人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視

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(1)173. 國立政治大學「教育與心理研究」 2009 年 3 月，32 卷 1 期，頁 173-194. 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視林文瑛*. 摘. 要. 本研究以智能教養行為為標的，探討影響教養行為的認知因素，企圖解開教養觀無法預測教養行為的謎團。研究者修正前此根據德行教養研究所形成的「中介歷程假說」成為「中介歷程模式」，以智能可塑性信念做為智能觀的指標，說理、賞罰、寬容三種取向做為教養觀的指標，假想課業學習情境的管教方式做為教養行為的指標，並以三個預測來檢驗此模式：(一)教養觀不是真正的教養行為指導原則，對教養行為不會有足夠的預測力；(二)一般智能觀不直接影響教養者的歸因歷程，對教養行為也不會有足夠的預測力；(三)真正對教養行為有足夠影響力的是以一般智能觀及情境資訊為基礎的權變智能觀，因為它能直接影響歸因歷程。以525 位大陸民眾為對象的研究結果都符合了「中介歷程模式」的預測。. 關鍵詞：人性觀、中介歷程模式、教養行為、教養觀、智能觀. *. 林文瑛：中原大學心理學系教授暨心理科學研究中心主任誌謝：此研究獲中華民國行政院科學委員會之經費補助（NSC 94-2413-H-431-003-SSS），謹此致謝。電子郵件：[email protected] 收件日期：2008.05.09；修改日期：2008.06.04；接受日期：2008.09.25.

(2) 174. Journal of Education & Psychology March, 2009, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 173-194. From Beliefs about Human Nature to Parenting Behavior: The Mediation Process Model Wen-Ying Lin*. Abstract The purpose of this study is to clarify the myth that parenting beliefs do not have sufficient predictive power for parenting styles. The attempt to take “beliefs about human nature” (belief about intelligence, belief about human morality, etc.) into consideration helped the development of the “mediation process hypothesis.” Efforts were made to explore how belief of human nature makes use of intervening variables, such as “attribution” and “belief of the effectiveness of parenting,” to influence inclination of parenting behavior. A total of 525 subjects participated in this experiment to answer the questionnaire focusing on the relationship of parents’ belief of intelligence and parenting behavior. “Parenting belief” and “general belief of intelligence” were measured by traditional self-report scale, while “contingent belief of intelligence” was measured in the form of simulated childrearing contexts, so as to highlight its “contingent” nature. Two contextual variables (learning performance and degree of hardworking) were manipulated in a 2 × 2 experiment design. All the research results echoed the main predictions of the “mediation process hypothesis”: (1) Parenting belief is not the *. Wen-Ying Lin: Professor, Department of Psychology / Research Center for Psychological Science, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, Republic of China (NSC94-2413-H-431-003-SSS). E-mail: [email protected]. Manuscript received: 2008.05.09; Revised: 2008.06.04; Accepted: 2008.09.25.

(3) 175. guideline for practical parenting behavior. (2) The “general belief of intelligence” does not directly influence parents’ attribution of children’s performance as well as parenting behavior. (3) The real determinant of parenting behavior is the dynamic “contingent belief of intelligence” which varies with the practical parenting contexts and leads to different attribution as well as parenting implementation. Both present research and previous studies confirmed that “belief of human nature” has more important impact on actual parenting process than parenting beliefs. In a practical context, this belief of human nature will form a specific contingent belief of human nature according to the context information and further influence parenting behaviors via the attribution process.. Keywords: beliefs about human nature, beliefs about intelligence, parenting behavior, parenting belief, mediation process model.

