Psychology 171 Assignment 6
Bringing it Home
Objective: Over the course of Psyc 171, you’ve learned about the
influences of social development and how important things like
attachment to caregivers, nurturing, attentive parenting and
social competence are for the development of solid friendships
across childhood. As noted, these social skills and attachments
can help prevent mood and anxiety disorders, addictions and
poor performance in academic pursuits. Becoming aware of the influences of family on your own social
development and the way you view relationships and conflict can help you deal with any lingering
“baggage” and learn new skills to make your relationships with adults, and children, better. Many
people, in times of conflict with children, will note how they heard their own parent’s voices come
through and this is often met with surprise. The purpose of this assignment is to explore some of
those family dynamics and how they might be influencing you as adults.
A. Introduction: Use this section to introduce your immediate family: parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and
uncles…anyone of importance.
B. Make-up of Roles: Use this section to talk about the roles in your family – division of labour, household chores,
parents as rulers vs. collaborators, children as lesser or equal citizens, evidence of gender stereotype in the
division of the roles (for example, mom does most of housework/childcare, dad does yard work, car repair, etc.)
Has any of this spilled onto the way that you do things?
C. Family Rituals and Customs: Use this section to talk about common customs in your family – maybe around the
holidays, birthday celebrations, holidays, dinner rituals, etc. (For example, in our family, gifts are always found by
following elaborate scavenger hunts, and at Christmas we read the children’s book “ The Night Tree” and decorate
an outdoor tree with carrots, apples, cranberries, suet, etc. for the wild animals.) Do you continue any of these
rituals now that you’re an adult?
D. Parenting Styles: Use this section to talk about your parent’s parenting style – Permissive? Authoritarian?
Authoritative? Uninvolved? Give examples to back up your claim…what effect did this parenting style have on
your development through childhood and adolescence? Now? (could consider things like how you established
your own personal identity, how comfortable you are making decisions, acceptance of authority, etc.)
E. Rules: What were some of the spoken and unspoken rules in your house (e.g. of spoken might be “Your curfew
is midnight” vs. unspoken…toilet paper installed so that it rolls over the top). Do you find yourself following these
rules now as an adult? What do you think might influence this?
F. Conflict: How did your family resolve conflict? What impact does that have on your relationships today?
G. Love Story: How did the people, movies and peers around you affect your “love story” (script around what a
relationship “should” look like?) Does it affect your relationships now? How?
Feel free to divide this into the sections listed above. Full, formal sentences. 3 pages or so. Let me
know if you have any questions, okay?
Psychology 171 Assignment 6