The influence of child gender on maternal representations of self in relation to other.
Item
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Title
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The influence of child gender on maternal representations of self in relation to other.
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Identifier
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AAI3214734
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identifier
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3214734
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Creator
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Zick, Elizabeth.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Diana Diamond
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Psychology, Social | Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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This study is an investigation of the influence of child gender on mothers' representations of their child and of themselves in relation to their child. Nancy Chodorow (1978) theorized that boys and girls develop distinct object relational worlds, how they understand and experience themselves in relation to others, as a result of the different ways their mothers care for and relate to them, which sets them on a divergent course of a gendered experience in the world. Specifically, in their relationship to their daughters, because they are of the same sex, mothers are more likely to identify with them and the boundary between self and other can remain more fluid. In their relationship to their sons, because they are of the opposite sex, mothers are more likely to experience them as separate beings, establishing more firm boundaries between self and other. Interviews of mothers, in which they were asked to describe themselves and their children, were qualitatively analyzed with attention to themes of sameness and difference, and statistically analyzed using an empirically validated scale of separation and individuation, to see if mothers' representations of their children and the relationship between them differ as a function of their child's gender. The results contribute to the findings of previous studies and theoretical works on the impact of their child's gender on how mothers internally represent their children and themselves, in that there was some support for the idea that mothers identify with their daughters, and represent them as less separate from themselves. Additionally, the importance of the influence of family members outside of the mother-child dyad, in particular fathers and siblings, on mothers' self and other representations has been bolstered. The development of a gendered self may occur predominantly within the mother-child dyad, but this study suggests that previous investigations may have underemphasized the multiple external forces impacting this dyad, pointing to the complicated and compelling nature of the dynamic experience of gender.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
