Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

Calogero, Rachel

Abstract

Across disciplines, researchers look to motherhood as a site of theorization about the growth and wellbeing of the population because of their important role in biological and social reproduction. Psychologists frequently study motherhood and as such play an important role in producing an ideal maternal subject. Past research has shown that the measurement tools we use in psychology are laden with bias, stereotypes, and ideologies about the group being studied and as such are producing ideologically charged results that filter into the world under the semblance of scientific objectivity (McClelland et al., 2020). Using critical measurement analysis, I found that an item bank of psychological survey items that measure attitudes towards motherhood rely on neoliberal and essentialist ideologies to construct the maternal subject. These ideologies were occasionally mirrored in the lived experiences of a small sample of North American mothers, but mothers also worked to resist these ideologies and construct alternative narratives. Quantitative measures of motherhood used in psychological research dichotomize motherhood and provide us with a framework for categorizing the ideal maternal subject. However, mothers are adept at resisting and rewriting narratives of good motherhood. Expansion of best practices in survey development is discussed to mitigate the presence of ideologies in our measurement tools.

Summary for Lay Audience

The research performed by academics in universities helps to shape our understanding of particular social groups. As this research leaks into the ‘real world’ it shapes public opinion and individual attitudes and beliefs. Because of the undeniable power of academic research to produce knowledge that shapes how we think and feel about different people, it is important that we scrutinize the tools researchers are using that impact how we structure our social worlds. Mothers are often studied by researchers, particularly in psychology, where we look at various aspects of motherhood, including maternal mental health and child development. This means that psychologists play an important role in shaping our understanding of what a good mother should look like. I critically analyzed a collection of survey items gathered from psychological measures of attitudes towards motherhood. I found that these items house assumptions and biases about mothers that structure how individuals respond to the items. How individuals respond to items shape the understanding of motherhood that gets passed down to the public. This means that researchers are relying on narratives about what good mothering looks like and this is being shared to the public as scientific ‘truth’. Focus group discussion with North American mothers revealed that these narratives do shape their experiences with motherhood, but they also made efforts to resist and rewrite narratives of motherhood that did not reflect their experience. These results suggest that psychological research plays an important role in shaping our understanding of good motherhood and that psychological understandings of good motherhood affect the experiences of mothers in the ‘real world’.

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