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Aribethfollowshare
9-18-2009 12:47 PM
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Aribeth says:
In 2004, two Israeli researchers, Avi Assor and Guy Roth, joined Edward L. Deci, a leading American expert on the psychology of motivation, in asking more than 100 college students whether the love they had received from their parents had seemed to depend on whether they had succeeded in school, practiced hard for sports, been considerate toward others or suppressed emotions like anger and fear.

It turned out that children who received conditional approval were indeed somewhat more likely to act as the parent wanted. But compliance came at a steep price. First, these children tended to resent and dislike their parents. Second, they were apt to say that the way they acted was often due more to a “strong internal pressure” than to “a real sense of choice.” Moreover, their happiness after succeeding at something was usually short-lived, and they often felt guilty or ashamed.
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9-18-2009 12:47 PM
Aribeth
This July, the same researchers, now joined by two of Dr. Deci’s colleagues at the University of Rochester, published two replications and extensions of the 2004 study. This time the subjects were ninth graders, and this time giving more approval when children did what parents wanted was carefully distinguished from giving less when they did not.

The studies found that both positive and negative conditional parenting were harmful, but in slightly different ways. The positive kind sometimes succeeded in getting children to work harder on academic tasks, but at the cost of unhealthy feelings of “internal compulsion.” Negative conditional parenting didn’t even work in the short run; it just in...
9-19-2009 4:02 AM
murieleileen
Children need to be loved unconditionally. It doesn't mean you approve of everything they do.
9-20-2009 2:40 PM
lollipop10
@ Murieleileen - Exactly.
I always go for the unconditional kind, myself. Frig, if I only went for the conditional kind, my poor son would barely get any love!
Oh gosh, he's a sweetie, but a challenging one!
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