Investigate whether a child would imitate the cooking behaviour of the same sex parent more than that of the opposite sex parent.

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Abstract:

The survey method, using independent measures, was chosen to investigate whether a child would imitate the cooking behaviour of the same sex parent more than that of the opposite sex parent. The results of this could then suggest whether the same sex parent has more influence over the child generally. It was hypothesised that if the mother cooked for the participant as a child, then females would go on to cook and males would follow the father’s role and not cook. An opportunity sample of 30 female and 30 male, 17-18 year olds was used. Analysis of results using the Chi-squared test produced a statistically significant result and so the alternative hypothesis was accepted.

Introduction:

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory can be used to demonstrate the importance and influence of the same sex parent. He formulated the Oedipus Complex. This states that during the phallic stage of development (three to seven years old) children begin to focus their libido on the parent of the opposite sex, this is known as the Oedipal conflict. For boys, this is resolved when they realise the power of their father and fear he will castrate them. They repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father. For girls, there is no fear of punishment; however, Freud believed that their feelings would fade as they realised they could never have their father, resulting in identification with their mother. In both cases this identification results in the child modelling their behaviours, attitudes and personality attributes on the same sex parent in an attempt to be more like them.

This idea of identification is supported by Lamb (1979) who put forward the theory that fathers pay more attention to their sons and withdraw from their daughters. This results in boys channelling their attentions to their father and girls to their mother leading to a greater identification with the same sex parent.

A different approach is behaviourism, specifically social learning theory. Bandura (1961) found, when looking into how aggression is learnt by children via adults, that children were influenced more by a model of the same sex as the child i.e. when the same sex model showed aggressive behaviour the children copied this more than when it was shown by a model of the opposite sex. This suggests that boys will copy the behaviour of males, specifically their father, and girls will copy the behaviour of females, specifically their mother.

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These ideas led to this investigation of whether the same sex parent really does have more influence on their child. This will be investigated by considering whether cooking behaviour in parents is imitated by their children. The survey method will be used because participants are easier to find for a questionnaire and an experiment would be both impractical, as long term behaviours cannot be tested in short times, and ethically dubious, as it could affect people’s future gender behaviour.

Hypotheses:

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