Personality development of children

A study of personality development of children as a function of parental authoritarianism

Parental authoritarianism has been shown to be of crucial importance in the development of child's personality in a number of studies. Most of these studies deal with parental discipline or parental attitudes in relation to personality development of children. The present study is concerned with parental ideological orientations pertaining to family structure and functioning. These orientations could be placed on a continuum ranging from democratic practices to autocratic practices. The democratic continuum denotes a greater degree of freedom in dealing with inter-personal relationships within the family set up and maximisation of individual self deter mination. The autocratic extreme on the other hand denotes extreme emphasis on traditional view points regarding things as discipline, sex role dichotomization familial relationships, etc.

The present study also aims at establishing the relation between the consequences of parents' orientations and the personality of children. There are many influences on the growing child and parental orientations represent one such influence. There may not be a close relation between what parents actually believe and what they do in dealing with family affairs. During the last one or two decades, however, there has been a slowly accumulating evidence regarding the differential effects of authoritarian and equilitarian family settings. The present investigation is one such attempt in that direction.

In preparing this Volume, I have received close and continuous guidance from my guide, professor N. S. Pathak, Head Department of Psychology, M. S. University of Baroda. Despite his busy schedule as a leading staff member of the Faculty, he budgeted time to guide the present research, closely and in details. I am greatly indebted to him.
I am also grateful to the principals of the schools for giving me facilities for the data collection and also to the subject who had their part in this work.

I am also thankful to Shri Jayesh S. Shah of Multi-Tech Publishing Co. for the excellent support and co-operation in publishing the study in the book form.

I am indebted to the University Grants Commission and South Gujarat University for subsidising the publication of the present study.

I am thankful to the M. S. University of Baroda for giving permission to publish the present study.

Throughout the volume appropriate references are made to contributions quoted from the works of various authors, I also acknowledge their debt.