ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the concepts of parental acceptance and rejection as the warmth dimension of parent-child relationships. It discusses three subtheories that comprise personality subtheory, coping subtheory, and sociocultural systems subtheory. The chapter also describes major classes of methods used in IPARTheory research. It also discusses personality effects of parental acceptance-rejection. The chapter explains empirical evidence from studies assessing a single personality disposition. IPARTheory proposes that rejection leads to negative self-views including impaired self-adequacy and self-esteem. Emotional unresponsiveness is another psychological consequence of parental rejection predicted by IPARTheory. Emotional instability refers in IPARTheory to lability of emotions, emotion dysregulation, and the tendency to experience negative affect. Mental representations provide a framework for perceiving, interpreting, understanding, and reacting to life experiences, including interpersonal relationships.