(4) 176 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. guide parents’ (or educators’) behavior in. Introduction. educating children? Disagreements over. In the past 40 years, considerable progress. has. been. made. in. our. the mechanisms behind parenting practice remain unresolved.. understanding of the association between. Some researchers believe that the. specific parenting style and particular. confusing relation between parenting. child development Research results have. belief and parenting behavior may have. suggested that parenting behavior has a. arisen for two reasons: First, parenting. profound. long-term. on. beliefs is an ambiguous term. Sigel and. children’s. development. &. McGillicuddy-De. influence (Frosch. Lisi. (2002:. 497). Mangelsdorf, 2001; Ladd & Ladd, 1998;. sensibly pointed out that, “almost any. National Institute of Child Health and. question one asks a parent about their. Human Development Early Child Care. children has been classified as a belief”.. Research. With such vagueness in the definition,. Network,. 2004;. Steinberg,. Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, & Dornbusch,. crucial. 1994), and that children’s behavioral. parenting behaviors are hard to be. development can be predicted from the. clarified. Therefore, clearer concepts as. parenting beliefs held by their parents. parents’ cognitions about children have. (Andrew, Whigham, Hendrickson, &. replaced parenting beliefs in recent. Chambers, 1999; Jacobs, 1991; Miller,. studies (Bugental & Johnson, 2000).. Manhal, & Mee, 1991; Sigel, 1985;. Second, the relation between parenting. Wentzel,. parenting. beliefs and parenting behavior is very. beliefs have been shown to have only. complex and presumably multifaceted. poor predictive power for actual parenting. and. behavior. 2001;. statistical analyses based on a linear. Perozynski & Kramer, 1999). These. model are insufficient to reveal such. research results contradict commonsense. complicated correlations (Sigel, 1985;. and. (Collins,. Sigel & McGillicuddy-De Lisi, 2002).. Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, &. However, more studies are required to. Bornstein, 2000; Goodnow & Collins,. determine whether the low correlation. 1990; Siegel, 1985). What factors actually. between parenting beliefs and parenting. are. 1998).. However,. (Bornstein. thus. &. Cote,. controversial. cognitive. interactive,. factors. meaning. influencing. that. most.

(5) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. 177. behavior is due to a multifaceted and. societies falls on the mother) and difficult. interactive. situations confronted in parenting (such. relationship. or. due. to. as having more children to look after) that. something else. Using a clear definition of parenting. incline parents to adopt harsh parenting.. beliefs as the reasons for or against corporal. Although the studies of corporal. punishment, the author has conducted. punishment echo previous findings and. studies on this common parenting be-. explain the low correlation between. havior in Chinese societies aiming at. parenting beliefs and behavior, that. clarifying. between. parenting behavior is more influenced by. parenting behavior and parenting belief. contextual factors than parenting beliefs. (Lin, 1992; Lin & Wang, 1995). Results. may not be the complete story. The. demonstrated that beliefs about corporal. question remains as to whether other. punishment explained only 10.6 percent. cognitive factors may influence parenting. of the variance in the actual corporal. behaviors as well. The author noticed. punishment behavior among parents and. that, many parenting beliefs reveal a. teachers. Instead, contextual factors such. viewpoint on the relation between humans. as the role in childrearing, or the number. and the environment and reflect the. of children, were more reliably related to. essence of a person’s beliefs about human. the use of corporal punishment. On one. nature. For instance, “Tiger father does. hand,. only. not breed dog son (Like father, like son)”. about. corresponds hereditarianism, while “Strict. corporal punishment, but not parenting. teacher cultivates fine arts (Spare the rod. behavior; on the other hand, parenting. spoil the child)” reflects environmental. behavior in terms of corporal punishment. determinism.. was affected by contextual factors rather. implicit theories about human nature. than by parenting beliefs. Taken the. behind explicit parenting beliefs.. the. relationship. educational. influenced. background. parenting. beliefs. Apparently,. there. are. results altogether, at least for corporal. In many situations, what a person. punishment, the dominant factor of. explicitly assumes to be a firm belief may. parenting. parenting. be very different from what the person. beliefs. It is the parental role responsible. believes implicitly (Banse, Seise, &. for child education (which in many. Zerbes,. behavior. is. not. 2001;. Greenwald,. Banaji,.

