Presence Of Father Research Articles

Some relationships between test anxiety, presence or absence of male persons, and boy's performance on a repetitive motor task

The experiments were conducted to investigate effects of the presence or absence of fathers, male teachers, peers, and strange male adults on the performance of third- and fourth-grade elementary school boys who differed in levels of test anxiety. In each experiment S performed a marble-dropping task for a baseline minute. During the following 5 minutes different variations were introduced in the three experiments. In the first experiment, S's father or male teacher entered and remained in the experimental room in two of the three treatments, while nobody other than E and S were present in the third condition. A fourth treatment was introduced into Exp. II: a male peer of S entered and remained in the experimental room. In the third experiment, S's male teacher or a strange male adult entered and remained in the room in two of the treatment , while only E and S were present in the other condition. It was found that low test-anxious boys showed response increments when any of these persons entered and stayed in the experimental room, while the presence of fathers or male teachers resulted in response decrements in high test anxious boys. Conversely when only E and S were present, low test-anxious Ss showed response decrements, while high test anxious Ss showed response increments under these conditions.

Cultural Patterns in Childbirth

m scribed his birth in some detail and concluded with a statement that, as she looked back over three score and ten years of life, these birth details were among her finest and proudest memories. Looking back on the long view, this man would not be willing to have much of anything changed about the way in which he was born. This business of birth has so many subtle imponderables about it that it becomes difficult to pick and choose, even with our very special knowledge. If you could have it done all over again in your own case, and make all the decisions about your birth, think what a dither you would be in. Are you really baby-wise enough to decide wisely, and actually give yourself a better break in life than you have already had? Let's give ourselves a little test on this matter. When, for example, would you choose to arrive on this earthin these present troubled times, or at some much earlier or later date? If you feel like settling for 1951, are you sure which side of the iron curtain would provide a better chance for you in life? If you pick our side, and we trust that you would, do you think your all-round chances for a good life would be better in our backwoods or among our skyscrapers and subways? Would you pick your parents from among society's Four Hundred or would you prefer a couple of plain people? Would you wish to be wanted, but not too much nor too little? And if you had to choose either extreme, which one? Can you really speak here with confidence? Would you pick your parents handsome or healthy, simple or sophisticated-and would you prefer mother's care or maid's care, or in what proportions? How much natural childbirth would you order for yourself, and at what expense to your mother? Would you want your father to be there to see all and to feel as much as it is possible for him to feel? And how much rooming-in would you prefer, under what circumstances, and with or without your father's presence, too? What would you choose to do about your mother's milk and her lovely figure? And if you were to be formula fed, on what terms? Would you choose to have all of your parents' attention or to share it with brothers and sisters-and when and how many? How much of the rod would you like to have spared, and how early or how late? Do you think you know enough to answer these questions wisely, or even to ask the right questions about childbirth? Do you think it would be possible, by picking and choosing, to worsen your situation as well as to better it? By Leo W. Simmons