Abstract

What environmental conditions promote perceptions that one can control or cope with failures and adversities in one's life? Much research on motivation has emphasized the importance of conditions that minimize external control. However, many of the forms of control shown to have negative consequences in this research have been suggested to have positive consequences in the research on parental socialization, particularly that on authoritative control (see Lewis, 1981). How can this apparent contradiction be explained? In this chapter, we first review previous conceptualizations and operationalizations of control in the area of parental socialization, highlighting some of the weaknesses of the operationalizations of control in this area. Next, we argue that research on control in the area of motivation and in the area of parental socialization may be discrepant not only for methodological reasons, but also for substantive ones. We propose that control may be a multidimensional construct, and that this perspective on the nature of control provides an understanding of how control may have both positive and negative consequences. Here, we present evidence from our own research suggesting that control may indeed convey dual messages to children, and that this is increasingly likely as children progress through elementary school. We then highlight the explanatory power of our analysis of control for the development of sex differences in self-evaluation.