Perceived Contingency of Parental Reinforcements, Parent-Child Relations, and Locus of Control

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Abstract
To determine the relationships among perceived contingency of parental reinforcements, parent-child relations, and locus of control, 100 university students (53 females and 47 males) completed questionnaires. In general, subjects with an internal orientation perceived their parents as contingently punishing. This finding holds most clearly for males and fathers. No relationships between perceived contingency of parental rewards and locus of control were found. Also, little evidence of a relationship between perceived parent-child relations and locus of control was obtained. Parents perceived as contingently punishing were also perceived as loving while parents perceived as noncontingently punishing were seen as rejecting. Many other significant relationships between parent-child relations measures and perceived contingency of parental reinforcement measures were obtained. These relationships differed by sex and parent. The contingency and locus of control results were discussed in terms of Seligman, Maier, and Solomon's (1971) interpretation of learned helplessness.

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