J; - IIIIIII t .040... .' H‘ . ‘ u. ‘ II.‘ '0. ‘ ' < A;. I “h- o ‘ v.v “.' . o '. THE RESOLUTION OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MOTHERS AND THEIR TEEN -AGE DAUGHTERS CONCERNING CLOTHING Thesis for the Degree of M. A. MECHEGAN STATE UNWERSTTY JUUE HORVATH 1968 m“ “T T; “N“ T 1‘,“ TI T Tu W W PM"? am‘flyag, ABSTRACT THE RESOLUTION OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MOTHERS AND THEIR TEEN-AGE DAUGHTERS CONCERNING CLOTHING BY Julie Horvath The purpose of the exploratory study was to dis- cover the decision processes and content by which mothers and teen-age daughters resolve interpersonal conflicts concerning clothing. The study was designed so that the mothers and daughters would resolve the conflicts in hypo- thetical situations in a manner very similar to that used to resolve their own daily conflicts or differences. The major instrument consisted of nine hypothetical story sit- uations in which fictional mothers and daughters had un- resolved differences about the daughter's wearing or selection of clothing. The stories covered these topics: new bathing suit, fad dress, tight slacks, winter coat, school hose, boots in winter, formal for spring dance, purchase of knit pantsuit, and wearing of cut-off sweat shirt. In the test procedures the mother or daughter read the story aloud, then, assuming that the fictional mother and daughter lived in a situation very similar to their Julie Horvath own, they discussed how they would resolve the conflict situation. (The researcher was not present or observing during the discussion of the stories; however, the dia- logue discussion was recorded on tape.) After all of the stories were finished, the mothers and daughters completed instruments in which they judged whether or not each story was "very realistic" and also which story was the "most difficult to decide." In addition, each completed an in- strument on background information. The subjects chosen were an accidental sample of 25 ninth grade girls and their mothers from a middle socio- economic class. Since each mother-daughter pair resolved 9 stories, the sample then consisted of 225 decision—making protocols. The dialogues, transcribed from the tape re- cordings, were each broken down into small acts of communi- cation and placed into one of 14 categories of interaction that were adapted from Bales' categories. This step was a necessary preliminary to developing criteria for classifying each dialogue into a decision type. The presence, absence, or combination of acts in certain categories comprised the major content of the criteria; thus the decision type showed the decision processes. Each of the 225 decision- making protocols were classified into one of 8 decision types according to an integration-disintegration continuum. The decision resolutions, in order of greater integration, were: dominance, voluntary submission, compromise, Julie Horvath autonomous submission, mutual adjustment and integration. Two non-conflict decision types, no apparent value differ— ence and prior resolvement, were also added to cover those situations in which a story apparently elicited no differ- ences between an individual mother and daughter. Results pertaining to the first objective of dis- covering the decision content by which differences were resolved, were as follows. Twenty-five per.cent of the decision resolutions favored the fictional daughter, 34 per cent favored the fictional mother, and 41 per cent partially favored both; but whether the decision resolu— tions favored the fictional mother or daughter varied with the content and the issues within the individual stories. Although the stories were constructed to encourage original alternatives, over 80 per cent of the decisions essentially followed one of the alternatives indicated in the story situation. Of significance was the result that the content of the decision resolutions varied widely from family to family. The conclusion on decision content was that the mothers and daughters resolved each story conflict with varied alternatives that did not consistently favor either the mother or the daughter. The second objective about decision processes was in 3 parts. Results concerning the first part, the fre- quency and distribution of the various decision types by which differences are resolved, were as follows. The Julie Horvath greatest number of decision resolutions was in the mutual adjustment category. The 3 types of decisions where dis- agreement is voiced overtly--compromise, voluntary submis- sion, and dominance--comprised only 30 per cent of the total decisions. Out of a possible 8 decision types, the decision range occurring most frequently within a family was 4 decision types, showing that families used a variety of methods to resolve decisions. Only 16 per cent of the families resolved 50 per cent or more of their conflict decisions by decision methods in which one person dominated the other. These 2 decision types, dominance and voluntary submission, were concentrated in 3 stories, the tight slacks, the boots in winter, and wearing the cut-off sweat shirt, indicating that the perceived conflicts in these stories were more intense than in other stories. The con- clusion then was that the mother-daughter pairs resolved more of the daily conflicts by mutual adjustment methods, where the adjusting is largely internal, than they did by methods involving more Open display of disagreement--dom- inance, voluntary submission, and compromise. Results pertaining to the second part of the objec- tive on decision processes--discovering the relative dis— tribution of power between mother and daughter--were as follows. The mother was sole dominator more frequently than the daughter, being sole dominator in 11 families whereas the daughter was sole dominator in only 3 families. Julie Horvath The daughters, however, initiated slightly more decisions than the mothers, but the percentages of decisions initiated were only slightly different—-56 per cent versus 44 per cent. The conclusion about the distribution of power was that although the daughter shared significantly in the decision-making process, the mothers exhibited the greater power more often in those decisions where power was a major factor--dominance and voluntary submission. Results concerning the third part of the objective on decision processes--to discover the relative distribu- tion of expressive versus adaptive conversational actions—- were as follows. The mother had a larger percentage of adaptive actions than the daughters, that is, asking for and giving suggestions, Opinions, and information. The mothers had the greater percentage of conversational actions in 11 families, and the daughters had the greater percentage in 5 families. Thus, it was concluded that the mothers showed a greater responsibility for the adaptive or task- oriented functions of decision-making, which was also reflected in the mothers' greater amount of talking. The interrelationship of story content to decision type (and thus decision process) was shown by the distri- bution of decision types according to stories. Two types of data--a low number of no apparent value difference deci- sions per story and/or a high number of voluntary submission and dominance decision types--indicated that 5 of the 9 Julie Horvath stories had story contents and conflict areas of relatively greater significance to the mothers and daughters than that of the other 4 stories. The 5 stories were those concern- ing the fad dress, tight slacks, school hose, footwear in winter, and cut-off sweat shirt. THE RESOLUTION OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MOTHERS AND THEIR TEEN-AGE DAUGHTERS CONCERNING CLOTHING BY ( 1 Julie Horvath A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts 1968 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to acknowledge her appreciation to the many individuals whose assistance made this research possible. She especially wishes to express her gratitude to the chairman of her advisory committee, Dr. Anna Creekmore, for her guidance and direction and in particular, for her faith in the fragile idea from which this study took shape; to Dr. Beatrice Paolucci for her inspiration, interest, and encouragement and her contributions to the research design; to Dr. Mary Gephart and Dr. Gertrude Nygren for their many helpful suggestions and criticisms; to Carol Braund for her invaluable and patient assistance in rating the protocols; to the mothers and daughters who shared of themselves; and finally to the author‘s friends for their support. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LIST OF Chapter I. II. III. IV. V. TABLES O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O 0 INTRODUCTION 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . Conflict Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . Related Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clothing Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM . . . . . .‘. . . . Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . Assumptions 0 o o o o o o o o ' o o 0 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . Conceptual Framework . . . . . . Application of Conceptual Framework to Interpersonal Conflict of Mother and Daughter Over Clothing . . . . . . . . . PROCEDURES 0 O O 0 O O O O O O O O O I C O 0 Development of Stories and Questionnaires Selection of Subjects . . . . . The Decision-Making Interviews . The Scoring . . . . . . . . . . Limitations . . . . . . . . . . RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . Description of Respondents . . . . . . . Evaluation of Stories and Test Situation Decision Content . . . . . . . . . . . . Decision Process . . . . . . . . . . . . Power Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . iii Page ii 17 24 33 33 34 35 35 42 44 44 47 50 54 61 63 63 64 74 82 93 Chapter Conversational Actions . . . . . . Interrelationship of Decision Type Story Content . . . . . . . . . VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . APPENDIX A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APPENDIX B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APPENDIX C . . . .'. . . . . . . . . . . . APPENDIX D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APPENDIX E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LITERATURE CITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv to Page 96 101 107 121 124 128 131 132 138 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Stories judged "very realistic" by mothers and daughters in their family situation . . 67 2. Stories judged "the most difficult to decide" by mothers and daughters . . . . . 69 3. Distribution of decision solution according to fictional mother's or fictional daughter's favor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 4. Distribution of decisions according to decision types and mother-daughter pairs . 34 5. Distribution of decision patterns by mother- daughter pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 6. Distribution of decision patterns according to high, medium, and low number of deci- sions with dominator . . . . .'. . . . . . 88 7. Stories judged "the most difficult to decide" by mothers and/or daughters versus decision types . . . . . . . . . .4. 90 8. Stories judged "very realistic" by mothers and/or daughters in their family situation, versus decision type . . . . . . . . . . . 91 9. Dominator in dominance and voluntary submission decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 10. Person having greater percentage of conver- sational actions by decision patterns high, medium, or low in number of decisions with dominator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-. . 97 11. Average number of mother's and daughter's conversational actions by decision patterns low, medium, and high in number of decisions with dominator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 V Table Page 12. Percentage of mothers' and daughters' conver- sational actions made in two functions by decision patterns low, medium, and high in number of decisions with dominator . . . . 100 13. Distribution of decision types according to individual stories . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Decision-making in the family is central to manage- ment. In the past, home management has provided help in the area of economic decision-making with knowledge about efficient allocating of material and physical resources of time, energy, and money to achieve goals. However, recent advances in theory in the behavioral sciences have opened up the field of social decision-making to specialists in the area. Social decision-making is concerned with the invisibles and intangibles of values, feelings, and roles. The family itself, which is concerned with the optimum develOpment of family members, has always been deeply in- volved in these types of decisions, whether a theoretical basis was available for the decisions or not. Professionals cannot provide the kind of help in social decision—making that they do in economic decision-making since they have scant research on which to base their empirical knowledge in either the general area of social decision-making, or in conflict resolution--a particular type of social decision-making between individuals. Clothing is one area of life which can cause con- flicts between mothers and daughters since adolescence is a time of change, a time when the peer group becomes very important, when independence is emerging, and when personal appearance is high in interest. Considering these aspects it is not surprising that some teen-age girls have conflicts with their parents concerning clothing. The literature has identified the areas of conflict and something of the pre- valence of overt conflict in clothing, but little informa- tion is available on the process by which conflicts are solved. Why is it that the larger percentage of teen-age girls do not have overt conflicts? Is it because the dif- ferences have already been settled previously or conditions have been set up to ward off differences, or is it that differences are just not present between mother and daughter on a particular clothing matter? Who has the most influence in the final decision or is there an egalitarian spirit to decisions? The answers to these questions are sorely needed if professionals are to know whether or not families need help with social decision-making and, if needed, the kinds of help needed. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Since this investigation is an exploratory study of resolution of conflict between mothers and daughters in clothing selection and use, the literature concerning con- flict resolution was reviewed to clarify the concept and to establish criteria for determining various types of conflict resolution. Because no clothing studies were found similar to the present study, related research was reviewed (1) which used the same system of categorizing interaction as used in this study (Bales' system) and (2) which also concerned conflict resolution in family groups. Literature dealing with clothing was surveyed for those particular situations most likely to cause conflicts. Thus the literature review is organized under three sections: conflict resolution, related research, and topics of cloth- ing conflict. Conflict Resolution The essential meaning of conflict can be found in the translation of its Latin root--"to strike together." Things which strike together are described as incompatible 3 . . . . . l forces or qualities such as ideas, interests, or Wills. Although conflict often has a connotative meaning of a fight, or antagonism, these are not essential to a con- flict. Follett suggests that we look upon social conflict as neither good nor bad, but simply a fact.2 She prefers to speak of differences confronting each other rather than Opposing each other.3 Similarly, Jessie Bernard emphasizes that conflict does not have to include antagonism; she writes, "There is no necessary relationship between hostil- ity or hatred and conflict. . . . Conflict often exists between parties who need and in fact want one another. . . ."4 Depending on the method used to deal with conflicts, the results can be constructive or destructive. Kenneth Boulding describes conflict as an "essential and for the 5 most part useful element in social life." Conflict can be 1Webster's Third New International Dictionar of the English Language, unabridged (Springfield: G. and C. Merriam Co., 1964), p. 476. 2M. P. Follett, Creative Experience (New York: Longmans Green and Co., 1924). Reprinted New York: Peter Smith, 1951, p. 157. 3 Ibid. 4Jessie Bernard, American Community Behavior (New York: Dryden Press, 1949), p. 105. 5Foundation for Research on Human Behavior, Con- flict Management in Organizations. A Report of a Seminar Conducted by the Foundation for Research on Human Behavior in Cooperation with the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor: Founda- tion for Research on Human Behavior, 1961), Lithoprinted, p. l. useful for an individual because it can act as an incentive toward greater activity and changing the situation for the better; or, put another way, "Difference is always a chal- lenge."1 In interpersonal conflict the opportunity exists for personal growth. Gordon identifies the risk in trying to understand completely an Opposing vieWpoint as an altera- tion of our own viewpoint and thus a change in ourselves.2 When conflict is viewed as a confronting of differences, even small differences, conflicts are seen as extremely numerous in our everyday life. In fact, conflict situations seem to be the main motivators of decisions. Conflicts can be destructive when they become so intense or so numerous that an individual becomes emotion- ally disorganized, or the relationship between two individ— uals disintegrates, or the group dissolves. Boulding prefers the term conflict management to conflict resolution because he sees the objective to be keeping conflict away from "pathological boundaries."3 In her review of available literature, Jessie Bernard identifies three separate conceptualizations of lFollett, Op. cit., p. 162. 2Thomas Gordon, "The Functioning of the Group Centered Teacher," Perspectives on the Group Process, ed. C. Gratton Kemp (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964), p. 235. 3Foundation for Research on Human Behavior, Op. cit., p. 48. conflicts.l In the social-psychological conceptualization, conflicts occur when tension from unresolved emotional conflicts within the individual breaks out into overt con— flict. Group conflict, then, is conceived to be a simple additive function of individual behavior.2 The second conceptualization, the sociological one, concerns the rela- tionship within or among social groups. Conflicts arise because human beings strive for mutually exclusive and incompatible goals. Implicit in this conceptualization is a cost theory--that the selection of one desirable goal is made at the expense of another desirable goal. The seman- ticist's conceptualization of conflict views all conflict as a result of verbal or conceptual misunderstandings,3 rather than the presence of mutually incompatible values and goals. Although Bernard admits that some conflicts are caused by misunderstandings she believes that conflicts still exist after misunderstandings are removed because mutually incompatible values and goals do exist. In a family situation none of the three conceptual- izations seems mutually exclusive. Certainly the unresolved emotional conflicts of the individuals are not always 1Jessie Bernard, "The Sociological Study of Con- flict," The Nature of Conflict. The International Socio- logical Association (Paris: United Nations Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1957), p. 36. 