(6) 178 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. Rudman, Farnham, Nosek, & Mellot,. general, parenting beliefs are usually. 2002). In fact, the inconsistency between. acquired from instruction and so are. human behavior and self-acknowledged. explicit and consciously available. In. belief has long been observed in studies. contrast, beliefs about human nature are. on attitude (Andrews & Kandel, 1979;. implicitly derived from experiences in. Dibble & Straus, 1980; Schuman &. daily life and therefore may carry weight. Johnson, 1976). Thus, it is logical to. in guiding behavior, as shown in vast. assume that implicit beliefs about human. studies. nature. on. (diSessa, 1993; McCloskey, Washburn, &. behavior than explicit parenting beliefs,. Felch, 1983; Winer, Cottrell, Gregg,. and it would explain the low predictive. Fournier, & Bica, 2002) and dual-process. power of parenting beliefs for parenting. cognitive theories (Chaiken & Trope,. behavior. For instance, parents may. 1999; Sloman, 2002).. maybe. more. influential. on. instructional. psychology. believe that children should be treated. When a certain parenting belief. equally and that good parents should not. cannot steer effective parenting behavior,. favor one child over another. They may. the parent may be forced to abandon that. believe themselves to be good parents.. parenting technique and turn to a more. But,. fundamental. in. everyday. life,. they. may. perspective. on. human. unconsciously favor the boy (or girl), or. nature. For instance, when a parent with. the child with better performance.. humanistic parenting beliefs is faced with. Why would implicit beliefs about. an extremely bullheaded child, the basic. human nature be more fundamental to. question, “Can this child’s behavior be. parenting. explicit. improved?” will inevitably arise. If this. parenting beliefs? The answer is clear.. parent believes in high plasticity of. Beliefs about human nature are related to. human nature, he/she probably will adopt. a person’s understanding of what people. more proactive interference, such as. are and ought to be, while parenting. changing the environment or parenting. beliefs involve technical presumptions. method. In contrast, if he/she believes that. about how to educate a person. They. human behavior basically reflects an. differ in two ways: implicit and explicit,. ingrained. as well as fundamental and technical. In. approaches to bridle the child may be. behaviors. than. disposition,. then. tougher.

(7) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. 179. adopted. As a result, parents grope and. judgments about the effectiveness of. adjust their behavior through specific. education as well as their selection of. childrearing contexts and so the real. appropriate parenting or teaching styles. principles guiding parenting behaviors are. (Lin, 2003a, 2003b, 2004a). Another. belief about human nature rather than. study focusing on morality has evidenced. parenting belief.. that beliefs about morality not only. Heyman and Gelman (2000) found. influence parenting behaviors, but also. that most people hold a nurture view of. have. human morality and personality, but. parenting beliefs (Lin, 2005). Integrating. consider intelligence to be half nature half. these results with the clear evidence that. nurture. Similarly, Lin (2003a) found. one’s implicit theories about human. most parents consider the malleability of. nature can and do influence one’s. human morality to be high, personality. attributional process of person cognition. moderate, but intelligence to be low.. (Dweck, Hong, & Chiu, 1993; Hong,. Consequently, there are at least three. Chiu, Dweck, & Sacks, 1997) and that. categories of beliefs of human nature to. parents’ attribution affects their own. be. be. confidence in the effect of parenting (Dix,. examined separately with corresponding. Ruble, & Zambarano, 1989; Grolnick,. parenting context. For example, parents’. Benjet, Kurowski, & Apostoleris, 1997),. beliefs about intelligence should be. it is reasonable to hypothesized that. examined. for. beliefs about human nature has impact on. children’s academic activity; beliefs about. parents’ perceptions of children’s be-. morality should be studied in parenting. havioral performance, and accordingly. context for children’s problem behavior,. may influence judgments about which. and so on.. parenting method is appropriate and. considered. in. and. they. parenting. should. context. A series of studies focusing on parents’ and. teachers’ beliefs. about. greater. predictive. power. than. effective, which in turn relates to various parenting behaviors.. indicated that both parents’. In other words, attribution is the. and teachers’ beliefs about intelligence. first-level influence of beliefs about. may influence their attributions regarding. human nature on parenting behavior.. children’s learning performance and their. Through. intelligence. this. attributional. mediation.

