Deep Structure of the Human Affectional System: Introduction to Interpersonal Acceptance–Rejection Theory
Ronald P. Rohner, Jennifer E. Lansford
First published: 13 December 2017
https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12219 - Volume 9, Issue 4 Pages 426-440.
Adapted for PASG.no by Lena Hellblom Sjögren May 2024. With the permission from Ronald Rohner some sections of his and Jennifer Lansfords important paper on IPAR-theory is adapted for PASG Norway’s home page
Interpersonal acceptance–rejection theory (IPARTheory) proposes that across cultures and other sociodemographic groups, interpersonal acceptance and rejection consistently predict the psychological and behavioral adjustment of children and adults (Rohner, 1986, 2004). The goals of this article are to provide a description of the major tenets of IPARTheory, summarize findings from empirical tests of the theory, and suggest future directions tied to the other articles in this special collection as well as for the field moving forward.
Empirical Tests of IPARTheory
Two major types of studies have provided empirical tests of IPARTheory. First, ethnographic studies using participant observation methods in a particular cultural group have provided rich qualitative data on ways that 432 Journal of Family Theory & Review parents demonstrate acceptance or rejection and ways that children perceive their parents’ behaviors in diverse contexts (e.g., Rohner & Chaki-Sircar, 1988). Some ethnographic research compares two or more distinct cultural groups, such as a 6-month ethnographic and quantitative psychological case study of 349 9 to 16-year-old youth in St. Kitts, West Indies (Rohner, Kean, & Cournoyer, 1991), and a 6-month ethnographic and quantitative psychological case study of 281 9- to 18-year-old youth and their parents in a poor African American and European American community in southeastern Georgia, in the United States (Rohner, Bourque, & Elordi, 1996). Using ethnographic reports compiled from 101 nonindustrialized countries, parental acceptance–rejection was found to be associated pan-culturally with the psychological adjustment of children and adults (Rohner, 1975).
Second, quantitative studies including interviews, behavior observations, and self-report questionnaires have been conducted in many countries and with demographically diverse populations. Most of these studies have used the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (Rohner, 2005b), the Parental Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire (Rohner, 2005c), and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Rohner & Khaleque, 2005). These quantitative studies have demonstrated that perceived parental acceptance in childhood and perceived acceptance by attachment figures in adulthood is associated with psychological, social, behavioral, emotional, and other positive outcomes, including altruism, prosocial behavior, positive life satisfaction, psychological hardiness, positive scholastic achievement, feelings of emotional security, and social responsibility (see Rohner, 2017). For example, in a longitudinal study of children and parents in nine countries, children’s perceptions of their parents’ acceptance were associated with fewer subsequent psychological and behavioral problems, even after taking into consideration prior psychological and behavioral problems and social desirability biases (Putnick et al., 2014). A survey that asked 4,300 adolescents in 12 countries (from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America) to list the specific things their parents or caregivers do that make the adolescents feel loved confirmed that adolescents themselves in a diverse set of countries perceived aspects of emotional support, such as expressing affection and encouragement, and the absence of parental hostility or parental aggression as expressions of parental love or acceptance (McNeely & Barber, 2010). Additionally, a meta-analysis of 18 instrumental values (Rokeach, 1973) characterized as desirable or preferred modes of behavior in 334 studies—representing 41,975 participants in 30 countries—concluded that the value of “loving, affectionate, tender” ranked third across all included countries, following close behind the first-ranked value of “honest, sincere, truthful” and the second-ranked value of “responsible, dependable, reliable” (Hanke &Vauclair, 2016). Twelve meta-analyses have tested the central postulates of IPARTheory based on 551 quantitative reports representing an aggregated sample of 149,440 respondents in 31 countries (e.g., Khaleque, 2013; Khaleque & Ali, 2016; Rohner & Khaleque, 2010). These meta-analyses confirm IPARTheory’s central postulate that maternal and paternal acceptance pan-culturally predict the psychological adjustment of both boys and girls, and that men’s and women’s psychological adjustment are pan-culturally associated with their recollections of both maternal and paternal acceptance in childhood. Moreover, both men’s and women’s psychological adjustment is pan-culturally associated with their perceptions of their intimate partners’ acceptance, in addition to recollections of parental acceptance–rejection in childhood (Khaleque & Rohner, 2011; Khaleque, Rohner, &Laukkala, 2008).