21bid. 3Ibid., p. 40. isolated when the individuals are engaged in an interper- sonal conflict, not all goals desired by individual family members are compatible, and understanding of the concepts and terms used by each person would be necessary to any effective discussion of the conflict. Diesing conceptualizes social conflict in a broad, encompassing manner.1 He does not limit his theory to social nor social-psychological conceptualizations.2 He sees similarities in the problems of maintaining integrated or stable personalities, social relationships, and social systems. The differences between the three are seen more as differences in magnitude rather than type. Diesing's conceptualization emphasizes the importance of roles--how a person feels and acts. When a person's feelings and actions are consistent with those of his expected role, the role is integrated into his personality. Likewise, when each person in a relationship acts and feels toward the other person in a manner largely consistent with what the other person expects him to act and feel, that rela- tionship is integrated.3 lPaul Diesing, Reason in Society (Urbana: ’Univer- sity of Illinois Press, 1962). 2Although Diesing discusses social decisions rather than conflict per se, his theories are pertinent because interpersonal conflicts would be included within the larger category of social decisions. 3Diesing, Op. cit., p. 66. Boulding identifies four elements common to all conflict: the parties, the field of conflict, the dynamics of the conflict situation, and conflict management.1 Al- though he names the first element "the parties," he also recognizes that conflict can take part between certain aspects of the personality.2 The second element, the field of conflict, is what the conflict is all about. In conflicts between two people the things in Opposition have to do with competing values, goals, and duties. Moreover, the value, goal, or duty in conflict may not be identified but rather only be implied, if alluded to at all. Thus, an apparently trivial matter could cause a non-trivial conflict because the real conflict issue is hidden. One source of competing values and goals for an adolescent girl in the family is her peer group. A source of competing duties or roles would be the adoles- cent's normal developmental changes; for example, as the adolescent matures she wants her role to include more inde- pendence, which requires that her mother's role change correspondingly to allow more independence. The third element, the dynamics of the conflict situation, concerns the moves that each person makes ac- cording to what he believes the other person's position to 1Foundation for Research on Human Behavior, op.cit., p. 48. 21bid., p. 44. be. These moves might be thought of as power devices or manipulative devices. Lindblom lists the following manip- ulative devices:. information, appeals, spoken and unspoken threats and promises, and concessions which obligate the other person to counter concessions.1 Bernard talks of the effective means of passive resistance that those in a subor- dinate position may use, such as malingering, inefficiency, and deliberate, sullen or even cheerful stupidity.2 Effec- tive power devices of particular importance in the family situation would be the authority of the parent and also the threat of withdrawal of affection by either the mother or the daughter. The fourth element identified by Boulding--conflict management or method of resolving-—involves the control of conflict. He identifies two kinds of control mechanisms, naming them unilateral and organizational.3 The former occurs when one of the parties deliberately controls his responses toward obtaining at least minimum agreement. It is this kind of control mechanism which would account for most of the control of conflict at the personal level. The latter type would be more pertinent in large businesses and organizations than in the home. 1Charles E. Lindblom, The Intelligence of Democracy» (New York: The Free Press, 1965), p. 56. 2Bernard, American Community Behavior, p. 51. 3Foundation for Research on Human Behavior, Op. cit., p. 48. 10 Most authors designate methods of resolving con— flicts which represent a relative position on the integra- tion-disintegration continuum. In short, parts of a personality, social relationship, or social system, being dynamic, are moving either toward greater integration or away from integration and toward instability, even to the end point of actual disintegration. Follett lists four methods of resolution: dominance, voluntary submission of one side, compromise, and integration.1 To these Gross adds conversion and acceptance of difference, which she places at the same approximate level as integration.2 Bernard lists several other authors' conceptions of the integration-disintegration continuum. Her own conceptions in order of greater integration were: elimination, equi- libration, coalescence, and assimilation.3 The relevance to the individual of the level of integration is represented clearly by Gross. She designates four resulting levels of harmony of feeling or inner agree- ment to correspond with the four methods of resolving con- flicts. At any of the levels except the highest level, lFollett, op. cit., p. 156. 2Irma H. Gross and Elizabeth W. Crandall, Manage- ment for Modern Families (New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, Inc., 1954), p. 25. 3Bernard, American Community Behavior, p. 48. 11 a d where complete inner agreement is felt, the "persons in- volved may be left farther apart in feeling after the conflict than when they started."1 Follett emphasizes the creativity of the integrative decision; that neither side loses anything, but instead, by a searching for those parts in common, the two parties are able to invent a unique solution which satisfies them both. The key question to ask in the search would be, "What is the demand a symbol of?"2 Follett further emphasizes that genuine integration takes place in the sphere of activities and not of ideas or wills.3 This statement, though written several decades ago, would seem just as pertinent today and is in accord with the idea that a critical part of any decision has to be the implementing of the decision, which is a measure of the decision-makers' commitment. Another interpretation might be that agreement has to exist in the inner feelings of a person. According to Follett, the integrating of wants makes it unnecessary to use power to satisfy desires. "By reducing the area of irreconcilable controversy you reduce the area of arbitrary power."4 However, not all decisions can be resolved by integration. lGross, op. cit., p. 25. N Follett, Op. cit., p. 169. 3Follett, Op. cit., p. 175. 41bid., p. 184. 12 Diesing describes in detail the integrative proc- ess of social decisions. Integration of personalities or social relationships takes place on the subconscious level and thus integration cannot be achieved directly-—only indirectly. Unconscious integration cannot be forced; however, it can be aided by manipulating the environment in which integration occurs.l It is in this area that social decisions Operate. Hopefully, by performing such behavior as controlling one's own tone of voice, allowing the other person to present his point of view, listening with attention to the point of view, showing honest affec- tion and warmth, the other party will feel acceptance of the decision agreed upon verbally. Yet control of the environment cannot insure integration, for our understanding of the unconscious mind is never complete. There is always the possibility that the other person will distort perceived actions and that an unfavorable view will be read into the perceptions.2 Lindblom emphasizes the various mutual adjustment methods used to achieve agreement or coordination among interdependent decision-makers. He divides them into two main categories; adaptive and manipulated.3 However, he lDiesing, op. cit., p. 99. 21bid., p. 100. 3Lindblom, Op. cit., p. 33. 13 does not place them on an integration-disintegration con- tinuum. He approaches decision making from a fresh out- look, that peOple can coordinate with each other, without a strong common goal, without rules to guide them, and without another person to coordinate them.1 He focuses upon the successful means used to achieve agreement among those relatively equal to each other in status and positiOn. Although his manipulative devices are in one sense power. devices, they differ from the kind of power implied in power by force. The latter is implied in the sociological studies of conflict. Lindblom's concepts fill a large void in conflict theory, which until recently has been based primarily on severe forms of conflict--such as industrial, racial, and international conflict. In the three types of decisions in the adaptive category the one party seeks no response from the other party but tries to avoid adverse consequences for the other party, if possible, and is at least aware of the situation. These types of decisions would seem to produce a level of inner agreement similar to that of integration. In the manipulated category, the one party makes his decision only after he induces a response from the other party. The nine types of decisions in that category may take the form of discussion with or without any forms of manipulative lIbid., p. 3. 14 devices, authoritative prescription, use of a prior decision to induce a response, or the use of any of the forms to induce a third party to induce a response from the other party.1 A commonly used term for a method of resolution is compromise. For the ordinary person, compromise is likely to connote a desirable method of resolving conflict al- though, conversely, compromising values or beliefs has an undesirable connotation. These diverse Opinions on com- promise are present in the literature also. Carreiro, in a speech delivered in Chicago, maintains that really diffi- cult decisions require intelligent compromise.2 He believes that in difficult decisions there can seldom be a gain without some loss. Bernard also maintains that often some- thing has to be given up, ". . . The accommodation of a conflict very often involves sacrifice on the part of one or the other contestant, or of both. . . .We have to give up a part of what we want."3 Follett strongly criticizes this concept of com- promise, saying that those who idealize compromise thereby 1Ibid., p. 33. 2Joseph Carreiro, "Design is Decision-Making," Speech delivered at 45th National 4-H Club Congress, Chicago, Illinois, December 1, 1966, p. 1. 3Bernard, Community Behavior, p. 125. 15 assume individuals are static.1 Follett also criticizes compromise by saying it is merely a postponement of the issue,2 that it keeps us with the old ways,3 and that it forces the individual to give up something of himself.4 Possibly the two views are not as different as they appear, if that which is in conflict could be sep- arated into centrally important and peripherally important segments. Then to give up the peripherally important would not seem a real loss of individuality. In fact, viewed this way, compromise would seem close to integration. Possibly Carriero viewed intelligent compromise in such a manner when he differentiated the American and British connotations of compromise. In the United States the interpretation of com- promise is a situation in which each side involved loses something important. In Britain, however, the concept of compromise assumes that what is finally achieved is the best of both points of view. . . . Gross describes how conflicts are resolved by dominance and voluntary submission. At the dominance level, one side demands and the other is forced to Obey. It may be through physical force in the case of a child, through respect for 1Follett, op. cit., p. 114. 21bid., p. 156. 3Ibid., p. 161. 41bid., p. 163. 5 . . Carreiro, Op. c1t., p. 2. 16 status in the case of older persons, or through fear of loss of a grade in a classroom situation between teacher and pupil.1 In voluntary submission one side gives in, just as in dom- inance, but there is more inner agreement of feeling than in conflict resolution by dominance. Summary Conflict involves a striking together or confront- ing of differences. In interpersonal conflict the differ— ences have to do with competing values, goals, or duties. Of itself, conflict is neither good nor bad, but poten- tially it can be useful or destructive depending on how it is managed. Three varying conceptualizations of conflict separately attribute the source of conflict to tensions from unresolved emotional conflicts with individuals, to sacrifices required when humans strive for mutually exclu- sive and incompatible goals, or to verbal or conceptual misunderstandings. All conflict has four common elements: the parties, the field of conflict (what the conflict is all about), the dynamics of the conflict situation (involv- ing power or manipulative devices), and conflict management or method of resolving. Most authors conceptualize the method of resolving conflict as either the parts of a per- sonality, social relationship, or social system moving 1Gross, Op. cit., p. 26. 2Ibid. 17 toward or away from greater integration. In interpersonal conflict the degree of integration is represented by the extent of inner agreement felt by the parties. The inte- gration which takes place subconsciously is achieved in— directly by manipulatiOn of the external environment. Five major methods of resolving conflict, in order of the de- creasing integration achieved, are termed: integration, mutual adjustment, compromise, voluntary submission, and dominance. Related Research Although Bales' Interaction Process Analysis has been used widely to study problem solving in small groups, it has been used less frequently to study problem solving within the family. Yet Bales stresses that the family is also a small group,1 suggesting that findings learned from small group interaction may also apply to the family. A few studies have dealt with the three-person family, but usually the studies concern only husbands and wives. Al- though relationships in a three-person family and husband- wife groups differ substantially from those of a mother- daughter pair, some of the findings do have relevance for the latter group. 1Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family Soc- ialization and Interaction Process (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1955), p. vii. 18 One way that family groups differ from ad hoc groups is that the members are not interacting as strangers, but as people with many shared experiences and knowledge. Furthermore, the actions of family members in the exper— imental group may have consequences for them in their sub- sequent daily interactions in the home. For instance, a family member who has his idea unkindly squelched is not apt to forget the incident just because it happened in an experimental setting. I The following three studies deal with the three- person family--that is, parents and an adolescent son or daughter. The first, authored by Strodtbeck, studied res- olution of revealed differences between 48 teen-age boys and their parents. One finding emphasized that it was not sufficient to just SEE the family members about their roles, since the sons who said their parents did not take a teen- ager's Opinion seriously had power scores in winning deci- sions which were almost as high as those scores of sons who did believe their parents regarded teen-agers' opinions almost as important as their son.1 Strodtbeck's informal analysis of the three-person family's process of resolution is meaningful. He said that differences typically were 1Fred L. Strodtbeck, "Family Interaction, Values, and Achievement," Talent and Society, David McClelland, 2E al. (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1958), p. 177. 19 resolved "not in terms of what should be done but 'What kind of situation do we have here?”1 Commenting further on the decisions, he said, "The large majority of all the decisions have a quality which our formal analysis does not communicate; they seem to be brought to the conclusion that 'we really never disagreed in the first place.”2 Finally, he noted the families resolved conflicts in a way that demonstrated their agreement on basic values. In a more formal analysis of data he found a stability of interaction among the family members for all of the nine decisions made by each family. Specifically, rank of participation on the first three decisions consistently agreed with rank of participation for the last three decisions. In another study concerning decisions of parents and daughters, Leik hypothesized that men and women tend to show different proportions of emotional versus instru- mental behavior, depending on whether they are interacting among strangers or family members. He hypothesized further that the public and private behavior of each person will tend to converge when he is interacting among family members but under observation by a stranger.3 In Leik's research, lIbid., p. 176. 21bid. 3Robert K. Leik, "Instrumentality and Emotionality in Family Interaction," Sociometry, 26, No. 2 (June, 1963), p. 132. 20 nine three-person families were studied in three different group organizations: a natural family group, a simulated family group (a father, a mother and a college age girl but all unrelated), and an ad hoc homogenous group (such as three fathers). In addition to the analysis of proportion of emotional versus instrumental behavior, Leik determined each person's agreement with the final decision and satis- faction with the discussion, by asking him to answer a five point rating scale. Leik generally concluded that the traditional roles of instrumental behavior for the male and emotional behavior for the female appeared when the interaction occurred among strangers, but that the emphasis tended to disappear during interaction with their own family members.1 Agreement and satisfaction were never equal in the family groups.. If the interaction was highly task-oriented, then agreement was greater and satisfaction less. But as inter- action became more emotional, the satisfactiOn increased at the expense of agreement. The emotional interaction of course, could be, negative or positive. Leik also found that a short discussion was associated with agreement, 0 C O O 2 whereas a longer one was assoc1ated With satisfaction. 1Ibid., p. 144. 21bid., p. 137. 