(8) 180 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. process, parenting behaviors may be. and in part, the parent’s beliefs about. confined in a certain range or tone.. the. Although the agent of behavior, context,. Beliefs about human nature intervene. and. in. referential. information. may. all. effectiveness the. cognitive. of. parenting.. processes. of. influence attribution according to the. attribution and effectiveness evalu-. principle of covariance (Kelly, 1967,. ation,. 1973), in the study on intelligence beliefs. selection of parenting behavior. In. (Lin, 2003a) information about children’s. contrast, parenting beliefs cannot. effort did considerably influence parents’. effectively. and. process,. teachers’. attributions,. but. not. and. thus. affect nor. can. influence. the. the. cognitive. they. impose. parenting behavior. Another study on. significant influence on parenting. morality. behaviors. (234). beliefs. information children’s. also. about moral. revealed. the. that in. Nevertheless, there is an intriguing. influenced. result to be clarified before the mediation. coherence. behavior. parents’ attributions, but not parenting. process. behavior. empirically. That is, in terms of the. (Lin,. 2005).. Obviously,. hypothesis of. can. be. contextual information affects only the. plasticity. attribution process, while beliefs about. different results have been obtained from. human nature influence both attributions. interviews and questionnaires, respectively. and parenting efficacy and thus are better. (Lin,. in predicting parenting behavior. Based. considered intelligence unalterable while. on above results, Lin (2005) proposed a. parents answered questionnaires believed. mediation process hypothesis to explain. in a high plasticity of intelligence.. the influence process of beliefs about. Apparently, beliefs about intelligence. human nature on parenting behavior via. gauged by the self-report scale, similar to. attribution as a mediator as follows:. abstract attitude (Mickelson, 1989, 1990),. 2003a).. intelligence,. applied. Interviewed. drastically. parents. Parenting behavior is actually a. were more conceptual and, can be labeled. problem-solving strategy. The choice. general beliefs about intelligence. On the. of. part. other hand, beliefs revealed in interviews. determined by parent’s attribution of. concerning specific parenting context are. children’s behavioral performance,. more implicit in nature, similar to. parenting. style. is. in.

(9) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. 181. 1989,. process and act as a working hypothesis. continuously. for parenting behaviors. Therefore, the. adjusting to experience and, can be. mediation process hypothesis is revised. labeled. and relabeled as the “mediation process. concrete 1990),. attitude are. (Mickelson,. dynamic,. contingent. beliefs. about. model”. intelligence.. in. the. present. study.. The. The dynamic interaction between. theoretical relationship among general. general and contingent beliefs about. beliefs and contingent beliefs about. intelligence. appropriately. human nature, parenting beliefs, and. demonstrated in previous study (Lin,. parenting behavior proposed by the. 2003b). In the study, parents tended to. mediation process model is indicated in. attribute the poor performance of a child. Fig. 1.. has. been. In concrete, the mediation process. who did not work hard to this lack of hard work which corresponded to the fact that. model proposes that:. most parents held incremental view of. 1.Parenting behavior is a contingent. intelligence. However, in contexts where. and dynamic problem-solving process. As. a hardworking child received poor grades,. a result, parenting beliefs abstracted from. two-thirds of the parents turned to. explicit instructions are likely to be less. attribute the poor performance to lack of. applicable in the ever-changing contexts. ability. Obviously, information about the. of. degree of a child’s effort and the child’s. parenting beliefs do not provide reliable. performance influence not only parents’. guidelines for parenting behavior.. childrearing.. In. most. contexts,. attributions but also their general beliefs. 2.When certain parenting belief is. about intelligence. In one word, low. challenged in a particular childrearing. effort/low achievement leads to effort. context, parents usually resort to basic. attribution. beliefs about human nature to figure out a. and. high. effort/low. achievement directs to ability attribution.. solution to problems at hand.. the. 3.One’s general beliefs about human. a. nature are gradually formed in the. contingent belief in intelligence. It is the. developmental process of personal. contingent beliefs about human nature. experience and subject to change into. that directly influence the mediation. contingent beliefs with new experiences.. As. the. contextual. judgment. varies. information. it. with reflects.

