In recent decades, there has been a shift in gender roles regarding child rearing responsibilities. This raises questions concerning the specific influence that fathers and mothers might have on...Show moreIn recent decades, there has been a shift in gender roles regarding child rearing responsibilities. This raises questions concerning the specific influence that fathers and mothers might have on the emotional development of their children. The aim of this study was to investigate how experienced care and overprotection by the child in the parent-child relationship influences close relationships when people reach adulthood, and explore potential moderating effects of biological sex in this relationship. For this study participants (n=165; age-range 18 to 29 years old) filled out the Parental Bonding Instrument and the revised version of the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire. The results showed that providing care and support while children develop independence is important for their future ability to form healthy relationships. The study highlights the importance of avoiding overprotective parenting behaviors, as they may have negative effects on a child's ability to manage anxiety in close relationships later in life. Furthermore, this study found no significant difference between the influence of mothers' versus fathers' daily caregiving on their children's ability to form and maintain close relationships in adulthood.Show less
Objective: Significant to the adolescence is the ability to predict (pro)social behavior of peers. Research shows that there are many motivations underlying prosocial behavior but two are important...Show moreObjective: Significant to the adolescence is the ability to predict (pro)social behavior of peers. Research shows that there are many motivations underlying prosocial behavior but two are important for this thesis: selfishness (maximizing personal gain) and risk aversion (minimizing losses). The prediction of others’ prosocial behavior can depend on social motivations or choices of oneself. Research suggests this might be different in social anxiety disorders (SAD). The social projection theory (SPT) suggests that socially anxious adolescents expect others to be risk averse. Another theory suggests that the negative social expectations that socially anxious adolescents have, means they predict others to be selfish. Therefore, the current study focused on whether predicting risk averse and selfish behavior of others develops during adolescence as well as the question whether the development of social learning is different for adolescents with higher levels of social anxiety. The main effect of motive was explored as well as the effects of trait social anxiety and age on the difference of motivations and the number of correctly predicted motivations. Method: A total of 38 participants were recruited by Bachelor-and Master Psychology students (17 boys and 21 girls; age range 9 to 26, mean = 15.2, SD = 3.8). The study was a cross-sectional design using a social decision-making game, inspired by Van Baar et al. (2020) and the social anxiety scale for adolescents (SAS-A). Statistical analyses included a two paired sample t-test, and two consecutive multiple regression analyses (MRA). Results: No significant results were found, meaning that adolescents expectations about motivations behind their peers’ prosocial decisions do not depend on age and trait social anxiety. It is discussed that the lack of evidence is due to the age difference in this study compared to prior research, not including a clinical sample and having a small sample size. Future research is needed to further explore social learning and social anxiety.Show less
