow up disturbed and full of hatred for life. It seems that with all this a female child can grow up with the feeling of always being loved and looked after and with a male child they can grow up with resentment because they think that their mom loves their sister more and that is why she is so successful in anything she does and that she has the most attention from their mom than he does. I the end, ultimately it is the individual who decides what road to take when starting their own journey in life.