(10) 182 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. General beliefs about human nature. Contextual information. Parenting beliefs. Contingent beliefs about human nature. Performance attribution. Attribution implication. Parenting behaviors. Mediation Process Figure 1. Conceptual Diagram of the Mediation Process Model*. *Solid lines indicate strong influence, broken lines indicate weak influence.. Every parenting experience is, in turn, a. H1: Parenting beliefs are not the major. verification of one’s beliefs about human. guiding principle for practical parenting.. nature.. They do not carry much predictive power. 4.Contingent beliefs about human. for parenting behaviors. H2: General. nature function as parents’ working. beliefs about intelligence may not directly. hypothesis to frame the problem, that is,. influence the attribution process, which. the attributions about children’s per-. regulates. formance and to figure out the practical. behavior. Consequently, general beliefs. implications of attribution, that is, the. about intelligence have little predictive. parenting behavior.. power for attribution or for parenting. the. choice. of. parenting. The purpose of the present study is. behavior. H3: Contingent beliefs about. to examine the theoretical relationship. intelligence may allow one to respond to. suggested so as to confirm the mediation. different. process model in the first place. Using. different attributions so as to lead to. academic parenting as specific contexts,. different parenting. As a result, they have. three specific predictions derived from. significant influence on attribution and on. the medication process model are tested:. parenting behavior as well.. parenting. problems. with.

(11) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. 183. (low plasticity)(Appendix). Participants. METHOD. were asked to rate their agreement to each. Participants. statement from 1 absolutely disagree, to 7. Participants were 525 enterprise. absolutely agree. The six statements were. employees in China’s Shenzhen area. mixed. between 17 and 78 years old with an. parenting beliefs.. average age of 26.3. The majority had. with. statements. Contingent. Beliefs. measuring about. In-. either a junior or senior high school. telligence. To manipulate academic per-. education. No differences were found in. formance (good/poor) and degree of hard. responses between parents (34%) and. work (good/no effort) of a sixth-grade. non-parents as well as between male. target child, a 2 × 2 vignettes were. (40%) and females, therefore the data. designed as follows: (1) Xiao-Chiang/. were analyzed jointly. Questionnaires. Xiao-Jeng is more interested in having. were answered collectively in tea breaks.. fun than attending class. He loves watching television and reads comic. Measures. books often. (1a) Xiao-Chiang never does. The questionnaire was composed of. well on exams and falls behind the class. two self-report scales and four vignettes.. (no effort/poor performance). (1b) However,. The former were measures of beliefs. Xiao-Jeng has excellent grades in school. about intelligence and parenting beliefs,. (no effort/good performance). (2) Jun-. the. Jun/Da-Ming. latter. contingent. beliefs. about. is. obedient. at. home,. intelligence, performance attribution and. attentive in class, and serious about. parenting behavior.. homework. (2a) However, Jun-Jun never. Beliefs about Intelligence and Parenting Beliefs General Beliefs about Intelligence.. does well on exams and falls behind the class (good effort/poor performance). (2b) Da-Ming has excellent grades in school (good effort/good performance).. The measure entailed six statements, three. After reading each scenario, par-. representing the incremental view of. ticipants were required to evaluate the. intelligence (high plasticity) and three. relation between the child’s academic. reflecting the entity view of intelligence. performance and parenting on a seven-.

(12) 184 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. point scale from 1 absolutely disagree, to. “Punishment. 7. poor. effective on children who can be reasoned. performance contexts, the participants. with.” “It is more important for a child to. were asked: “Do you agree that if Xiao-. tell right from wrong than following. Chiang’s/Jun-Jun’s parents make more. rules.” And permissive parenting beliefs. effort. maintain that indulgence or letting go is. absolutely. to. agree.. teach. In. him,. the. his. academic. rewards. good performance contexts, they were. parenting are less necessary than allowing. asked: “Do you agree that Xiao-Jeng/Da-. children more room and letting nature. Ming. take its course.” “Children can never be. excellent. academic. performance because his parents know how to teach him?” The responses were indexes. of. contingent. beliefs. about. intelligence in various contexts. Parenting Beliefs. Three established. “Strategies. only. the. an. parenting:. are. performance can be improved?” In the. has. best. and. for. spoiled.”. Performance Attribution and Parenting Behavior To. measure. participants’. per-. categories of parenting styles: authori-. formance attribution, they were asked to. tarian,. permissive. evaluate children’s academic performance. (Baumrind, 1991) which are also common. in four vignettes as due to disposition or. parenting beliefs in Chinese societies. hard work on a seven-point Likert scale. (Lin, 2002) were used. Participants were. from 1 absolutely disposition to 7. asked to rate their degree of agreement. absolutely hard work, respectively. To. with. each. measure parenting behavior, participants. absolutely. were required to imagine themselves as. authoritative. six. and. statements. parenting. style). disagree,. to. (two. from 7. 1. for. absolutely. agree.. parents of the children described in the. Authoritarian parenting beliefs emphasize. vignettes. punishment and reinforcement: “Dis-. behavior from a list of seven to indicate. cipline. ability.”. which they would be the most likely to. “Punishment and reinforcement are most. apply. The parenting behavior categories:. effective for education.” Authoritative. corporal punishment, scolding, rewarding,. parenting. the. changing the environment, encouragement,. importance of reasoning with children:. reasoning, and let-it-be used in the. turns. talent. beliefs. into. emphasize. and. select. one. parenting.

