Focus
on Research
Penn State Intercom......May
10, 2001
Mothers, adult daughters
can handle
conflict,
according to researcher
By Barbara Hale
Public Information
Despite conflicts and complicated emotions, the tie between mothers and daughters is so positive, so strong and so enduring that 80 to 90 percent of women at mid-life say that they have a good relationship with their mother -- even though they wish that relationship were better, University research has shown.
"The relationship between mothers and their adult daughters is one in which the participants handle being upset with one another better than in any other," said Karen Fingerman, assistant professor of human development and family studies. "Women should recognize the strength of their relationship with their mother and appreciate it more."
Fingerman is the author of the new book, Aging Mothers and Their Adult Daughters: A Study In Mixed Emotions. Based on Fingerman's study of 48 pairs of elderly mothers and their mid-life daughters, the book was written for researchers, mental health professionals and other behavioral specialists. However, Fingerman's findings relate to questions and issues that concern nearly every mother and adult daughter.
"Although many aspects of the relationship change as daughters enter mid-life, certain emotional qualities remain constant. In particular, mothers continue to influence the way daughters feel about themselves," she wrote. "Years after daughters are grown, daughters feel guilty and ashamed when their mothers criticize them and feel happy when their mothers are proud of them. Indeed, women find it difficult to balance their desire to please their mothers while dealing with the inconveniences that arise in their relationships."
For example, adult women often feel conflicted because they can't spend as much time with their mothers as they would like. In a recent interview, Fingerman said, "You don't have to do whatever your mother wants. However, constantly telling her you don't have time isn't a good idea either. Instead, set boundaries. Tell her when you do have time to do things with her and then follow through."
Disagreement between mothers and daughters often is another point of tension. Fingerman said, "In that situation, don't try to change your mother because you're not going to be able to change her. Try to focus on the positive side of your relationship and accept your mother as a person with faults.
"No matter how old you become, your mother will tend to behave like a mother toward you. She'll keep trying to make you into the fantasy she has of you," added the researcher.
Problems between parent and child are inevitable throughout life, not just at the Terrible Twos or during the teen-age years, because parents and children are always at two different points in the life cycle.
When daughters are young, mothers spend time listening to them and assisting them with their problems. When their daughters are middle-aged, mothers feel free to treat them like mature women in whom they can confide. Some daughters find this sharing of confidences pleasurable, other daughters find it problematic and some daughters experience both emotions at the same time. Fingerman said, "It's normal to feel ambivalent about your mother."
Barbara Hale can be reached at bah@psu.edu
Two heads not always
better than one
By Barbara Hale
Public Information
Learning to solve a problem as part of a twosome and learning on your own produce different benefits, a University researcher has found and he said these differences can be exploited to enhance cooperative learning strategies, decision support systems for corporate managers or online courses.
Michael D. McNeese, associate professor of information sciences and technology, said, "The way you acquire information affects how you use it. We've shown that learning to solve a problem in a group definitely has certain advantages. However, when you look in depth, there are situations where the individual who worked alone on the problem does better than people in groups. It depends on the problem."
"Our study suggests that if you are setting up computer support for online learning, you have to set up different things for individuals versus groups," he added.
"Groups need to have an effective interface. If you're doing a distance learning course, the students should be able to use video-based perception since videos of real-world problems work best to create a context for understanding," he added.
McNeese, who joined the School of Information Sciences and Technology last fall, conducted the study while he was at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
In his study, the researcher asked 14 groups composed of two people as well as 28 individuals to watch a video about an eagle search and rescue mission and to solve the problem the video dramatized.
The groups of two people solved the hardest part of the problem more often and more quickly than individuals working alone. McNeese said the data show the group problem solving had an advantage because the two people shared their knowledge, brought different experience and expertise to the problem and kept each other from drifting off the point.
However, later, when the experiment participants were shown another video with a similar problem and asked to solve it, individuals did better overall than the groups.
"In groups you don't have to rely on your memory as much because you have the other group members to prompt you. Individuals, on the other hand, have to rely on their own memory while exploring the videos for scenes and this provides an edge in solving the problems," McNeese said.
Barbara Hale can be reached at bah@psu.edu
University leads
Atlantic Slope Consortium
with a $6 million grant from EPA
More than 15 University researchers will join colleagues from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, East Carolina University, Environmental Law Institutes and FTN Associates to conduct an integrated assessment of the watersheds and estuaries across the Atlantic Slope from the Appalachian Mountains to the coastal beaches of the Mid-Atlantic states.
Natural scientists and social managers will join forces with environmental managers from the region to develop a set of biological, chemical, physical and socioeconomic indictors to measure the health of wetlands, streams, rivers and estuaries in the region. The Atlantic Slope Consortium, one of four programs funded nationally by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's STAR Grants Program, will garner $6 million over four years to conduct its work.
Robert P. Brooks, director of the University's Cooperative Wetlands Center, will serve as project director for the Consortium. Other researches from the Environmental Resources Research Institute include Denice Wardrop, assistant director of the Cooperative Wetlands Center and research associate; James Shortle, professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology; Robert O'Connor, assistant professor of political science; and Egide Nizeyimana, ERRI senior research associate.
The consortium members will assess small watersheds and estuarine segments throughout the Delaware, Susquehanna-Chesapeake and Ablemarle-Pamlico basins. These units are sized to facilitate management decisions at the local level.
The project's progress can be tracked soon through the state Spatial Data Access Web site at http://www.pasda.psu.edu.