21 John O'Rourke studied the decision-making behavior of three-member family groups in field and laboratory con- ditions. The same 24 families participated under both conditions. The child in each family was between 15 and 17 years of age. In half the families, the subjects were boys; in the other half they were girls. Briefly, under each of the two experimental conditions the families were asked to discuss two problem situations and then choose one of the six given action alternatives. To study emotionality and instrumentality the short form of Bales Interaction Process Analysis was used, in which the 12 categories are compressed into 3 larger ones. O'Rourke concluded that family groups seen only in the laboratory "will be more active but less efficient at decision-making, and will register less emotionality than might be the case if they were seen in their 'natural' environments."1 One aspect of decision-making to which the Bales Interaction Process Analysis is particularly well suited is the relative power in decision-making. Strodtbeck found with the three-person family that decision-making power was associated with high participation--in other words, total number of acts.2 However, Kenkel's study of husbands and lJohn O'Rourke, "The Decision-Making Behavior of Family Groups in Two Experimental Conditions," Sociometry, 26, NO. 4 (December, 1963), p. 435. 2Fred L. L. Strodtbeck, "The Family as a Three Person Group," American Sociological Review, 19, No. 1 (February, 1954), p. 29. 22 wives found only limited support for association of deci- sion-making power with high participation or most talking.1 Phoebe Harris, who studied 15 student couples, found ev- idence that the spouse with the higher value score initiated the accepted decision in which that specific value was involved.2 When Strodtbeck studied husband-wife interaction in three cultures--Navaho, Texan, and Mormon--he found only a slight tendency for those who talked most to win the greater number of decisions.3 However, he did find the interactions of the spouse who talked most tended to be high in question-asking. Moreover, the culture signif- icantly affected which spouse won the greater number of decisions. Among the Navahos, the wife won the greater number of decisions, whereas among the Mormons the husband won the greater number. Among the Texans, the decision split was almost even. Strodtbeck says, "For the Texans it was a rational exercise, sometimes directly commented 1William F. Kenkel, "Observational Studies of Husband-Wife Interaction in Family Decision-Making," Source- book in Marriage and the Family, ed. Marvin B. Sussman (2nd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963), p. 148. 2Phoebe Todd Harris, "An Experimental Investigation of Joint Decision—Making by Husbands and Wives in Relation to Four Interest Values," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1963), p. 118. 3Fred L. Strodtbeck, "Husband-Wife Interaction Over Revealed Differences," American Sociological Review, 16, NO. 3 (August, 1951), p. 472. 23 upon, to see that the decisions came out even. . . ."1 Interestingly, the Navahos averaged only 8 acts per deci- sion, in contrast with 30 for the other couples. Whereas couples in the other cultural groups seemed to feel they had to give reasoned arguments, the Navahos did not; in- stead they implored the other to "go with them" or simply consent. SummaEy Studies involving two-or three-person families and using Bales' Interaction Process Analysis were reviewed. In studies with the three-person family, Strodtbeck found the self-reported roles of the teen-age boys did not agree with their Observed roles in winning decisions. Differences were resolved in terms of "What kind of situation do we have here?" In his study of decisions of parents and daughters, Leik concluded that the traditional roles of instrumental behavior for the male and emotional behavior for the female appeared when the interaction occurred among strangers, but that the emphasis tended to disappear during interaction with their own family members. O'Rourke concluded that family groups seen only in the laboratory "will be more active but less efficient at lIbid., p. 473. 24 decision-making and will register less emotionally than might be the case if they were seen in their natural environments." In three studies, it was found that those who talked the most tended to win the most decisions, although in two of the studies the tendency was only slight. Clothing ConflictS' In conflict resolution between two individuals, the "things" to be resolved are either values, goals, or duties. In conflict resolution between a mother and a daughter, the values and goals involved in clothing practices can take many forms. It is often difficult to determine the real conflict issue from the outward form of the clothing discussion. Because of this difficulty, researchers have tried .tQ learn about the real issues by investigating various facets of clothing conflicts. Some studies investigate only the girl's view of the difference or area of clothing difference. Other studies compare the girl's view with that of her parents--usually just the mother's View. The focuses of investigation in specific clothing practices vary even more widely. In one type of study, data on a. wide range of possible "problems" establish the importance of certain clothing problems relative to other types of 25 problems. In another type of study the prevalence of Specific clothing problems is investigated, relative to other clothing problems. However, a common basis for many of the problems resulting from clothing might be the two underlying clothing motivations identified by Evans. She concluded that ado- lescents, in purchasing garments, were motivated primarily by a desire for independence, but that in wearing garments they were motivated primarily by dependence on their friends' approval or recognition.1 Two other researchers reported similar findings. Dudley concluded that many of the clothing conflicts which appeared were the kinds that resulted from the adolescents striving for independence and the parents not wanting to grant it.2 King, who studied the role of clothing in family relationships in 25 families, came to a similar conclusion--that the adolescents' frus- tration stemmed from their parents' unwillingness to allow them to dress by the standards of their peer group.3 lS. Evelyn Evans, "Motivations Underlying Clothing Selection and Wearing," Journal of Home Economics, 56, No. 10 (December, 1964), p. 743. 2Pauline Dudley, "Educational Needs Having Implica- tions for the Home Economics Program: Areas of Conflict Between Adolescent Girls and Their Parents" (unpublished Master's thesis, Iowa State College, 1948), p. 41. 3Bernice King, "A Study of the Role of Clothing in Family Relationships in Twenty-Five Selected Families" (unpublished Master's thesis, Michigan State University, 1949). p. 105. 26 Research has shown that clothing is a typical problem area between many younger adolescents and their parents. However, the extent of parental recognition of clothing as a problem varies considerably with the partic— ular research. One researcher found that only 17.8 per - cent of the families in her sample had clothing difficulties between the daughter and mother during the high school period.1 Yet, another researcher found that 70 per cent of her sample of 50 ninth grade girls reported clothing con- flicts.2 Such variation is understandable when research deals with a variable that is difficult to define and where aspects of the variable differ from study to study. The problem may also be called a difficulty, a disagreement, a difference, or a conflict--a11 of which have varying conno- tations and interpretations by individuals. Research bias in the form of the wording of the question could have also affected results. The following three studies indicate that clothing is a source of conflict among adolescent girls--especially the younger adolescents. When Block studied the importance of 50 different problems among 528 seventh through twelfth 1Ruth Connor, Theodore B. Johannis, Jr., and James Walters, "Parent-Adolescent Relationships," Journal of Home Economics, 46, No. 3 (March, 1954), p. 185. 2Dudley, op. cit., p. 23. 27 graders, 50 per cent or more of the girls indicated that 2 behaviors related to clothing were problems with their mothers. Furthermore, of the two behaviors, "Insists upon nagging me regarding what I wear and how I dress" and "Re- fuses to let me buy the clothes I like," the latter was one of the three problems reported as disturbing the largest percentage of ninth graders.l Each of these problems can be easily related to both independence from parent and dependence on peers. In a survey conducted for the Girl Scouts, nearly 2,000 girls in grades 6 through 12 were interviewed on the tOpics of girls' hOpes, worries, relations with parents and friends, dating, and plans for education, work, and marriage. They found that disagreement of the girls with their parents was most likely to concern clothing, dating, and hours; with the girls under fourteen reporting conflict over clothes and the use of makeup.2 In 1957 Harris investigated the relative importance, for boys and girls, of 15 issues ranked as interests and also ranked as problems. Although clothing was not one of the issues investigated, the related issues of personal lVirginia Lee Block, "Conflicts of Adolescents with Their Mothers," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 32 (1937), p. 196. 2Marguerite M. Dixon, "Adolescent Girls Tell About Themselves," Marrigge and Family Living, 20 (1958), p. 400. 28 attractiveness and family relationships were investigated. Other issues included were health, study habits, philosoPhy of life, civic interest, and money. In a system in which the least important rank was 14.5, girls ranked personal attractiveness as 3.5 in importance as a problem and first in importance as an interest; the girls also ranked family relationships sixth in importance as a problem and 2.5 in importance as an interest.1 Several researchers have studied the extent of conflicts in particular clothing areas. In Dudley's survey of 50 ninth grade girls, the four clothing topics which caused difficulty between mothers and ninth grade daughters, were care of clothes (48%), wearing clothes for everyday (46%), wanting more clothes (20%), and style of clothes (16%). Two other tOpics--receiving a fair share of cloth— ing, and being able to select clothes for everyday--were reported as conflicts by only three or fewer subjects.2 When Feldt repeated Dudley's study nine years later, she found that with the 33 ninth grade girls included in the second study, the same four clothing tOpics continued to cause disagreements. However, the percentages and order lDale B. Marris, "Sex Differences in the Life Prob- lems and Interests of Adolescents, 1935 and 1957," The Adolescent: A Book of Readings, ed. Jerome Seidman_TRev. ed., New York: Holt[_Rinehart and Winston, 1960), p. 78. 2Dudley, Op. cit., p. 25. 29 varied in this way: wanting more clothes (55%), care of clothes (30%), style of clothes (12%), and wearing clothes for everyday(9%).l In Magrabi's study of eighth grade girls, the mothers reported the most frequent cause of clothing disagreement to be amount of care required.2 Some studies determined differences between mothers and daughters by comparing the attitudes of the mothers to the attitudes of the daughters. Barnes focused on conflict related to the actual clothing article, in her study of 100 ninth grade girls and their mothers. In the middle social status group she found a significant difference between the attitude of mothers and daughters in the categories of shoes, formals, and grooming. When comparing mothers' attitudes, she found a significant difference between mothers in middle and lower statuses, and also upper and lower statuses in categories of sweaters, shoes, coats, skirts and shorts.3 Mead, in her study of 60 high school girls and their mothers, found they differed in those fac- tors considered most important in selection of four types lBeatrice L. Feldt, "Disagreement Between Girls and Their Parents in One Illinois High School" (unpublished Master's thesis, Iowa State College, 1957), p. 28. 2Frances Magrabi, "Differences Between Parents' and Daughters' Criteria in Selection of Eighth Grade Girl's Clothing" (unpublished Master's thesis, Iowa State Univer- Sity, 1958), p0 119. 3Lenorah A. Barnes, "Differences in Attitudes of Mothers and Adolescent Daughters Concerning Clothing and Grooming" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1955): p. 35. 30 of clothing. The mothers checked quality, comfort, and durability as being of greatest importance, and conformity as being least important. In contrast, the girls checked cost, conformity, quality, and becomingness as of greatest importance and quantity as of least importance.l Not only do parents and daughters disagree about clothing, but they differ frequently in realizing that they disagree. In one study of eighth grade girls, the girls reported disagreements more frequently than did their parents.2 In Feldt's study, more daughters than mothers recognized that they disagreed on "Way money is spent."3 In Mead's study, 90 per cent of the mothers of tenth graders believed their daughters wanted their help during shopping, but 50 per cent of the girls preferred to sh0p alone or with a friend.4 Some studies obtained data relevant to how mothers and daughters settled those disagreements which occurred while shopping. One sample of eighth grade girls and their mothers settled disagreements most often by discussion.5 lMarjorie Elaine Mead, "Disagreements Between Ado- lescent Girls and Their Mothers Concerning Clothing" (un- published Master's thesis, Iowa State College, 1957), p. 30. 2Magrabi, op. cit., p. 119. 3Feldt, op. cit., p. 50. 4Mead, op. cit., p. 26. 5Magrabi, op. cit., p. 119. 31 Mead asked both mothers and daughters separately how they settled any disagreements that arose during shopping expe- ditions. Essentially three choices were provided: follow- ing the mother's suggestion, following the daughter's suggestion, and compromising. The disagreements were settled most frequently by compromise. However, the girls thought that disagreements were settled by following their own suggestions more often than by following their mother's suggestions. Yet the mothers did not think that their own suggestions were followed as often as the girls thought they were followed.1 In another study of 72 seventh grade girls who had disagreements, 35 per cent answered that their mothers decided, 43 per cent answered that they com- promised, and 22 per cent answered that they themselves decided when they disagreed with their mother about a clothing purchase.2 Summary Three studies were reported which indicate that clothing is a source of conflict with adolescent girls-- especially the younger adolescents. A common basis for viewing many of the clothing conflicts could be the lMead, Op. cit., p. 26. 2Mary Ellen Roach, "The Influence of Social Class on Clothing Practices and Orientation at Early Adolescence: A Study of Clothing-Related Behavior of Seventh Grade Girls" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1960), p. 111. 32 adolescents' motivation for independence in purchasing garments and their motivation for dependence in choosing garments to gain their friends' approval. In one survey the following tOpics caused difficulty between ninth grade girls and their mothers: care of clothes, wearing clothes for everyday, wanting more clothes, and style of clothes. In another study, differences were found between the attitudes of mothers and daughters in the categories of shoes, formals, and grooming. In another study the girls checked conformity as being one of the most important qualities in selection of garments, whereas their mothers considered it the least important. Mothers and daughters differ in their perceptions concerning their disagreements. The girls reported more frequent disagreements than did their parents. Mothers also believed their daughters wanted their help during shOpping, whereas many of the girls did not. Some data indicate how mothers and daughters settle disagreements which obcur while shopping. The two methods reported for the most frequent settling of disagreements were compromise and discussion. CHAPTER III STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Since families are composed of two or more individ— uals, each with a unique personality, conflicts between members are a normal part of family life. Between a mother and her early adolescent daughter, a typical topic of con- flict is the daughter's clothing behavior, although the deeper issue involved may go unnamed or unrecognized. This study is an attempt to explore the processes used and con- tent involved when mothers and daughters resolve conflicts about clothing, one type of typical conflict situation found in families. Definition of Terms Social decision--a decision which resolves competing values, goals or duties. Conflict resolution--a type of social decision made between two persons, which resolves their competing values, goals, or duties. Difference--synonymous with conflict. 33 34 Conversational action--the smallest vocal communicative act (word, expression, phrase, or sentence) which con- veys a thought according to Bales' system. Expressive conversational actions--actions in the social- emotional areas which include Bales' categories of showing solidarity, antagonism, tension release, tension, agreement, and disagreement. Instrumental conversational actions-~actions in the task areas which include Bales' categories of giving or asking for suggestions, Opinions and orientation. Story situation--hypothetical conflict situation concerning clothing behavior, which requires a resolution. Decision-initiator--the person who first mentioned the idea; that is, the person whose conversational action about the decision solution was first rated in category 43, suggests solution. Dialogue-—the discussion which took place between the mother and the daughter as they resolved each story situation. Dominator decision--a decision type, either voluntary sub- mission or dominance, in which one person dominated the other. Assumptions Assumptions underlying this study were: 1. Mothers and daughters will identify with the hypothetical problems. 35 2. Mothers and daughters will decide answers to hypothetical problems in a manner similar to that used with their own problems. Objectives The following were objectives of this study. 1. To discover the tOpical content of the decision by which mothers and daughters resolve differenCes concerning teen-age clothing in a projected hypothetical situation. 2. To discover the processes of resolving differences between mothers and their teen-age daughters. a. frequency and distribution of the various decision types by which differences are-resolved: dominance, voluntary submission, compromise, autonomous submis- sion, mutual adjustment and integration. b. the relative distribution of power between mother and daughter. c. the relative distribution of expressive versus instru- mental conversational actions. 3. To develop hypotheses for future studies. Conceptual Framework" Interpersonal conflict is described as two individ- uals, each influenced by various factors, who are involved together in a conflict and who interact in a dynamic proc- ess to arrive at a decision resolution. 