(13) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. 185. present study were selected from the. parenting behavior were significantly. originally twelve categories in previous. different in their contingent beliefs about. research with a criteria of response. intelligence [no effort/poor performance:. frequency above five percent (Lin, 2005).. F(2, 463) = 3.92, p < .05; good. RESULTS. effort/poor performance: F(3, 468) =. Relation between Beliefs about Intelligence, Parenting Beliefs, and Parenting Behavior Firstly, parenting criteria. so. participants. the. author. behaviors. as. as. to. 23.20, p. <. .001; no. effort/ good. performance: F(3, 471) = 17.72, p < .001; good effort/good performance: F(3, 483) = 3.20, p < .05]. The results clearly implies. that. general. beliefs. about. employed. intelligence do not have a significant. classification. influence on parenting behavior except in. analyze. demonstrating. whether. particular. different. beliefs about intelligence do influence the. parenting behavior hold different beliefs. context,. while. contingent. parenting behavior.. about intelligence or parenting beliefs.. As for the influence of parenting. For simplification, parenting behaviors. beliefs, participants with different. with a response frequency less than five. parenting behavior demonstrated a. percent were excluded. As a result, the. significant difference in authoritarian. number of parenting behavior categories. parenting beliefs in the contexts of good. differed in each vignette. General beliefs. effort/poor performance [F(3, 46) = 2.64,. about intelligence,. contingent beliefs. p < .05] and no effort/good performance. about intelligence, and parenting beliefs. [F(3, 468) = 3.04, p < .05], as well as a. were applied as dependent variables for. significant difference in permissive. the ANOVA. As shown in Table 1, except. parenting beliefs in the contexts of no. for the effort/ poor performance context. effort/poor performance [F(2, 458) =. [F (3, 449) = 7.79, p < . 001], participants. 3.38, p < .05] and good effort/good. with different parenting behavior did not. performance [F(3, 478) = 4.74, p < .01].. significantly differ in their general beliefs. However, in all contexts, participants with. about intelligence. In contrast, in all four. different parenting behavior did not. vignettes,. demonstrate any significant differences in. participants. with. different.

(14) 186 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. Table 1. Correlation Between Beliefs about Intelligence, Parenting Beliefs, and Parenting Behaviors* Context. no effort/poor performance. good effort/poor performance. Beliefs about Intelligence General Contingent F Sig F Sig .185 .831 3.922 .020. 7.791. .000. 23.201. .000. no effort/good performance. .491. .689. 17.721. .000. good effort/good performance. .457. .713. 3.201. .023. Parenting Beliefs F 1.943a .447b 3.378c 2.636 a .246 b 2.040 c 3.041 a .229 b 2.350 c 1.996 a 2.298 b 4.743 c. Sig .144 .640 .035 .049 .864 .107 .029 .876 .072 .114 .077 .003. *Categories for parenting behaviors with a response frequency over 5% in each of the 4 contexts are: no effort/poor performance: changing environment, encouragement, consulting good effort/poor performance: changing environment, encouragement, consulting, let-it-be no effort/good performance: awarding, encouragement, consulting, let-it-be good effort/good performance: awarding, encouragement, consulting, let-it-be a. authoritarian, b authoritative, c permissive. authoritative parenting beliefs. It can thus. parenting behavior at all, or only had. be inferred from this result that: (1). effect. authoritative parenting beliefs have no. contingent beliefs about intelligence had. influence on parenting behavior at all, and. influence on the parenting behavior in all. (2) authoritarian and permissive parenting. contexts. These results confirmed the. beliefs have impacts only in a few. relationship between parenting behavior. contexts. This result is consistent with. and the three cognitive factors (general. prior findings that the influence of. beliefs about intelligence, contingent. parenting beliefs on parenting behavior is. beliefs about intelligence, and parenting. rather limited.. beliefs). In sum, the ANOVA test demon-. in. a. few. proposed. contexts.. by. the. Finally,. mediation. process model.. strated that, firstly, general beliefs about. There are two important assumptions. intelligence have little influence on the. made by the mediation process model. parenting behavior. Secondly, parenting. about the relations among these three. beliefs either had no influence on the. cognitive factors. Firstly, beliefs about.