Regardless of respondents’ cultural and sociodemographic characteristics, the experience of parental acceptance or rejection tends to be associated with psychological adjustment or maladjustment as postulated in the personality subtheory. A meta-analysis showed that 3,433 additional studies, all with nonsignificant results, would be required to disconfirm the conclusion that perceived parental acceptancerejection is pan-culturally associated with children’s psychological adjustment as measured on the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Khaleque & Rohner, 2002). That study also showed that 941 such studies would be required to disconfirm this conclusion among adults. All effect sizes reported in the meta-analysis were statistically significant. Additionally, results showed no significant heterogeneity in effect Interpersonal Acceptance–Rejection Theory 433 sizes in different samples cross-culturally or within American ethnic groups. That meta-analysis also showed that regardless of culture, ethnicity, or geographic location, approximately 26% of the variability in children’s psychological adjustment and 21% of the variability in adults’ adjustment are accounted for by perceived or remembered maternal and paternal acceptance–rejection in childhood (Khaleque & Rohner, 2002). These results support IPARTheory’s expectation that the magnitude of the relation between perceived acceptance–rejection and psychological adjustment is likely to be stronger in childhood while children are still under the direct influences of parents than in adulthood (Rohner, 1986). Nevertheless, a substantial amount of variance in children’s and adults’ adjustment remains to be accounted for by cultural, behavioral, genetic, neurobiological, and other factors (e.g., South & Jarnecke, 2015).
Evidence about the robustness of expressions of acceptance–rejection, along with evidence about the generalizable psychological effects of perceived acceptance–rejection, led to the formulation of the concept of a relational diagnosis called the acceptance–rejection syndrome (Rohner, 2004). This syndrome consists of two complementary sets of factors. First, nearly 500 studies show that children and adults appear to organize their perceptions of interpersonal acceptance–rejection around the same four classes of behavior, including warmth–affection, hostility–aggression, indifference–neglect, and undifferentiated rejection (see Rohner & Khaleque, 2010, for a review). Second, cross-cultural and meta-analytic evidence supports the conclusion that children and adults who experience their relationship with parents and other attachment figures as being rejecting tend to self-report the specific form of psychological maladjustment specified in the personality subtheory (e.g., Khaleque & Rohner, 2002). Together these two classes of behavior constitute a syndrome, or constellation of co-occurring behaviors, traits, and dispositions. Any single psychological disposition, such as anger, hostility, or aggression, may be found in other conditions; it is the full configuration of dispositions that compose the syndrome. Collectively, this evidence suggests a deep structure to the human affectional system that likely has a bio-cultural and evolutionarily adaptive foundation.
Neurobiological and Neuropsychological Correlates of Rejection
Many of the effects of perceived rejection are also found in developmental trauma disorder and in posttraumatic stress disorder when youths experience repeated trauma over an extended period of time and developmental periods (Courtois, 2004). Hypervigilance, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, self-hatred, problems with interpersonal relationships, and suicidality are among the shared effects of perceived rejection, developmental trauma disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (e.g., Courtois, 2004; Rohner & Khaleque, 2010). The pain of perceived rejection is real (MacDonald & Leary, 2005). Brain imaging (fMRI) studies reveal that the anterior cingulate cortex and the right ventral prefrontal cortex are activated when people feel rejected, just as they are when people experience physical pain (Eisenberger, 2015). In addition, results of both animal and human studies suggest that emotional trauma in childhood may affect brain structure and function in other ways (e.g., Marusak, Martin, Etkin, & Thomason, 2015). For example, emotional neglect in childhood may be a significant risk factor for cerebral infarction in later life (Wilson et al., 2012).
Moreover, perceived rejection and other forms of long-term emotional trauma are often implicated in the alteration of brain chemistry (Ford & Russo, 2006). Beyond this, adults who reported having experienced childhood trauma, especially emotional abuse, had a reduced amygdala volume in comparison with normal controls who had no such experiences (Souza-Queiroz et al., 2016). Impaired functioning in this region of the brain creates a vulnerability to internalizing symptoms and produces exaggerated and generalized anxiety and emotional responses, thus predisposing individuals to mood and anxiety disorders (Birn, Patriat, Phillips, Germain, & Herringa, 2014). In addition, adults’ recollections of childhood emotional maltreatment are associated with profound reductions in the volume of the medial prefrontal cortex, which plays an important role in the regulation of emotional behavior (Van Harmelen et al., 2010). These results provide an important link in helping understand the heightened emotional sensitivity of many adults who had been.
The effect of these and other neurobiological and neuropsychological changes may ultimately compromise children’s central nervous system and psychosocial development (Ford, 2005). On the positive side, however, early experiences of maternal nurturance among preschoolers are strongly predictive of larger hippocampal volume among the same children at school age (Luby et al., 2012). These results are important because the hippocampus is a region of the brain that is central to memory, emotion regulation, and stress modulation, all of which are essential for healthy social and emotional adjustment. Moreover, different regions of the brain are activated for adults who are in love versus adults who have been recently rejected by their partners (Fisher, Aron, & Brown, 2005). These neurobiological substrates provide one important explanation for the cross-cultural consistency of links between interpersonal rejection and psychological and behavioral maladaptation.