36 The individuals When two individuals are involved together in a conflict, they disagree about what each person perceives as the conflict, not the objective facts of the situation. Each of the individual's perceptions is unfailingly screened through his psychological filter. It is impossible to eliminate the filter. Thus, each party acts on the basis of his own perceptions, regardless of their accuracy. Kemp speaks of subjective truth as distinguished from objective truth, calling it a "a new kind of truth."1 Occasionally we catch a glimmer of the realization that there is a kind of truth which may be false for everyone except he who expresses it. When . . . the questibn of' the truthgis raised subjectively, reflection is directed to the relationship between the individual and his be- lief. If what he says follows logically from his per- ception of the matter, then it is considered true for him even if his criteria and referents are objectively false.2 Though the two perceptions will overlap in some areas, they are never expected to be exactly the same. Furthermore, there are likely to be some areas of the problem that neither person sees. Only the alternatives perceived by each party are available to them in the conflict situation. Alternatives 1C. Gratton Kemp, Perspectives on the Group Process (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964), p. 13. 21bid. 37 include goals and resources.1 Alternatives not within either person's perceptions are, of course, not available to them in the conflict situation. However, when selecting alternatives which might resolve the conflict, the parties must not only perceive an alternative, but they must per- ceive it as socially acceptable and then acceptable to themselves personally. When the two parties discover or invent an alternative which is acceptable in all these ways, as well as being acceptable to the other party, they then have a possible resolution of conflict. However, in the process other conflicts arising between the personal- ities must be resolved. The conflict A conflict between two individuals is one type of a larger category of situations requiring a social decision. In the interpersonal conflict, values, goals or role expec- tations held by one family member are in opposition to the values, goals or role expectations held by the other con— flicting member and need to be resolved. Since the charac- teristics of a conflict resolution would also be those of a social decision, they will be considered here. The general goal of the conflicting individuals, though they may not be aware of it, is toward integration lBeatrice Paolucci, "Contributions of a Framework of Home Management to the Teaching of Family Relationships," Journal of Marriage and the Family, XXVIII, No. 3 (August, 1966). p. 341. 38 of the family group. But at the same time, the cohesive- ness must not be so restrictive that the family group can- not adapt to change or that individuals cannot also develop their unique potentialities independent of the group. The resources available to the individuals include the non-transferable, almost intangible personal qualities of ego, loyalty, affection, and confidence. Diesing de- scribes just how these resources are used. A social decision involves the discovery of an act or feeling that will integrate conflicting vectors where this is possible, distinguish them if integration is not possible, reduce strain where necessary and prepare for future strains where possible; but these are all changes in the structure of interpersonal relations.1 The individuals either mediate conflicting alterna- tives2 or choose action alternatives, according to how they might contribute to the subconscious integrative process within the individual.3 In the latter case, possible alter- natives are limited only so far as the creative imaginations of the decision-makers are limited; however, the individuals involved have no assurance of success with any particular action alternative because the integrative process can only occur spontaneously within the individua1--it cannot be forced.4 lPaul Diesing, op. cit., p. 241. 2Paolucci, op. cit., p. 341. 3Diesing, Op. cit., p. 114. 41bid., p. 11. 39 The dynamic process The process of resolving a conflict, like decision- making in general, is conceived of as a dynamic, fluid process. Process in this sense is considered different than a sequence of steps. Berlo's description of process could just as well be a description of the conflict process. If we accept the concept of process, we View events and relationships as dynamic, on-going, every-changing, continuous. When we label something as a process, we also mean that it does not have a beginning, an end, a fixed sequence of events. It is not static, at rest. It is moving. The ingredients within a process inter- act, each affects all of the others. He [theorist] recognizes that certain things may pre- cede others, but that in many cases the ordir of preced- ence will vary from situation to situation. A useful basis for visualizing the process of con- flict resolution is Bales conceptualization of interaction between members of a small group. According to Bales, the individual's acts of communication or interaction are all related to the over—arching idea of problem-solving,2 re- gardless of the specific content of their discussion.3 The family members engage in a "total, on—going process" when they interact to resolve their conflict. Within this 1David K. Berlo, The Process of Communication (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,II960)p P. 24. 2Bales uses the term problem solving, but conflict resolution is considered a type of problem solving. 3Robert F. Bales, Interaction Process Analysis (Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Press, 1951), p. 13. 40 process the individuals are constantly dealing with three abstract elements which Bales considers the basis stuff of all communication: the cognitive, "what is it?",the affec- tive, "how does it affect us?", and the conative, "what shall we do about it?"1 The individuals deal with the three abstract ele- ments in the form of six interlocking subproblems, each of which they must resolve as it emerges and re-emerges if they are to sustain the ongoing process. When the indi- viduals are engaged in such adaptive behavior as perceiving, remembering, observing, and inferring, they are trying to answer "What is it?" Bales calls this the subproblem of communication. When the individuals are engaged in such expressive behavior as liking, disliking, approving, and disapproving of social objects, they are trying to answer "how does it affect us?" Bales calls this the subproblem of evaluation. When the individuals are engaged in such instrumental behavior as deciding about the situation and attempting to adapt to, change, or control the situation they are trying to answer "what shall we do about it?" Bales calls these actions the subproblems of decision and control. Throughout the process, when the individuals are answering the three basic questions described above they lIbid., p. 60. 41 are also encountering the subproblems of reducing tension and reintegrating.l The manner and the effectiveness with which the conflicting parties deal with the subproblems determine the type of conflict resolution achieved. Types of conflict resolution When two individuals resolve a conflict, the out- come is described according to the types of conflict res- olution they engage in: integration, mutual adjustment, autonomous submission, compromise, voluntary submission, or dominance. (These types refer to different levels along a conceptualized integration-disintegration continuum.) The differing degrees of inner harmony between the two individuals about the final decision are also represented by the types of conflict resolution. Inner harmony is greatest in integration and least in dominance. The types of conflict resolution are described as follows: 1. Integration is the highest level of conflict resolution achieved by individuals. Through their interaction the two individuals create a new alternative thoroughly acceptable to both. 1Ibid., p. 60. 2. 42 Mutual adjustment is the next highest level of conflict resolution, in which the harmony of agreement nearly approaches that of integration. Each individual does some adjusting to the other. Since prior disagreement is not voiced openly, the adjusting is such that the other individual is hardly aware of it. Autonomous submission occurs when one of the individuals yields voluntarily, without any specific or implied pressure from the other. Compromise occurs when each person yields somewhat. In contrast to mutual adjustment, the adjusting occurs noticeably because prior disagreement has been openly voiced. Voluntary submission occurs when one of the parties yields to the other's specific or implied pressure. Dominance occurs when, in addition to one of the parties yielding as in voluntary submission, antagonism is also expressed by either of the two parties. Application of Conceptual Framework to Interpersonal Conflict of Mother and Daughter Over Clothipg The perceptions of the mother and the daughter concerning the conflict situation differ not only because they are two individuals, but also because one is an ado- lescent girl in a subordinate family position and the other is a mature woman in a superordinate family position. In 43 other words, the mother has legitimate authority over the daughter. The perceived alternatives from which the final resolution is formed are apt to be more dissimilar than similar because the daughter is strongly affected by the norms of her peer reference group, whereas the mother is affected by the norms of her own varied reference groups.1 Clothing can be a symbolic topic of interpersonal conflict because there are possible conflicts in goals, values, and duties between the mother and daughter in the selection and use of clothing. For example, goals are involved in deciding what type of garment is needed by the girl; values are involved in selection of the style, fabric, color, and construction of a garment; and duties or roles are involved in the degree of freedom given to the daughter in selecting the garment. The types of conflict resolution between a mother, in a superordinate position, and a daughter, in a subordi- nate position, are possibly different than between individ- uals of equal status, in that more dominant and voluntary submission decisions are probable. However, the daughter does have a certain kind of power which she can exercise deSpite her subordinate position. lClay Brittain's findings in "Adolescent Choices and Parent-Peer Cross Pressures" suggested that adolescent girls tended to be peer conforming in these situations concerning dress, but that in many of the other test situations the girls tended to be parent conforming. (American Sociological Review, 28, No. 3 [June, 1963], p. 389.) CHAPTER IV PROCEDURES This chapter will describe procedures used to develop the stories and questionnaires, the selection of the subjects, the conducting of the interviews, and the procedures for rating and scoring. Development of Stories and Questionnaire3" It was critical to the study that the stories rep- resented conflict situations with which the mothers and daughters could identify. Strodtbeck's technique of "re- vealed differences" has been one method used to insure a conflict situation.l Briefly, each person writes his choice of two alternatives to a list of hypothetical situa- tions. Then the researcher compares answers and requests the respondents to resolve those situations on which they differ. DeSpite certain merits, the "revealed difference" technique was rejected for two reasons: 1) limiting the answer to two alternatives seemed artificial in view of the actual alternatives possible in everyday situations; 2) the lStrodtbeck, Talent and Society, p. 162. 44 45 processes of deciding when there was no apparent conflict were expected to provide valuable insights since too fre- quently, attention has been centered only on the obvious overt interpersonal conflicts. Because conflicts are a normal part of everyday life, it seems as important to understand why and how some individuals are better skilled at avoiding or minimizing conflicts as it does to under- stand how individuals attack conflicts directly. Hypothetical story situations were developed which would elicit non-structured decisions (see Appendix A). Although it was neither probable nor desirable that all the stories used would be appropriate for all the families, it was considered necessary that most of the families identify with at least several stories. To insure such identifica- tion, the maximum practical number of stories was used--a total of nine stories for each family. The broad conflict issues present in the stories were based primarily on literature dealing With clothing. conflict areas between teen-age girls and their parents. However, for the specific conflict issues used in develop- ing the stories, many sources were drawn upon-—for story details as well as for background flavor. These sources included personal experiences of friends and relatives, personal comments of a class of visiting high school fresh- men (fall, 1966) and a list of clothing problems contributed by the fall, 1966, home economics classes of Pinkney High 46 School (near Ann Arbor, Michigan). In addition, Seventeen magazine was referred_to for new teen-age fashions. As examples of a broad and a specific issue, three broad issues were incorporated into the story concerning the cut-off sweat shirt: acceptance of fads, peer conformity, and approPriateness of dress for the occasion. The spe- cific issue was wearing the cut-off sweat shirt on a Friday night to a neighborhood movie in the company of a girl friend. As the above example illustrates, there was no attempt to limit the issues present in the stories to a single identifiable issue. On the contrary, several issues were frequently incorporated because a plurality of issues was thought to be more realistic and thus more likely to produce a conflict response. Frequently, respondents un- covered issues in the story of which the researcher was unaware. One hidden issue, in particular, had an effect upon the researcher's behavior. In the boot story, some of the mothers objected to the girl not wearing boots, on the basis that wearing wet shoes in a friend's house showed inconsideration. Since so many of the mothers mentioned the idea and since the researcher frequently had to travel in slushy and snowy weather, she felt obliged to wear boots despite her personal objections to wearing them. Stories and questionnaires were pretested with four high school girls from the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes. Upon revision and clarification of some stories, 47 incorporation of new stories, and deletion of others, the stories were retested with an eighth grade girl and a freshman girl. Minor revisions were then made. The girls in the pretest sample were not included in the final group of subjects. Selection of Subjects Twenty-five ninth grade girls and their mothers from middle class families were selected for the subjects. Research literature indicated that this age girl is more likely than the older high school girl to have differences of clothing opinion with her mother. Although the younger student in seventh and eighth grades probably has as many or more differences about clothing with her mother, it was thought younger students would lack sufficient verbal skill to participate successfully in this type test. The research design stipulated middle class because in an exploratory study the "ordinary family" would provide the most widely applicable information about decision-making. The families were obtained by two methods: either through a listing of ninth grade 4-H members from the Ingham County Home Economics Extension Office or through personal referral by non-4-H participants. The listing of ninth grade 4-H members was screened for possible middle class status by checking the greater Lansing city directory. If the father's occupation seemed to be a possible middle 48 class occupation, the mother was contacted by telephone and asked if she and her daughter would participate. (The 4-H Home Extension agent had already sent an introductory letter concerning the study to all Ingham County 4-H members in the ninth grade.) However, this method of screening social class proved ineffective because most of the fathers of the 4-H girls were not listed in the directory. In all, only 9 of the total 25 study families were obtained this way. The other 14 study families, which were obtained through personal referral, were also screened for possible middle class status through the city directory, but with greater success. Families deliberately were sought from different areas of Lansing and the surrounding areas to insure var— iety among the subjects. Eight different schools were represented by the subjects. The largest number of subjects from one school was seven; the fewest was one. Most of the mothers contacted graciously consented to cooperate in the study. The researcher attributed their COOperation to the introductory letter from the 4-H youth agent and to the use of the referring person's name when making the introductory telephone call. Since the researcher made the telephone contact with the mother, there was some possibility that the girls would not feel as involved or necessary to the study. Indeed, the girls used in the pretest seemed to react in that manner. However, the cooperation of the test girls 49 seemed to have been encouraged inadvertently through the method used to obtain the subjects. The 4-H girls knew they were selected because Eh§y_were in 4-H and not because they happened to be daughters of their mothers. The non— 4-H girls knew they were selected because friends, who had already participated, suggested their names. Furthermore, the friends heightened the girls' curiosity because, as requested by the researcher, the participants did not dis- cuss their stories nor their answers with prospective par- ticipants.‘ Thus, a slight air of mystery seemed to have been created about the researcher and the study. Index of social class To determine social class, Hollingshead's Two Factor Index of Social Position was chosen, which uses a combined seven point scale of occupation and a seven point scale of education.1 Hollingshead designates five separate classes: I, II, III, IV, and V, with Class I being the uppermost class. In this study classes II and III were considered to be upper and lower middle class, respectively. Although Hollingshead never applied specific word labels to the five classes, in his study Elmtown's Youth he offered some basis for applying the middle class label to classes II and III. Because 134 of his subjects overlapped with lAugust B. Hollingshead, Two Factor Index of Social Position (New Haven: by the author, 1957). 50 subjects in a later study in 1943, Hollingshead was able to compare social class ratings by his method against ratings according to Warner's Index of Evaluated Participa- tion.1 When the 134 cases in common were compared, the social class agreement ranged from 72 per cent to 100 per cent for the various classes. Specifically, there was 89 per cent agreement between cases rated Upper Middle (by Warner's method) and Class II (by Hollingshead's method); there was 83 per cent agreement between cases rated Lower Middle and Class III.2 The Decision-Making Interviews The interviews were conducted in the respondents' homes from March 6, to April 19, 1967. Initially, on- campus interviews were considered so that there would be no distractions from other members of the family, partic- ularly small children. However, the pre-test interviews in which there were small children presented no special difficulties, so the interviews were conducted in the sub— jects' homes for their convenience. In_order to prevent possible interruptions by small children, the researcher took colored felt markers and paper to keep any younger children occupied. lAugust B. Hollingshead, Elmtown's Youth (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949), p. 43. 