(15) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. 187. intelligence and parenting beliefs may be. < .01) but no correlation with the other. rooted in different cognitive sources, yet. two parenting beliefs. In addition, general. beliefs about intelligence may influence. beliefs about intelligence had a positive. acceptance of certain parenting beliefs.. but low correlation with contingent. Therefore, the correlation between them,. beliefs about intelligence under all four. if any, should either be low or none.. contexts (no effort/poor performance, r. Secondly,. =.126,. contingent. beliefs. about. p. <. .01;. good. effort/poor. intelligence are theoretically based on. performance, r =.175, p < .01; no. general beliefs about intelligence and. effort/good performance, r =.146, p < .01;. adjust in response to the context. Hence, a. good effort/good performance, r =.135, p. correlation between the two should exist,. <.01). In one word, the results supported. but only to a low degree in all contexts.. the relationship among general/contingent. Results indicated in Table 2 suggested. beliefs about human nature and parenting. that, general beliefs about intelligence had. beliefs assumed by the mediation process. a. model.. low. negative. correlation. with. permissive parenting belief (r = -.139, p Table 2. Relation Between General Beliefs about Intelligence and Parenting Beliefs General Beliefs about Intelligence. General Beliefs about Intelligence Parenting Authoritarian Beliefs Authoritative Permissive. Authoritarian. 1. .078 1. Parenting Beliefs Authoritative. Permissive. .084. -.139*. -.006 1. .046 -.001 1. *p < .01. The Influence of Beliefs about Intelligence on the Attribution Process According to the mediation process. attribution process, nor do they function as the guiding principle for parenting behavior, the correlation between general beliefs about intelligence and attribution would be none or low. On the other hand,. model, because general beliefs about. parenting. behavior. is. essentially. intelligence do not directly influence the. influenced by contingent beliefs about.

(16) 188 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. intelligence, which leads to different. correlation with attribution in good. attributions depending upon the parenting. performance context and a low correlation. problem and context, the correlation. (ranging. between. performance. contingent. beliefs. about. from. .1. context.. to. .2) In. in. poor. contrast,. a. intelligence and attribution should be. significant correlation was found between. relatively high. The results in Table 3. contingent beliefs about intelligence and. evidently support the two predictions.. attribution (ranging between .2 and .4) in. General beliefs about intelligence had no. all contexts.. Table 3. Correlation Between Beliefs about Intelligence and Performance Attribution Performance Attribution. Beliefs about Intelligence. no effort/poor performance. good effort/poor performance. no effort/good performance. good effort/good performance. .090* .379**. General Contingent General Contingent General Contingent General Contingent. .184** .371** -.007 .197** .081 .235**. *p < .05 **p < .01. The Influence of Contextual Information on Attribution. In this study, the contextual factors referred to the child’s degree of effort and academic performance. As shown in Table. According to above analysis, it is the. 4, the influence of contextual information. objective contextual factors of childrear-. on attribution is highly significant [F(3,. ing and subjective personal factors that. 2982) = 752.72, p < .001]. When the. jointly determine the cognitive processes. child’s degree of effort corresponded to. underlying parenting behavior. As shown. the resulting performance (i.e., no. in Figure 1, the mediation process model. e ff o r t / p o o r p e r f o r m a n c e o r g o o d. suggests. information. effort/good performance), participants. parents’ attributions. were inclined to attribute the result to. about children’s performance, just like. effort. In contrast, when the child’s degree. contingent beliefs about intelligence.. of effort did not correspond to the. would. that. contextual. influence.

