Impact of Culture on Parenting Styles and Research Methodologies

In the book Cultural Psychology by Steven Heine, Heine explains thoroughly different concepts of culture and how culture shape the norms that we live by today. Heine goes in to describe the different impacts of cultures around the world and how it may be viewed by others who do not share the same customs as other cultures. Heine conveys how culture affects how we think and behave based on the studies he gives in his book. There are so many case studies that have also been done to complement the concepts being spoken about in the book. Each case study is very depth of how many studies within a case study is conducted to accurately gain the correct information. It is almost like an experiment scientists do in order for other scientists to replicate exactly to get the same results. However, with research and studies on culture and cultural differences, over time it will have different results. Reading through each chapter, I have found some topics/concepts that are very interesting to do more study and observe.

The first concept I was interested in was parenting styles. Of course, in every household there are different styles parents like to discipline their children. Whether is it being lenient or strict, parents are likely to create an environment they feel comfortable raising their children, so their children are able to become successful. In the book, Heine gives three types of parenting styles such as authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, and permissive parenting. Each parenting is very different but primarily work for certain parents. Authoritarian parenting is more of a parent with strict rules and “little open dialogue between parent and child,” (181). Authoritative parenting is more having the child be more independent and have higher expectations. Lastly, permissive parenting is more of the lenient parent type but do have some rules set in place for the child to act upon at all times. For example, my mom was in between an authoritative and an authoritarian which was quite interesting growing up not being to go to sleepovers unless my mom really knew the parent or even staying up a little later than other kids. But I grew accustom to it and I think it actually made me be a better person. Although there are these different parenting styles, it depends on the parent doing the parenting on the child that could gravely affect them. Heine indicates how most students in high school feel the pressure by their mothers to succeed in school negatively in European-American areas whereas in Asian-American areas, the students in high school didn’t view the pressure as negative, (182). An example of this is the Case Study: East Asian and Math Education. Heine goes into detail of psychological differences of parent’s views of education with East Asian parents versus American parents. We see in the study Asian parents more or so center education around their child’s life even so providing them with a desk at an early age, (198). Heine compares American and Asian parents primarily mothers parenting styles of how each one reacts to their child’s performance with school. In a journal article Emerging Behavior Problems: Bidirectional Relations Between Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles With Infant Temperament by Shannon M.O. Wittig, explains “how parenting and child characteristics are important contributors to child development,” (Wittig, Shannon M. O., and Christina M. Rodriguez). In regard to child development, the many different parenting styles shaping developing the outcomes for the child’s life. The parenting styles between maternal and paternal parenting gravely affect the child’s development. We see that the mother is more in charge and most of the strict rules comes from her while the father is more lenient towards the child just in attempts to have the child be more trusting to come to them for anything they need; “…parenting and child temperament, research has traditionally focused on mothers. Not a deal of research has been conducted on the relationships between fathers and their children’s behavior and educational studies. “Although recruitment and retention of fathers in research continues to prove challenging, fathers nevertheless merit deeper investments to secure their representation in research,” (Wittig, Shannon M. O., and Christina M. Rodriguez). It is interesting to see how some mothers are more assertive in concerns to disciplining their child then some fathers who are also discipline their child are more or so wanting to bond and instill trust with the child.

The next concept I was interested in was conducting research across cultures. With conducting research across cultures, we are able to study unique lifestyles among people in different areas of the world. While conducting research, methods are needed of a specific study within each culture being studied. Heine shares a key difference between psychologists and cultural psychologists studying cultures: psychologists are able to study others that are likely to share the same culture and live in the same vicinity as them while cultural psychologists would not be able to separate their own experiences with what they are studying, (120). With studying other cultures, it is very important to know something about the culture you are studying. Power of the studies have caused problems among detecting an effect primarily in cross-cultural studies if it really exists, (124). Cross-cultural studies often get separated into independent and dependent variable. The independent variable would be culture which can be manipulated, and it will be able to find the effect in the dependent variable. We can also do cross-cultural studies with surveys which can sometimes have problems occur. In today’s society, cross cultural research is used for many things such as global market. In a journal article Examining survey response styles in cross-cultural marketing research: A comparison between Mexican and South Korean respondents by Christoph Beuthner, Maren Friedrich, Carsten Herbes, and Iris Ramme, discusses how “home culture influences how respondents react to questions and survey scales,” (Beuthner, Christoph, et al). On a cultural level, it is important when conducting a cross-cultural research to conduct in fact culture among by others concerning responses from the surveys given and how they are being given. Heine discusses a case study called The Culture of Honor in the Southern Unites States noticing cultural differences of the US South and North. The case study is used to determined why the South is deemed much more violent than the North. Why is the South have a substantial amount of violent activities occurring such as lynching, sniper attacks, feuds homicides than the North, (149)? This can be because of culture of honor. Culture of honor is the how others are able to “protect their reputation through aggression,” (150). I understand that in this day in age, as you grow older being aggressive to most people does help the aggressor becomes harder to “pull a fast one” so to say. No one would be able to be taken advantage of. The aggressor will feel the need to constantly protect themselves and their loved ones because they feel as though it is their duty too. However, many studies have shown when your aggression is high, your testosterone rises. The study of correlation of high aggression and high testosterone levels would be needed to support the idea of physiological measures. Physiological measures help the theory or assumption of Southerners being more violent than Northerners

Works Cited

1. Beuthner, Christoph, et al. “Examining Survey Response Styles in Cross-Cultural Marketing Research: A Comparison between Mexican and South Korean Respondents.” International Journal of Market Research, vol. 60, no. 3, May 2018, pp. 257–267. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1470785318762015.
2. Wittig, Shannon M. O., and Christina M. Rodriguez. “Emerging Behavior Problems: Bidirectional Relations between Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles with Infant Temperament.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 55, no. 6, June 2019, pp. 1199–1210. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/dev0000707.