Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Cross-cultural empirical data show that stepchildren receive lower levels of parental investment than their genetic counterparts. Beyond economic deprivation, stepchildren are abused, neglected, and murdered at the hands of stepparents at significantly higher rates than their genetic counterparts (the Cinderella Effect). This study was focused on emotional capital as a resource for purposes of parental investment. Using the tools of dynamical systems, this study investigated the affective components of the differential levels of parental investment in genetic and step-children in light of predictions derived from evolutionary and personality/synchronization based psychological mechanisms. This was accomplished by defining and comparing the valence and nature of step- and genetic parents' feelings toward genetic and step-children and by tracking the mental dynamics engaged in by such parents as they considered their genetic and step-children under varying commonplace circumstances. As predicted, positive affective parental investment was found to be allocated preferentially in favor of genetic children and parents were found to have consistently more positive, more parental, and less volatile feelings about their genetic children than about their stepchildren. Genetic parents were more attentive to environmental cues at an affective level and tended to resolve situational ambiguity in favor of adopting a positive affective stance, while stepparents were more prone to experience affective shifts between evaluative frames and to express negative affectivity in the face of social uncertainty. The data also revealed that both genetic and step-parents were more likely to express positive feelings for children to whom they felt similar, which similarity provided a basis for personal synchronization. Theoretically grounded in both the evolutionary perspective and personality-based theory, this study employed the methodology and tools of dynamical systems to extract structure from the dynamics inherent in parental evaluation and the expression of affect.

Extent

146 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Adviser: Robin R. Vallacher.|Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2004.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT12119

Format

pdf

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