2 Ibid., p. 41. 51' The interview was started with a brief explanation of the purpose of the study, emphasizing that the interest was in learning how ordinary families made their day to day decisions. Then the families were asked to suggest a place where they would be most comfortable talking. Sometimes it was the dining room or kitchen table, sometimes the living room, and sometimes the bedroom--particularly if the inter- view was scheduled when the father was home. The researcher briefly explained the procedure to the mother and daughter, emphasizing that she was interested in what Ehgy would decide in a similar situation. Each family was asked to assume that the fictional family lived in a situation similar to theirs. Both the mother and daughter were given a set of numbered 5 by 8 file cards containing the instructions and the nine stories and were asked to read silently the first card containing the in- structions. The procedure specified that one of the two read the story aloud, then that they discuss the story, come to a decision and one of them write down the decision that they agreed upon before proceeding to the next story (see Appendix A). Each family read the stories in the same numbered order. Writing the decision was intended to in- sure closure to the discussion and to give a physical, concrete goal to work toward in the discussion. Paper and pencil were placed on the table between the mother and daughter. Kenkel used the technique of a written answer 52 in his study of husbands and wives, who were asked to decide what purchases they would make with a $300 windfall gift.1 The researcher remained during the first story to answer any questions and to assure the respondents they were proceeding as desired. After playing back a portion of the tape to make sure the voice level was adequate, she then retired to another room, where she was completely out of sight. The families continued through the remaining eight stories without interruption by the researcher. Only if it was necessary to change a tape or stop the recorder for a telephone call did she enter the room. Originally the researcher had planned to be a silent observer throughout the mother-daughter discussions. .How- ever, during the pre-test she found such a role was unde- sirable for several reasons. Of critical importance to the study results was the interview, where the researcher's presence became an excuse for the mother to avoid talking directly with her daughter. In other families, the mother tended to discuss the story directly with the daughter but then during the taping session also explained to the re- searcher-why she and her daughter decided as they did. 1William F. Kenkel, "Observational Studies of Hus- band Wife Interaction in Family Decision-making," Source Book in Marriage and the Family, ed. Marvin B. Sussman (2fid ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963), p. 144. 53 Lastly, the room size and furniture arrangement varied considerably from test home to test home, so that in some it was possible to choose an unobtrusive listening position at a comfortable distance from the mother and daughter. But in others, the listening position was limited to a seat at the same table, where the researcher's presence would very likely have been an inhibiting influence. After the taped dialogue was completed, both the mother and daughter were requested to fill out two question- naires, one on the stories and another on family background or clothing practices (see Appendices B and C). They were requested not to consult each other on the questions con- cerning the stories. The subjects appeared to do consid- erable evaluating, thinking, and reflecting when answering those questions. Following the completion of the question- naires, the mother and daughter were encouraged to comment on the stories or clothing concerns of teenagers. The total interview lasted approximately one hour, varying from 45 minutes to one and a half hours. Many of the mothers among the pre-test and test subjects commented spontaneously that the situations were very realistic. As a result of such comments by the pre-test families, a question concern- ing the perceived realism of each story situation was in— corporated into the questionnaire. 54 In addition to the 6 pre-test families, 35 families were interviewed. Five of the interviews were unusable due to mechanical difficulties with the recorders. Five other interviews were unused because of social class status (one Class I and four Class IV). However, seven other families were used as test subjects although they did not classify within Class II or III (six were Class I; one was Class IV). These seven were included because observations of their home, furnishings and conversational style indicated to the researcher that these families were closer to middle class than their rated class. The Scoring Each of the 225 taped dialogues was checked for 2 kinds of data. First, the dialogues were scored according to Bales' categories of interaction. Then, using criteria based on the presence, absence, or combination of certain categories of acts, the dialogues were classified into types of decision. Bales' Interaction Process Anaiysis Since each of the 25 mother-daughter pairs resolved nine hypothetical conflict situations the total sample was 225 decision-making dialogues. All of the 225 taped mother-daughter dialogues were transcribed word for word, including pauses and false starts. 55 After studying Bales' categories herself, the researcher summarized the descriptions of each category and used the shortened version as a reference for herself and the college graduate employed to learn the Bales' scoring system1 and to assist in scoring. Two of Bales' 12 categories were subdivided as Borgatta had done because the discriminations were then more relevant to the decision process (see Appen- dix D). Essentially, Borgatta separated the minimum re- sponse from an active response.2 Thus Bales' Category 3, "Agrees," was subdivided into "Acknowledges, understands, recognizes“ and "Shows agreement, concurrence, compliance." Bales' Category 4, "Gives suggestions," was subdivided into "Gives a procedural suggestion" and "Suggests solution." The slightly revised Bales categories were then explained to the assistant. After studying the categories a scored protocol from Bales' Interaction Process Analysis was re- produced without the scores and used as practice.3 Also used for later practice was a portion of a scored protocol from Borgatta.4 After the researcher and her assistant rated the protocols separately, they discussed the correct lBales, op. cit., pp. 177-195. 2Edgar F. Borgatta and Betty Crowther, A Workbook fpr the Study of Social Interaction Processes (Chicago: Rafid’McNaIly and Co., 1965), p. 25. 3Bales, op. cit., p. 93. 4Borgatta, Op. cit., p. 31. 56 ratings and reasons until the categories seemed clear. Finally, several of the pre-test interviews were rated and discussed. Points of rating disagreement not covered spe- cifically by Bales were discussed and the rating agreed upon was noted in the summarized category description for future reference. In the early practice sessions, the rating was done from written protocols to facilitate learning. However, in the later practice sessions the tapes were listened to while also using the written pre—test protocol as a guide. Scoring was done directly on the test protocols because later, when each story protocol was classified into type of decision, it was necessary to have the Bales ratings noted near the corresponding words or phrases. After the researcher and assistant felt sufficiently skilled at rat- ing, they each rated five pre-test stories previously un- discussed. The reliability of the scores were checked as suggested by Bales.1 The method used was a Chi Square goodness of fit test in which .50 or greater probability was accepted. The total dialogue for the 5 stories checked at .86 probability, which was well above the .50 minimum acceptable level. 1Bales, Op. cit., p. 11. 57 Therefore, rating of the 25 test interviews was begun. The interviewer and the assistant scored the tapes individually. However, rating of the 25 test dialogues did not agree as closely as the pre-test dialogue checks. Every family seemed to have a distinct and unique communi- cation style. Therefore, the first several interviews were replayed and ratings discussed and agreed upon. Later, to save time, only the written protocols were discussed and some of the major differences settled. For about the last 10 stories, the researcher adjusted differences in rating alone, but took into consideration the assistant's ratings. This adjustment in the scoring procedure was justified on the basis that high reliability of Bales ratings, though desirable, was not critical to the next step--the rating of individual stories for type of decision. Furthermore, some of the frequently occurring rating discrepancies were covered in the decision criteria.- For example, the re- searcher and her assistant might disagree as to whether an action was Category 8: "Asking for opinion" or Category 9: "Asking for solution," but in the criteria dealing with those categories the distinction was irrelevant because that part of the criteria was worded either Category 8 or 9 (see Appendix E). 58 Classification into decision typeS" The decisions to the individual stories were then classified by type of decisions according to criteria devel- oped by the researcher and based on concepts from Follett,l Gross,2 and Lindblom.3 The Operational criteria for deci- sion types were developed in this manner. Initially, criteria were developed for only four decision types: integration, compromise, voluntary submission, and dom- inance. The selection of pertinent Bales' categories for each decision type was guided previously by Follett's theoretical concepts about the four types of decision res- olutions, but also by Gross's elaborations of Follett's concepts. Other factors involved in the criteria (some only in the final criteria) included (1) the content of the written solution compared to the story alternatives, (2) the initiator4 of the final solution and solution modifica- tions, (3) the occurrence of any alternate solutions, (4) the initiator of any alternate solutions, as well as (5) the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain conversational actions by the initiator and non-initiator of the final lFollett, op. cit. 2 . Gross, Op. Cit. 3Lindblom, op. cit. 4The initiator of the solution was the person who first voiced the suggestion--according to Bales' categoriza- tion, although in a few cases it seemed apparent that the mother thought of the idea first and was consciously or unconsciously leading the daughter to voice the idea. 59 solution; for example, agreement, disagreement, opinions, questions, and suggestions. The particular combination of factors for each decision type was created in part by_intui- tion because the theoretical concepts provided only limited guidelines. To test the criteria's suitability, the dialogues from the 5 pre-test families were classified into decision types using the developed criteria. Consequently, the narrow range of the decision types became apparent. To compensate, 3 decision types were added to the original 4 decision types: the 2 non—conflict decisions, no apparent value difference and prior resolvement, and the autonomous submission decision. The first 2 were added to cover those decisions where the hypothetical stories elicited no appar- ent conflict because, either the issue had already been satisfactorily resolved, or because the mother daughter did not apparently differ in any respect on that story issue; and the third was needed to cover the situation where one person submitted by her own choice without any apparent pressure being exerted by the other person. Some revisions and deletions were also made in the criteria for the initial four decision types. Using the revised criteria and increased range of seven decision types, the dialogues from the first five test families were classified into decision types. However, the researcher was still dissatisfied with the range of 60 decision types because many of the test dialogues did not fit appropriately into the developed decision types. Therefore, using concepts from Lindblom,l criteria were develOped for another decision type, mutual adjustment. Although Lindblom's concept of mutual adjustment encom— passes varied types of decisions, the term was borrowed and used in this study to apply narrowly to only one type of decision. Dialogues from the first five test families were then reclassified into decision types, including the mutual adjustment decision type. The remaining test dia- logues were each classified into one of the eight decision types without any further revision of criteria. Analysis of data In order to achieve the objectives, the data were analyzed as follows: The decision content was analyzed first. The story decisions, written jointly by the mother and daughters, were grouped into similar decisions for each of the nine stories. Then, since the groups were too varied the decisions were further categorized under one of the five headings: Fictional Daughter Gets Her Way, Deci- sion Left up to Fictional Daughter, Fictional Daughter Gets Her Way "if," Alternative Differs from Story, and Fictional Mother Gets Her Way. 1Lindblom, op. cit. 61 After the decision dialogues were classified accord- ing to decision type, the various decision types were analyzed for distribution among the mother-daughter pairs, for the decision pattern (number of different decision types), for the relationship to story content, most diffi— cult to decide stories, and very realistic stories. The decision types of each family were also grouped according to whether each family had a prOportionately high, medium, or low number of decisions with a dominator, and who acted as dominator in each family's decision types. The conversational actions which were determined according to Bales' categories, were then analyzed for their relative overall distribution between the mothers and daughters and also for the relative distribution of the expressive versus the instrumental actions. Limitations Limitations of the study are as follows: 1. Resolution of conflict included verbal methods only. In actual situations the daughter, especially, would have had recourse to silent but effective actions of resistance. 2. In front of an outsider, the families were inclined to cover up their real feelings in a discussion, if such feelings were antagonistic and not socially approved. 3. 62 Practical time limitations of the interview tended to force a decision strictly for the interview situation. In actual situations the daughter would have several days to "work" on her mother or vice versa. 4. Decisions made by mothers and daughters were not neces- sarily "for real" because the situation was hypothetical and even if a similar situation occurred the mother and daughter were not committed to the decision. Because the problems were presented in a series of nine, a mother or daughter might have yielded on a particular decision, not because of the particular issue, but be— cause it was the next one in line and the person-felt it was her "turn" to yield after winning the previous decision. Since more than half of the subjects were obtained by referral from another test family, families who were likely to have bitter and severe conflicts between mother and daughter were automatically screened out. The test family would nOt suggest persons if they were known to "fight." CHAPTER V RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The objectives of the study, to discover the topi— <:a1 content of the decision resolutions and the processes (of decision resolution guided the data analysis. Although 'the number of subjects, 25 mother-daughter pairs, may seem :relatively few, the study sample is much larger because it is the total 225 decision-making dialogues. Therefore, some generalizations are drawn from the results. Moreover, the results can serve as a basis for future research and, 'where generalizations cannot be made, the results do sug- gest data trends. The findings will be reported as follows; description of respondents, evaluation of stories and test situation, decision content, and decision process. Description of Respondents The pertinent family characteristics follow: The lmodal number of children in the families was four. Most Toften, the fathers' occupations fell into the second highest category on the occupational rating scale, which consisted jprimarily of business managers. Only six of the fathers' «occupations were in the major professional category. Over 63 64 1:wo-thirds of the mothers and the fathers had at least Ipartial college training. The mothers were more likely to rate their daughters luigh in judging personal becomingness of garments than in :judging garment quality, although both categories generally tvere rated favorably. Girls in the study ranged from very :independent to very dependent in the degree to which they :relied on adult help in selecting various clothing items. Some practices and attitudes of the daughters re- lated to clothing were determined. Over half of the girls estimated their earnings to be over 10 dollars per month; they spent 50 per cent or more of their earned money on clothes and preferred someone other than their mother as a shopping companion. One exclusive reason given by girls for preferring their mother as a shopping companion was so that they "would not have to put off buying things." 'Twenty-two of the girls sewed for themselves and made from one to 35 garments for themselves within a l2—month period. (Over one-half of the girls felt they had the same number of garments as their friends and over 80 per cent felt they received a fair share of the family income. Evaluation of Stories and Test Situation The 10 major overt conflict issues and the stories (containing the issues are as follows: (See also Table l for .a listing of the 9 stories along with the issues involved according to each story). 