(17) 人性觀與教養行為：中介歷程假說的再檢視. Table 4. Participants Performance Attribution Responses in Different Contexts. no effort/poor performance Average Median Participants F a. 189. good effort/poor performance. 5.91 6.00 520 (5)a 752.717*. no effort/ good performance. 3.75 3.00 515 (10). good effort/good performance. 2.96 2.00 514 (11). 5.32 6.00 516 (9). invalid sample indicated in parentheses. *p < .001 df = 3, 2982. performance (i.e., good effort/poor per-. general beliefs and contingent beliefs. formance or no effort/good performance),. about human nature on the one hand and. participants were inclined to attribute the. parenting beliefs on the other. Firstly,. results to intelligence.. significant correlation was not found. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION. between parenting beliefs and general beliefs about intelligence, except for permissive parenting beliefs. This result. The mediation process model was. suggests. that. general. beliefs. about. developed from a series of studies that. intelligence and parenting belief may be. attempted to make sense of the low. rooted in different cognitive sources, yet. correlation between parenting beliefs and. belief of intelligence might influence. parenting behavior. The attempt to expand. one’s acceptance of certain parenting. the scope of cognitive factors that affect. beliefs. The low negative correlation. parenting behavior paved the way for. between general beliefs about intelligence. taking implicit beliefs about human nature. and. into consideration. Based on subsequent. demonstrated. studies of exploring how beliefs about. intelligence plasticity pave the way for. human. intervening. ‘let go’ parenting beliefs. Secondly, data. variables, such as attribution and its. supported the prediction that contingent. practical. parenting. beliefs about intelligence are derived. behavior, the mediation process model. from general beliefs about intelligence,. was. results. since a low correlation was found. generally supported the main assumptions. between these two beliefs in all contexts.. of the model about the relationship among. Last but most importantly, of the three. nature. relate. implication. proposed.. The. to of. present. permissive that. parenting beliefs. beliefs of. low.

(18) 190 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. cognitive factors, contingent beliefs about. thus. they. can. apply. intelligence obviously have the greatest. childrearing. predictive power for parenting behavior.. parenting behaviors via the attribution. context. to. specific. and. influence. results. process. The present study provides a. provided explicit data to account for how. model to analyze the cognitive factors. beliefs. influence. underlying parenting behaviors. It also. parenting behavior through the mediation. has given evidence for the attributional. process. Participants’ attributions about. process through which the implicit beliefs. the child’s performance had a stable. about. correlation with contingent beliefs about. parenting. intelligence,. process. Also,. current. about. research. intelligence. while. a. less. stable. human. nature. may. behavior. model. influence. The. mediation. developed. here. has. correlation with general beliefs about. heuristic value. It suggests why so little is. intelligence. It is not general beliefs but. known about what are the determinants of. contingent beliefs about intelligence that. parenting. influence parents’ attributions, and which. questions that need to be addressed if. in turns affect the predictive effectiveness. knowledge of parenting behavior is to. of parenting and serve as the cognitive. increase. However, further research on the. framework for the selection of parenting. role of other aspects of implicit beliefs. behavior.. about. behavior. human. and. nature. specifies. (morality. and. In answering the long-held question. personality) in corresponding parenting. why parenting beliefs do not have. contexts would be of great importance to. sufficient predictive power for parenting. validate the generality of this model.. behavior, the present study shared with. Finally,. based. on. the. present. previous research in demonstrating that. research the author would to address. beliefs about human nature may have a. several caveats in educational implemen-. greater. parenting. tation. First, we should not only stress the. behavior. Besides, contextual information. importance of educational goal and. joins contingent beliefs about intelligence. method. in affecting attribution but not parenting. teachers but also foster the understanding. behavior. Beliefs about human nature. of the impact of beliefs about human. respond to contextual information and. nature on actual parenting behavior.. impact. on. actual. when. preparing. parents. or.

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(22) 194 教育與心理研究 32 卷 1 期. Appendix Measure of General Beliefs about Intelligence. Inflexibility of intelligence Capability is innate, not acquired through learning. Everyone’s gift is different, and it is very difficult to change. Hard work does not allow a person deficient in talent to perform well. Plasticity of intelligence Ideal education and environment may eliminate differences in natural-born abilities. Talent is gained through experience. A good environment may turn a fool into a wit..

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