65 ISSUES Number of one type of garment Daughter's judgment of styles becoming to her Amount of independence to be allowed the daughter in selecting her clothes Degree to which the daughter conforms to the peer group styles Propriety of wearing tightly fitted clothes The relative importance of quality (durability) of the garment compared to its initial attractiveness Adoption of fad styles Suitability or appropriateness of style for certain social occasions Economy involved in adhering to certain styles Healthfulness of following certain styles Stories New bathing suit Formal for the spring dance Fad dress Fad dress Purchase of pantsuit Boots in winter Fad dress Tight slacks School hose Cut-off sweat shirt Tight slacks Winter coat Purchase of pantsuit Winter coat Cut-off sweat shirt Winter coat Formal for spring dance Cut-off sweat shirt School hose Boots in winter Since the validity of the findings depends upon the subjects' perception of the realism of the story situations as well as the subjects' involvement in the test, an evalua- tion of the stories, the subjects, and the test situation is included prior to the discussions of decision content and 66 decision process. The effectiveness of the stories was judged by the spontaneous comments of the subjects as well as their ratings of the stories as "realistic" and "most difficult to decide." The ratings of the subjects themselves attest to the realistic evaluation of the stories. Table 1 shows that each individual story was judged "very realistic" by at least one-third of the mothers and/or daughters; and con- sidering the stories in total, over one-half of them were rated realistic. The percentage judged realistic by both the mother and daughter is, of course, less--over one-fifth of the total stories. The spontaneous comments of the subjects themselves also showed that the story situations were realistic to them. The following comments made during the mother-daughter dialogues referred to the story situations that the subjects had just read. "Oh, this is a typical thing." "A lot of these things are just like our troubles." "Well, we've gone through quite a few of these." Some of their comments referred directly to the identifica- tion they made with the story. The following unsolicited comment was directed to the researcher: "You've got the goods, I wasn't faking at all." In another family, the girl reacted when her mother brought the discussion very close to their own situation. When the 67 Table l.--Stories judged "very realistic" by mothers and daughters in their family situation. Mother/ Daughter Stories and Mother Daughter Pairsa Conflict Areas No. No. No. New Bathing Suit 8 9 5 Number of suits Fad Dress 9 6 2 Becomingness, Independence, Peer conformity Tight Slacks ll 10 6 Propriety, Peer conformity Winter Coat 12 10 6 Quality, fad, Suitability of style School Hose l6 14 10 Peer conformity, Economy Boots in Winter 16 18 12 HeaIth Independence Formal for Spring Dance 6 4 l Appropriateness of dress, Number of formals Daughter's Purchase of 9 6 3 Pantsuit QuaIity of fabric, Independence Wearing of Cut-off 7 7 4 Sweat Shirt Fad, Peer conformity, Appropriateness Totals 94 84 49 Percentage of Total Stories (N = 225) 42 37 22 aEach mother-daughter pair refers to one mother and her daughter. 68 daughter asked, "Are you supposed to be her mother?," the mother answered, "Well, I'm too close to this to be [her mother]." Other comments made to the researcher following the taped dialogues also showed the close relationship of the story situation to the subjects' own real life situations. For example, one mother said that the answers might have appeared cut and dried in their dialogue, but they weren't at the time when they were going through them in the pre- vious year and a half. Many other comments were made to the effect that the situations were typical and hit home. Out of the nine stories (Appendix A), the author considered only the fad dress to be a "poor" story because the story condition "although her mother has never seen her in that type of dress" was a tipoff to a pat solution (that is, for her mother to go see her in the dress). How- ever, even with this story seven of the families identified sufficiently to have discussed the issue beyond the pat solution. The very small number of subjects who judged the fad dress story to be the most difficult is another indica- tion that the story, as written, did not present a conflict situation to most of the families (Table 2). However, since the fad dress story received the same number of realistic ratings as the majority of stories, it is probable that issues involved in the fad dress story are topics of con- flict although the particular story situation in which they were contained did not apparently elicit many conflicts. 69 Table 2.——Stories judged "the most difficult to decide" by mothers and daughters. Mother/ Daughter a Mother Daughter Pairs Stories No. No. No. Fad Dress 0 2 0 Tight Slacks 6 5 1 Winter Coat 4 2 2 School Hose 1 l 0 Boots in Winter 1 l 0 Formal for Spring Dance 6 6 3 Daughter's Purchase of 3 7 2 Knit Pantsuit Wearing of Cut-off 5 2 0 Sweat Shirt Totals 26b 26b 8 aExtra bathing suit story not included in checklist of possible choices. bSum totals 26 because one respondent gave two answers. Several minor points in some of the other stories are worth noting when interpreting the results and when considering future stories. The cut—off sweat shirt was a fad which some of the upper middle class girls attributed to the "out" crowd in their school. Thus these girls seemed to be more influenced by their own real-life school 70 crowd than by the hypothetical crowd of the story. Al- though most of the girls did not have access to a neighbor- hood movie, (part of the story situation in the cut—off sweat shirt incident) the situation was apparently close enough to other experiences that they could identify with the story. One mother substituted another teen-age gathering place because her daughter did not care to attend movies. In the coat story, some of the mothers misunder- stood or misinterpreted the "simulated" suede coat to be a genuine leather suede coat, which changed the story situation significantly. The term had been changed from "imitation suede" in a pre-test story because that term had a cheap connotation, but in retrospect it would have been less confusing to the subjects. One way of assessing the effectiveness of the stories is to look at the stories as past, present or future problems. Briefly, the school hose story could be classified as past, the bathing suit story and boots story as past or present, the formal story as future, and all other stories as present. The discussion of the school hose story, which was a past problem, tended to be very short for some families because they had already been through the issues. In one family the following three lines comprised the total dis- cussion. (The mother had just finished reading the story aloud, which ended with, "What would you do?") 71 Daughter: "I don't know. Wear knee socks." Mother: "That's what you do, isn't it?" Daughter: "Yeah." For other families, the school hose problem might have been familiar but the exact hypothetical situation was apparently new, so that more discussion was required. Yet the discussion seemed to involve just a shifting around of familiar points instead of new thinking. Data reported by the subjects in Table 1 show that the school hose story and the boots story were the two stories judged realistic by the largest number of subjects. At the same time these two stories were two of the three stories which received the fewest "most difficult to decide" ratings (Table 2). It could be that the story situations were not difficult to decide because the families had already been through them and decided them in their own lives. Thus, past problem stories would appear to provide the final solu- tion but not the process of resolving or how they arrived at the solution. Since only two of the girls had been to a formal dance, that story was a future problem for most of the sub- jects. After analyzing the dialogues the researcher doubted some of the girls' ability to empathize with the fictional girl's desire for a new formal, when they themselves had never known the experience of having a special formal dress. Yet more mothers and daughters judged that story the "most 72 difficult" (Table 2), which indicated that this problem story, by presenting an unfamiliar problem, had elicited the process of resolving. At the same time, it would be interesting to speculate whether these girls who willingly offered to wear the winter formal would actually do so. Of the five stories which might be classed as present problems, three were among the four stories which received the greatest number of "most difficult to decide" ratings (Table 2). Of the two present problem stories which were not among the four, the fad dress story had been discussed previously. The other story concerning the winter coat was not as much of an issue with the mothers as it had been designed to be, because many of the mothers agreed with the fictional daughter that there was no valid argu- ment for the girl buying a dressy coat in preference to a casual coat. Test situation Generally, the test situation in the home seemed satisfactory. The few interruptions were outweighed by the relatively relaxed manner of the subjects in their own homes. Sometimes other events on the interview date af— fected the subjects' efforts. One mother, who obviously raced through the last six stories with minimum discussion, told me later that she hurried through the stories so as not to miss the televised basketball tournament that night. 73 In another interview, the girl whizzed through the ques- tionnaires in record time because she learned that the anxiously anticipated foaling time of a mare was very near. The subjects varied in their ease of involvement in the stories. Some became very involved in the early stories and then cut down on discussion of the later stories. Some discussed each story about the same length of time. Some did not become very involved until they en- countered certain stories, often the last story concerning the cut-off sweat shirt. One family became painfully in- volved in the early stories and then--as if by mutual un- spoken agreement--apparently shied away from conflict points in the later stories. The dialogues of the two families who interpreted the instructions by role playing the story situation were somewhat difficult to analyze because the mother and the daughter played their fictional roles whether or not they agreed with them. Although the dialogue for the one family probably more closely approached the actual dialogue of a problem situation, the researcher could not determine when the subjects were speaking for themselves and when they were speaking for the fictional roles; or whether their emotions were their own or that of the fictional characters. On the other hand, the dialogue of the subjects who just discussed the stories and honestly interjected their own opinions was much easier to analyze. 74 Summary Over one-half of the stories were judged "very realistic" by the mother and/or by the daughter, with each story being judged "very realistic" by at least one-third of the mothers and/or daughters. The home situation was satisfactory for conducting the interviewing. Dialogues between these mothers and daughters who just discussed the stories provided more meaningful data than those dia- logues in which the mother and daughter role played. Decision Content The first objective of this study was: To discover the topical content of the decisions by which mothers and daughters resolve differences con- cerning teenage clothing in a projected hypothetical situation. The written decisions of the mothers and daughters were categorized into the five general classifications of: Fictional Daughter Gets Her Way, Decision Left Up to Fictional Daughter, Fictional Daughter Gets Her Way "If," Alternative Differs from Story, and Fictional Mother Gets Her Way (Table 3). Decision Solution According to Fictional Mother's or Fictional Daughter's Favor If the two categories "Fictional Daughter Gets Her Way" and "Decision Left Up to Fictional Daughter" are 75 combined, 25 per cent of the decisions favor the fictional daughter and 34 per cent favor the fictional mother. Forty- one per cent of the decisions fall in neither category. Table 3 shows the decisionSckanot consistently favor either the mother or the daughter, but vary with the story. For example, only a few decisions agreed with the fictional mother in the hose story, that the daughter should quit wearing nylons to school, but more than half of the decisions agreed with the fictional mother that the daugh- ter should not wear the cut-off sweat shirt to the movies. Other stories in which the decision was more likely to favor the fictional daughter were those concerning the fad dress, the tight slacks, and the pantsuit. In all other stories the decision was more likely to favor the mother. Although the alternatives in the story were delib- erately constructed to appeal only to the girl or to the mother, in the hope that other mutually agreeable alterna- tives would be elicited, over 80 per cent of the decisions essentially followed the alternatives indicated in the story situations. However, in 24 per cent of the decisions a qualifying "if" condition was added. Less than 20 per cent of the total decisions, then contained "original" alternatives in the objective sense. (In another sense each decision resolution was original because the mother and daughter made the decisions through their unique interacting.) 76 OOH vm 5H ON NH MH u zvmmmmucmonmm mNN 55 mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mHmDOB OH mH OH MH O OH NOS Hmm mumw nmcuoz HOOOHume OH O N OH 5 .m .02 Ana: mHO>MhV =MH= NOB Housmsmn muoum Eonm mom mumw HOGOHDOHm mhpmmeo “monsoon on on some GOHmHOOO HmcmmuOHm o>fiuoonouaa Hooofinomm NH m O OH O O .NOB Hmm mumw Hounmsmo mHMDOB mmocmumHnmonmmm .muHEH0chO ”mom .mmm pumnm ummsm Hmonusu mo denmmz oocmpcmmmch .OHHQMM mo wuHHmso “Homucmm mo mmmconsm m.umucmsmo mHmEH0m mo HOQEOZ .mmmup mo mmOOODMHHOOHmmm momma mmHHmw Mom Hmfiuom mocmpcommch .QDHOQW HODOHB :H muoom mEocoom .hDHEH0chO “mom wmom Hoocom mHmpm mo spflaflooufiom .omm .mpflaooo pmoo HODGHB huHEHOMOOO ummm mpmHHmoum mxooam pomfla mpHEH0mcoo ummm .OOGOOGOQOUQH .mmmcmcHEoomm mmmno pom mDHO mo Honesz “Hum cHsumm 3oz nomad DOHHmcoo paw mmHHODm uo>6m m.nmucmsmp HmcoHuOHm no w.nm£uoE HOOOHDOHM OD Ochuooom COHDOHOm conHomp mo GOHDOQHHumHOII.m OHQMB 77 Alternatives involved in the decision resolutions The topical content of the decisions resolutions was examined in more detail by looking at the content for each story. When analyzing the content of the decisions it must be remembered that the mother-daughter pairs varied in their preceptions of the relevant story issue in each hypothetical story situation. For example, in the tight slacks story the issue was seen by some as whether or not the slacks would split while tobaggoning and by others as inhether the slacks were in "good taste." Thus, quite logi- cally, the solutions to the stories could vary, depending on the perceived relevant issue. The alternatives contained within the wording of each story are listed below according to those voiced by the fictional daughter and the fictional mother. In general, the discussion will focus on decisions which in- corporated alternatives other than those contained within each story. New bathing suit: Daughter--Buys new bathing suit although she already has two wearable suits. Mother--Daughter does not buy new bathing suit. Fad dress: Daughter--Buys fad dress. Mother--Daughter cannot buy fad dress which mother thinks is unflattering. Tight slacks: Daughter--Wears slacks tobaggoning which she con- siders no tighter than those of her friends. Mother-~Daughter does not wear slacks which mother considers too tight. 78 School hose: Daughter-—Continues to wear hose to school which her mother buys for her. Mother--Daughter stops wearing hose to school. Boots in winter: Daughter--Walks to her girl friend's house wearing loafers but no socks nor hose, although there is some snow on the ground. Mother--Daughter wears boots to walk to girl friend's house. Formal for spring dance: Daughter-—Gets a new "springy" formal. Mother--Daughter wears her previously unworn winter formal which mother feels is also appro- priate for spring or else wears the "old" spring formal. Daughter's purchase of pantsuit: Daughter--Reeps cotton knit pantsuit purchased with her own money. Mother--(implied) Daughter does not keep pantsuit because mother doubts that the knit will hold its shape. Wearing of cut—off sweat shirt: Daughter--Wears cut-off sweat shirt over long sleeved blouse to a movie. Mother--Daughter does not wear cut-off sweat shirt over long sleeved blouse to a movie. Generally, the decisions formed by the mothers and daughters indicated the only way the daughter could get the swimming suit was to pay for all or part of it. For these mothers, the question of the daughter's need of a new suit did not seem pertinent as long as the girl was paying for it. One mother asked her daughter, "Do you suppose she really needs it?" The daughter's answer was, "Yes, if she wants it." On the other hand, another mother whose daughter had agreed that two suits was enough said, "I think two suits are certainly ample. We have a swimming pool and two suits are ample." 79 In the fad dress story 18 of the mother-daughter pairs decided that the fictional daughter was to be allowed to buy the dress only if the style looked nice to the mother after she saw it on the girl. In three of the de- cisions, the pairs also stipulated that the dress should not be too expensive. Two of the solutions said that the daughter could make the dress if the style looked nice on her. The most interesting decision concerning the tight slacks was to leave the final decision to the judgment of the senior daughter. In other words, her judgment on the tightness of the slacks would be the final word. Two pairs decided that the fictional daughter could wear the tight slacks "this once." Another pair decided that the girl could wear the looser slacks tobaggoning, but then change to the tighter slacks for the party. Three of the mother- daughter pairs looked at the problem in its long range view because they considered ways of avoiding a similar situation in the future. Two suggested the girl might need a new pair of slacks. One suggested that though the daughter could wear the tight slacks this once, they should have a discussion on "good taste" later and settle such things before they became emergencies. In the coat story only three of the pairs decided to continue looking for a coat that suited them both. The researcher expected more of the pairs would have given this 8O answer, since the mother and daughter whose experience this was based on, had solved it this way. Eight of the mother—daughter pairs decided that the girl should buy her own school hose out of her allowance or babysitting money. Another eight pairs agreed that the girl should wear nylon hose only occasionally to school or that the mother should purchase a limited number. Five of the pairs decided that the girl should not continue wearing hose to school. The leg-wear style suggested for school varied, depending on the school attended by the daughter. For some, hose was passe in favor of the colored, textured hose. In other cases, knee socks were popular. Apparently middle class mothers are very willing to save by buying the inex- pensive hose. One daughter in an upper middle class home was speaking disdainfully of sixty-nine cents hose, only to learn that the mesh hose her mother bought her did fall in that category! In contrast were the comments from the mother of a very large family who said that when she was growing up wearing hose was the thing to do to be young ladies, so she wanted her daughters to wear hose and be young ladies; and as far as being too expensive, they would just have to cut down on something else. On the other hand, the upper middle class mother of three insisted to her daughter that she would have to be firm. "I just couldn't afford to buy you hose if you did run them this much." 81 The solution to the boots story most Often was that the girl wear socks or nylons with her shoes if she did not wear the boots. The most surprising solution was that given by the mother who was very firm on all other decisions; she said part of the time her daughter wore boots but part of the time she did not, therefore she sug- gested the same practice for the story solution. In resolving the spring formal story, only two mother-daughter pairs decided that the girl could buy a new formal but four permitted the girl to make a new for- mal. In four decisions they changed one of the two avail- able formals. In one family they themselves had a rule concerning formals--each girl was allowed one new formal a year. Many of the mother-daughter pairs decided that the resolution to the pantsuit story was to check on the quality in some way--most often with the store. Very few of the girls had any comeback to their mothers' objections to the quality. Daughters usually seemd to acknowledge their mothers to be better informed in that area. In deciding the sweat shirt story, some of the girls would get their way, depending on whether the friend or friends in the story were also wearing the cut-off sweat shirt. In several of the dialogues the girls immediately voiced their opinions about their distaste for such an outfit. Then, as a second thought--sometimes after they 82 and their mothers had already agreed--they said something like "of course, if all the other kids were wearing them...." In one of the dialogues the mother interpreted this story to the girl as "If all your friends were wearing the cut- off sweat shirt, then what would you do?" The girl then changed her mind about not wanting to wear the outfit. Although typically the solutions for each story fell within a narrow range of alternative solutions, the solution of each family was usually like some families and unlike that of some other families. The decisions pointed out that though the mother and daughter could get ideas for possible solutions from others, the solution had to be their own in the sense that they had arrived at the answer together from their viewpoint of the conflict. Decision Process The second objective of this study was: To discover the processes of resolving differences between mothers and their teen-age daughters. a. Frequency and distribution of the various decision types by which differences are re- solved: dominance, voluntary submission, compromise, autonomous submission, mutual adjustment and integration. Since the criteria for decision type included the presence, absence, or combination of selected categories of actions, the final rated decision type for each of the 225 stories indicated the type of process involved to achieve that decision. In short, the decision type was 83 determined by the process involved; therefore the process involved was shown by the decision type. The decision types were divided into the conflict- resolving decisions and non-conflict decisions so that allowances could be made for these decisions in which the mother and daughter did not have to resolve a difference. The two specific categories of non-conflict decisions were included in this study to provide for those decisions which did not appear to involve any differences to be resolved. Discussion of the decision types will concentrate on the following topics: frequency of decision types, patterns of decision types, dominator in dominance and voluntary submission decisions, relationship of decision type of story content, decision types in relation to "most difficult to decide" stories, and decision types in rela- tion to "very realistic" stories. Frequency of decision types The greatest number of decisions was in the mutual adjustment decision type, in which there is no overt dis- agreement voiced (Table 4). The three types of decisions where disagreement is voiced overtly--compromise, voluntary submission, and dominance-—together totaled only 30 per cent of the total decisions. This percentage is less than that of the mutual adjustment category. The smallest number of decisions was in the integration category. 84 Table 4.--Distribution of decisions according to decision types and mother-daughter pairs. Decisions Distribution by M-D pairs Decision Types No. % No. % of totala Conflict Resolving Decisions Integration 3 1.3 3 12 Mutual adjustment 78 34.7 24 96 Autonomous submission 6 2.7 5 20 Compromise 26 11.6 13 52 Voluntary submission 30 13.3 17 68 Dominance 11 4.9 8 32 Non-conflict Decisions Prior resolvement 11 4.9 9 36 No apparent value difference 60 26.6 21 84 Totals 225 100.0 aTotal number of mother-daughter pairs equals 25. The data show that the various decision types were well distributed among the 25 families. Four of the decision- types were used by at least one-half of the families: mutual adjustment, voluntary submission, compromise, and no apparent value difference. The small number of integrative decisions might in- dicate any of three conclusions: that the stories did not 85 represent two conflicting values which could be resolved by integration, that the criteria for an integration de- cision were not valid, or that in actuality very few decisions are resolved by integration. Nor does the writer suggest all decisions can be or should be resolved by in— tegration. Follett, herself, who strongly championed the striving toward integrative or creative decision-making, admitted that not all decisions could be integrative.l However, if some decisions can be resolved by integration, those decisions requiring the use of power for resolution would be lessened. Moreover, Boulding suggests that not all decisions are worth the costs of confrontation.2 In this study, confrontation appeared to be involved in both integration and dominant decisions, since two of the three families having integration decisions also had one dominant decision among the nine. If a commonality had to be found among the three families, it would be that in the re- searcher's judgment the three families communicated Openly, and vigorously explored possible solutions. Pattern of decision types Another way of viewing distribution of decisions among the families is to look at the number of different 1Follett, op. cit., p. 184. 2Boulding, Op. cit., p. 55. 86 types of decisions used by the families (Table 5). Out of a possible eight decision types, the decision range occurring most frequently was four decision types. These data would again indicate that each family resolved decisions by a variety of methods. Table 5.--Distribution of decision patterns by mother- daughter pairs. Decision Patterns (number of Mother-Daughter Pairs different decision types)a No. One 0 Two 1 Three 8 Four 10 Five 3 Six 2 Seven 1 Eight 0 Totals 25 a I O I I Total number of deCiSions per pair was nine. Dominator in dominance and voluntary submiésibn décisions Each family's relative concentration of decisions with dominators shows still another View of how 87 decisions were distributed (see Table 6). A dominator is a person who insists on her own solution until the other party acquiesces, and who does not solicit other solutions nor consider them if voiced. The criteria to determine the two decision types which had dominators were very similar. The one difference in the criteria was that the dominant decision had two or more acts of antagonism, whereas the voluntary submission decision had no more than one act of antagonism. (See Appendix E) The presence of antagonism was thought to indicate less internal feeling of agreement between the two parties. In actuality, the voluntary submission decisions rarely had any acts of antagonism. Table 4 showed that less than 20 per cent of the total decisions were voluntary submission and dominant decisions. Table 6 shows that relatively few families re- solved 50 per cent or more of their conflict decisions by these methods, and almost half of the families used these methods of resolving no more than once. Analysis of decision patterns high, medium, or low in dominant decisions is not to suggest that low is ideal and high is less ideal. It depends on the individual family and the context of each conflict. Follett prOposed that we strive to integrate wants (look for similarities in our desires) so that we could reduce the number of conflicts 88 Table 6.--Distribution of decision patterns according to high, medium,and low number of decisions with dominator.a Mother—Daughter Pairs NO. Low b Of total conflict decisions no more than 1 is a voluntary submission decision. 11 Medium Of total conflict decisions, fewer than half are dominant or voluntary sub- mission decisions. 10 High Of total conflict decisions, half or more are dominant or voluntary submission decisions. __ Total 25 a I I I I I Dominance and Voluntary SubmiSSion DeCiSions have a dominator. b I I I I I I Conflict deCiSions are integration, mutual adjust- ment, autonomous submission, compromise, voluntary submission, and dominance; non-conflict decisions are prior resolvement, and no apparent value difference. that have to be settled by power.1 In other words, it would seem that if a family could settle some issues just as well without the use of power, when an issue came up that could only be settled through power, it would be more palatable to the submitting person. On the other hand, families having no overt conflict simply because the daughter does not voice an opinion unless she is sure it agrees with her mother's opinion, are not considered ideal because such a condition does not encourage 1Follett, Loc. cit. 89 the girl's independence. Furthermore, the absence of overt conflict does not insure that conflict is not present; it may be only hidden. Decision types in relation to most difficult to decide stories Although for some categories of decision types the numbers are too few to draw any conclusions, the trend is interesting (see Table 7). The dominant and integrated decisions received the highest percentages of ratings for being most difficult to decide; the compro- mise and voluntary submission decisions received the next highest percentages of ratings. The mutual adjust- ment and autonomous submission decisions received the smallest percentages. Also significant is the fact that 12 per cent of the no apparent value differences were judged most dif- ficult to decide. If there were actually no value dif- ference initially, the decisions should have been easy to make. Such data seem to be another indication that adjusting by each party is going on internally, often when there is nothing observable to others. As another point of comparison, the percentage of no apparent value differences judged most difficult to decide is only slightly lower than the percentage of mutual adjustment judged most difficult to decide. 90 Table 7.--Stories judged "the most difficult to decide" by mothers and/or daughters' versus decision types. Judged most difficult Total Decision Types No. No. %/decision type Conflict Resolving Decisions Integration 3 2 67 Mutual adjustment 67 l3 l7 Autonomous submission 6 l 17 Compromise 26 8 31 Voluntary submission 30 8 27 Dominance ll 5 45 Non-Conflict Decisions Prior resolvement ll 0 O No apparent value difference 60 7 12 Totals 225 44 Decision types resulting from very realistic stories fiifThree decision types received ratings significantly above or below the average number of ratings. Table 8 shows that prior resolvement and dominant decisions were rated well above the average, and autonomous submission was rated well below the average. Since all but one of the 11 dominant decisions were rated "very realistic," the data suggest that the story situation had to be perceived 91 as realistic if the mother and daughter were to get emotionally involved to the point where they were willing to "battle it out." Table 8.--Stories judged "very realistic" by mothers and/or daughters in their family situation, versus decision type. Judged most difficult Total Decision Types No. No. %/decision typea Conflict Resolving Decisions Integration 3 1 33 Mutual adjustment 78 45 58 Autonomous submission 6 0 0 Compromise 26 14 54 Voluntary submission 30 18 60 Dominance 11 10 91 Non-conflict Decisions Prior resolvement ll 11 100 No apparent value difference 60 30 50 Totals 225 129 aOverall percentage of total 225 stories judged "very realistic" by mother and/or daughter equals 57 per cent. 92 On the other hand, the fact that none of the six autonomous submission decisions was judged realistic raises doubts about the girls' possible behavior in a real situation. Did the daughter acquiesce quickly just because the situation was hypothetical? The 100 per cent realistic rating of prior resolve- ment decisions is a further validation of the "prior re- solvement" category. Not to have had a 100 per cent rating would have shown a discrepancy in the criteria for that category. Summary: The greatest number of decision resolutions was in the mutual adjustment category. The three types of decisions in which disagreement is voiced overtly--compro- mise, voluntary submission and dominance--together totaled only 30 per cent of the total decisions. The decision range occurring most frequently within a family was four decision types (out of a possible eight decision types). Only 16 per cent of the families resolved 50 per cent of more of their conflict decisions by dominant or voluntary submission methods. Ten of the 11 dominant decisions were judged very realistic. 93 Power Distribution The second objective of this study and part b of this objective were: To discover the processes of reSOfving—differences between mothers and their teen-age daughters.‘ b. the relative distribution of power between mother and daughter. Power is frequently thought to be automatically on the side of the parents because they have legitimate author- ity. However, teen-agers also have power because parents want their children's respect and affection; they do not want to be considered unreasonable nor lacking in under- standing. Thus, it appeared to the researcher that when one of the girls said to her mother "I'd just die if I had to wear bobby socks to school," or another girl spoke with feeling against her girl friend's mother who does not allow her to spend her own money as she pleases, these teen-agers were exercising a kind of power which said in effect, "If you, my mother, would ever treat me in such a manner, you would have to suffer my judging you as an unfair mother." Another kind of power is that derived from knowledge and therefore is available to either the mother or daughter. For example, the mother who convinced her daughter that a cotton knit was a poor quality purchase because she had had a bad experience with a cotton knit dress was using that knowledge as power. 94 However, in this study, the particular manipulative devices or types of power used were not investigated. In- stead, the interest centered on the relative distribution of power between the mother and daughter. Indications of power were obtained from two types of data; the dominator in the two decision types which necessitated a dominator, and the initiator of the final solution. The first way in which relative power was deter- mined was to analyze the decision resolutions to see who dominated those decisions which had a dominator. Not un- expectedly, the mother was the sole dominator much more frequently than the daughter (Table 9). However, in 24 per cent of the families the mother and daughter alternated as dominator. The second way in which relative poWer was deter- mined was to examine who initiated the final solution most frequently. Analyzed this way, the daughters initiated slightly more of the decisions than the mothers. Out of 225 decisions the daughters initiated 126, or 56 per cent, and the mother initiated 99, or 44 per cent. By this method of analysis the daughter had more power than she appeared to have merely by looking at the number of times she was sole dominator. However, initiating of the accepted solutions would be an accurate indicator of power only if each person's solution were proposed independently and unknown to the 95 Table 9.--Dominator in dominance and voluntary submission decisions Mother/Daughter Pairs Dominators No. Mother is dominator in all dominant and voluntary submission decisions (Total: 1-3) 11 Daughter is dominator in all dominant and voluntary submission decisions. (Total: 1-2) 3 Dominator varies with individual dominant and voluntary submission decision. (Total: 2-4)a 6 Total 20b aTotal possible, for each pair equals 9. bTotal number of mother-daughter pairs with dominance and voluntary submission decisions equals 20; the other 5 mother-daughter pairs were totally lacking in these decisions. other person. In the discussions between the mothers and daughters this was not necessarily so. The subjects more typically appeared to act in a mutual adjust- ment manner, in either of the two general methods described by Lindblom-—adaptive or manipulated. Briefly, if the mother were acting in the mutual adjustment manner described by Lindblom, she would have been aware of her own power and of any adverse effects of her suggestions and opinions on her daughter, and would have taken these into consideration before voicing her suggestions and opinions. The daughter 96 would do likewise. Thus, the mother might encourage her daughter to speak first because she wanted to know how im— portant the situation was to her,and the daughter, knowing from experience her mother's expectations, would not sug- gest an idea too far outside those expectations. Summary: Although the daughters initiated slightly more than half of the total solutions, the mother was the sole domina- tor much more frequently than the daughter in those decisions which had a dominator. At the same time, considering the mothers' authoritative position the data do indicate that the daughters were allowed to share significantly in the decision-making process. Conversational Actions The second objective and part c of that objective were: To discover the processes of resolving differences between mothers and their teen—age daughters. c. the relative distribution of expressive versus adaptive conversational actions. Conversational actions refer to the verbal expres— sions of the mothers and the daughters as categorized according to Bales' 12 categories. Bales defines a con- versational action to be the smallest vocal communicative act (word, expression, phrase, or sentence) which conveys a thought. 97 In Table 10 the data show that the mothers were more likely to do the most talking (as shown by the number of conversational actions). Although the number of deci- sion patterns high in number of decisions with dominator is very few, the data raise the question: Would a larger sample also show that mothers in families with decision patterns high in number of decisions with dominator are more likely to talk an equal amount with their daughters than a greater amount? Table 10.--Person having greater percentage of conversa- tional actions by decision patterns high, medium, or low in number of decisions with dominator.a PrOportion of Dominator Decisions Low Medium High Total No. No. No. Mother had more than 53% of conversational actions Range: 59-72% 5 6 0 11 Mother and daughter had approximately equal % Range: 47-53% 4 2 3 9 Daughter had more than 53% of conversational actions Range: 55-60% 2 2 l 5 Totals 11 10 4 25 a I I I Dominance and voluntary submiSSion. 98 The average number of mothers'and daughters' con— versational actions is examined for the families grouped by whether their decision patterns are low, medium, or high in number of decisions with dominator. In the discussion the groups are referred to as high, medium, or low. Table 11 suggests that if the data were similar for a larger sample the daughters did the same amount of talking in all groups but that the mothers in the low or medium group did more talking than their daughters and the mothers in the high group did slightly less talking than their daughters. Table ll.--Average number of mothers' and daughters' con- versational actions by decision patterns low, medium, and high in number of decisions with dominator.a Average number of actions/total decisions Mother Daughter M-D Total Low (N = 11) 192 (177)b 147 (141)b 339 (318)b Medium (N = 10) 168 141 309 High N = 4) 124 137 261 Average/total 172 143 315 a . . . Dominance and voluntary submiSSion. bAverages when the one family with an unusally high number of acts is excluded. 99 Table 12 indicates that the one difference in the expressive—integrative functions between those low and high on dominator decisions was that the daughters in the high group had a higher percentage of both the negative and positive actions than the daughters in either the low or medium group. At the same time, the mothers had a similar percentage in all groups. The positive actions include the categories of showing solidarity, tension release, and agreement. The negative actions include the categories of showing antagonism, tension and disagreement. Concerning the adaptive-instrumental function, the data indicate that the mothers in the groups low or medium in dominator decisions had a higher percentage than their daughters in actions asking for and giving suggestions, opinions, and orientation. In comparison, the mothers in the group low in dominator decisions had percentages similar to their daughters in these actions. Summary When the amount of talking was measured by the num- ber of conversational actions, mothers were more likely to do the most talking. Yet in over a third of the families the amount of talking was distributed approximately equally between the mother and daughter. The mothers were more active in the adaptive- instrumental actions of asking questions and supplying 100 Table 12.--Percentage of mothers' and daughters' conversa- tional actions made in two functions by decision patterns low, medium, and high in number of decisions with dominatora ,Low Medium High Total (N-ll) (N=10) (N=4) (N=25) Averages of percentages for M-D decisions Expressive-Integrative Positiveb M 8.9 8.5 8.5 8.7 D 8.0 9.1 11.3 9.0 NegativeC M 4.8 4.7 4.9 4.8 D 5.0 5.9 8.1 5.8 Adaptive-Instrumental Answersd M 36.3 35.1 30.0 34.8 D 28.2 27.4 29.8 28.1 Questionse M 6.7 6.5 4.4 6.3 D 1.9 2.9 3.2 2.5 Totalsf 99.8 100.1 100.2 100.0 a I I I Dominance and voluntary submiSSion b I I I I I Actions show1ng solidarity, tenSion release, agreement. C I I I I I Actions show1ng antagonism, tenSion, diagreement. d I I I I I I I I Actions giVing suggestions, opinion, orientation. e I I I I I I I Actions asking for suggestion, opinion, orientation. fTotals do not equal 100 due to rounding. 101 answers. The mothers and daughters were equal in the expressive-integrative actions. Interrelationship of Decision Type to Story Content The individual content of decisions resolutions will be discussed in relation to each of the eight deci- sion types. Table 13 shows the distribution of the eight decision types according to the nine stories. The decision content for the three integrative decisions is as follows. In the formal dress story two families agreed upon a restyling of one of the available formals; in the coat story the family agreed to allow the fictional girl to decide which coat she preferred. The largest number of mutual adjustment decisions was made in resolving the fad dress story. For most, the adjustments were slight modifications of the suggestions that the mother should see the dress on the girl. For example,the mother might add a qualifying phrase about the cost of the dress, or whether the girl needed the dress, or that the daughter could make the dress if the mother did not like the style. Compromise decisions were evenly distributed throughout the nine stories. In the voluntary submission and dominance categories, three stories predominate; the tight slacks, the boots in winter, and wearing the cut-off 102 Table 13.--Distribution of decision types according to individual stories. 1? Decision Types 4.) 44 0) c c 5 m 0 Fa E E m .p (D > m > C. :3 H JJ 0 'm m C‘. (D G O G G) -a T3 5C) m >40 0) m 010 u to owq-H LDH L) m Lac 6 8:0 E «3m :1 H «30 H r4 0:0 0 440: m Od4 m 888889858888 Stories and Conflict Areas 44 4.: 4412 E He E. «4 'H 44 c: D :35 (3 0:: o 14 044 o H 2': n: 0‘) U >U) Q a. 213 E4 New Bathing Suit 0 7 l 4 2 1 l 9 25 Number of suits Fad Dress 0 l7 0 3 0 0 0 5 25 Becomingness, Independence, Peer conformity Tight Slacks 0 ll 0 3 5 2 0 4 25 PrOpriety, peer conformity Winter Coat 1 9 l 3 2 2 0 7 25 Quality, fad, suitability of style School Hose 0 8 0 2 2 0 8 5 25 Peer conformity, economy Boots in Winter 0 4 O 3 8 3 2 5 25 Health, independence Formal for Spring Dance 2 9 3 3 l 0 0 7 25 Appropriateness of dress, Number of formals Daughter's Purchase of Knit 0 11 0 3 2 l 0 8 25 Pantsuit Quality of fabric, Independence Wearing of Cut-off Sweat 0 2 1 2 8 2 0 10 25 Shirt Fad, peer conformity, ApprOpriateness Totals 3 78 6 26 30 11 11 60 225 103 sweat shirt. Two stories appear significant by their lack of representation in the categories; the fad dress story did not result in any decisions in the two categories and the formal story resulted in only one decision in the volun- tary submission category. The data support the possibility that the fad dress story, as written, did not represent a conflict situation to most of the mothers and daughters and that the daughters did not strongly identify with the formal dress story because it was a future problem. The majority of prior resolvement decisions were in the school hose story. The distribution of decision types according to the nine individual stories indicates both the story con- tents and the conflict areas of greater and lesser signif- icance to the mothers and daughters. Two types of data in Table 7 show this relative significance. The first was the distribution of the "no apparent value difference" decisions according to each of the nine stories. The greater the number of "no apparent value difference" decisions for each of the nine stories, the less significant were the story contents and the corresponding conflict areas assumed to be. Since the total range of "no apparent value difference" decisions per story was from four to ten, the range of four to five was arbitrarily selected to indicate greater signif- icance and the range of seven to ten to indicate lesser significance of the story contents and the conflict areas. 104 Thus, four of the nine stories had a low number of "no apparent value difference" decisions which indicated story contents and conflict areas of relatively greater significance to the mothers and daughters. The four stories and their corresponding conflict areas were: Fad dress Becomingness, independence, peer conformity Tight slacks Propriety, peer conformity School hose Peer conformity, economy Boots in winter Health, independence Yet, two of the five remaining stories which had a high range of "no apparent value difference" decisions had one conflict area in common with some of those in the above stories. The two stories are listed below with their common conflict area starred. Daughter's purchase Quality of fabric, of pantsuit independence (*) Wearing of cut-off Fad, peer conformity (*), sweat shirt apprOpriateness It would seem since there were more than two conflict areas in each story, one of them was more pertinent, de- pending on the particular story content and situation. The second type of data which shows the relative significance of the story contents and the conflict areas was the combined number of dominance and voluntary sub- mission decisions. The two decision types which have a dominator were selected because it was assumed that the story content and/or conflict areas in the stories had to be of greater significance to evoke the mother or daughter 105 into the dominator position. Three of the nine stories had a high combined number of these decisions; the tight slacks, the boots in winter, and wearing the cut-off sweat shirt. Note that although two of the three stOries are also listed as being significant because of the low number of "no apparent value difference" decisions, one of the three stories, wearing the cut-off sweat shirt, is The apparent contradiction shows only that both types not. of data are necessary to indicate the relative significance of the story contents and the conflict areas. Summary Due to the small number of decisions in some cate- gories, the distribution generally suggests that decision types, with two major exceptions, are distributed among many different stories. The first‘major exception concerns the two decision types having a dominator (dominance and voluntary submission). These two decision types are con- centrated in the tight slacks, the boots in winter, and the cut-Off sweat shirt stories. The second major exception is the prior resolvement decision type which is concentrated in the school hose story. As indicated by a combination of two types of data—- a low number of "no apparent value difference" decisions per- story and/or a high number of dominance and voluntary sub- mission decisions per story--five of the nine stories had 106 story contents and conflict areas of relatively greater significance to the mothers and daughters. The five stories were the fad dress, tight slacks, school hose, boots in winter, and cut-off sweat shirt. The conflict areas within the five stories were becomingness, peer conform- ity, propriety, economy, health, independence, fad, and apprOpriateness. However, the last three conflict areas were also within the four stories which the data indicated to be of lesser significance to the mothers and daughters. CHAPTER VI SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this study was to learn how mothers amiteen-age daughters resolved interpersonal conflicts concerning clothing . Since the dynamics of resolving the conflicts were cm'central interest, the study design required that a mother and her daughter interact in a manner similar to their typical daily interaction to resolve the conflicts contained in projected hypothetical story situations. This method also avoided the bias inherent in the questionnaire method, in which the subject is asked to recall and judge how previous clothing conflicts had been settled. At the same time, the design included both of the parties to the (monflict. Analysis of how the conflict had been settled was done by using rated observations by someone other than the two parties in the conflict. The nine hypothetical story situations were based CH1 tflne areas of conflict identified in the literature, and were also devised to obtain maximum involvement of the test families. The tOpics of the nine stories were new bathing suit, fad dress, tight slacks, winter coat, school 107 108 hose, boots in winter, formal for Spring dance, daughter's purchase of knit pantsuit and wearing of cut-off sweat "What would you do shirt. The question to the subjects, inthis situation?" as well as the omission of a set of pro-specified and limited alternatives, were designed to encourage realistic and honest decision solutions from the subjects . Subjects chosen were an accidental sample of 25 ninth grade girls and their mothers. The girls were ob- tained by two methods: either through a listing of 4-H girls in Ingham county or by personal referral from other test subjects. An attempt was made to screen subjects prior to the interview for middle class status. Precise socio-economic status of the subjects was determined by Hollingshead's Two Factor Index of Social Class. The decision-making dialogues were conducted in the subjects' homes. After brief explanations the mother and daughter read each story situation aloud, discussed the issue, and wrote a decision agreed upon jointly, then continued on to the next story. The researcher was not present at the discussions, except for the first story. After the discussion of the nine stories was finished both subjects completed a questionnaire concerning the stories which they judged realistic and those which they judged the most difficult to decide. In addition, the mother completed a «questionnaire which was used to determine social 109 class and the daughter a questionnaire concerning some of her clothing practices . In order to provide some way to describe the pro- cess of decision resolution, each decision-—incorporating the written decisions as well as the dialogue-—was classi- fied according to method of resolving on an integration- disintegration continuum. The decision resolutions in order of greater integration, were dominance, voluntary submission, compromise, autonomous submission, mutual adjustment, and integration. These decision-making dialogues in which a story apparently elicited no conflict for an individual mother and daughter were covered by adding two non-conflict decision types-—no apparent value difference and prior resolvement. However, before criteria could be developed for classifying each decision,it was necessary to have an ob- jective means of categorizing each individual conversational action or act in the dialogues. Bales' Interaction Process Analysis was chosen, which consists of 12 general categories devised by Bales to apply to all communication. The trans- cribed dialogues for each decision were then categorized by the researcher and her assistant. The presence, absence, cu combination of certain of Bales' categories comprised fluenejor content of the objective criteria. The theoreti- n pouoHuHCH mCOHumouosm ouucnouH< Md coHcho OHuosummenm no :OHusHOm HocHw ou poumcHEOO ha once no H COHCHQO oHuonuumemm no mcoHunOOOSm m.z on a an once no H HG COHGHQO uHuozummfihm no mcoHumOOOSm m.o on 2 an once no H :oHusHom HocHu on uncommon cH ocoz coHu IsHOm Hmch on 0:02 ioH. oouou. ucofioonmo ume no muo< oHon u.c0mnom monuuHsosm no upon «unmoooo HG anoum :H condom no on ooHuoHOm Hnouon no mH nouoOHch ucouooo conmsomHo Iona :OHusHOm mHoo nH Ha. anoum :H pououm ma IHquoe unoum o mH mm mo>HuocnouHo hnoun Eonu mnOMMHO oo>HuoonouHo hnoum Eonu mnouuHo naHm ucoeoonmo AH manque OHummHmscucm wmflm- a can 2 a no 2 a no 2 mm mm. Md GOHusHom HocHu a no 2 a no 2 o no 2 o no 2 no no so nouOCHEoo a cam z a com S no nouuHuHcH coumommom anonuo on HonHuodoHuoosU coo co>Hm OmHm and .o no 2 an coHuHOOQQOICOC cH mcHuon .oHumHHoon- mo>HuocnouHm nonuo poumommsm :oHusHOm o>HuucnouHo co oH a he poHHnEH Md. umnHw on» no: mH no “G :oHuuo anoun :H coumommsm QOHuaHom tho nH poms nouocHEoo ma canon Acouanz woo coHusHoo HocHn aflflmw KmO3IIZOHHDAOmmm BUHHLZOU m0 mmmwa m UZHNhHmmddu 10h ¢HMNBHMU conuHEodm ucosumsflpd Hound: ooconouuHo osHm> unoEo>HOmom noHnm oocucHEoo conanndm omHEonnEoo GOHumnmoucn vane nonHooo mOOEO:Ouo< uconommc oz knoucoHo> mono nouns snoum .oz oooo LITERATURE CITED LITERATURE CITED Bales, Robert F. Interaction Process Analysis. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Press, 1951. Barnes, Lenorah A. "Differences in Attitudes of Mothers and Adolescent Daughters Concerning Clothing and Grooming." Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1955. Berlo, David K. The Process of Communication. 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A Report of a Seminar Con- ducted‘by the Foundation for Research on Human Behavior in Cooperation with the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution, the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: Foundation for Research on Human Be- havior, 1961. Lithoprinted. Gordon, Thomas. "The Functioning of the Group Centered Leader," in Perspectives on the Group Process. Edited by C. Gratton Kemp, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964. Gross, Irma H., and Crandall, Elizabeth W. Management for Modern Families. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, Inc., 1954. Harris, Dale B. "Sex Differences and Interests of Adoles- cents, 1935 and 1957." The Adolepgent: A Book of Readings (Rev. Ed.) ed. Jerome M. Seidman. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960. Harris, Phoebe Todd. "An Experimental Investigation of Joint Decision-Making by Husbands and Wives in Relation to Four Interest Values." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1963. Hollingshead, August B. Elmtown's Youth. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949. 140 . Two Factor Index of Social‘Position. 'New Haven: by the author, 1957. Kemp, C. Gratton (ed.). Perspectives in the Group Process. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964. Kenkel, William F. "Observational Studies of Husband Wife Interaction in Family Decision-Making," in Source- pppk in Marriage and the Familyg"Edited'by Marvin B. Sussman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963. King, Bernice. "A Study of the Role of Clothing in Family Relationships in Twenty-Five Selected Families." Unpublished Master's thesis, Michigan State Univer- sity, 1949. Leik, Robert K. "Instrumentality and Emotionality in Family Interaction." Sociometgy, 26 (June, 1963), 131-145. Lindblom, Charles E. The Intelligence of Democracy. New York: The Free Press, 1965. Magrabi, Frances. "Differences Between Parents' and Daughters' Criteria in Selection of Eighth Grade Clothing." 'Unpublished Master's thesis, Iowa State University, 1958. Mayer, Marie Lawrence. "Clothing Inventories of 41 Teen-age Girls." Journal of Home Economics, 49 (February, 1957), 124-125. Mead, Marjorie Elaine. "Disagreements Between Adolescent Girls and Their Mothers Concerning Clothing." Unpublished Master's thesis, Iowa State University, 1957. O'Rourke, John. "The Decision-Making Behavior of Family Groups in Two Experimental Conditions." Sociometry, 26, No. 4 (December, 1963), 422-435. Paolucci, Beatrice. "Contributions of a Framework of Home Management to the Teaching of Family Relationships." Journal of Marriage and the Famiiy, XXVIII, No. 3 (August, 19667, 338-342. Parsons, Talcott, and Bales, Robert F. Family Socialization and Interaction Process. Glencoe: The Free Press, 1955. 141 Roach, Mary Ellen. "The Influence of Social Class on Clothing Practices and Orientation at Early Ado- lescence: A Study of Clothing-Related Behavior of Seventh Grade Girls." Unpublished Ph.D. disserta- tion, Michigan State University, 1960. "The Family as Three Person Group." American Sociological Review, 19, NO. 1 (February, 95 , 23-29. Strodtbeck, Fred L. "Family Interaction, Values, and Achievement," in Talent and Society, David McClelland et a1. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1958. . "Husband-Wife Interaction Over Revealed Differ- ences." American Sociological Review, 16, No. 3 (August, 1951), 468-473. Webster's Third New International Dictionarypf the English Language, unabridged. Springfield: G. and C. Merriam Co., 1964. HICHIGGN STGTE UNIV. LIBRQRIES 31293100164148