Motivational patterns in the families of adjusted and maladjusted boys.

20 maladjusted and 20 carefully matched adjusted boys and their parents were administered TATs and interviewed. Objective measures of achievement, affiliation, power, aggression, and experience balance were obtained from the TATs. The 2 groups of families differed less, motivationally, than expected on the basis of the clinical literature. Paternal aggression and maternal extratensiveness in the maladjusted group did suggest some parental conflict. The maladjusted boys perceived their mothers as distant and subtly controlling. There was no evidence of a positive relation between motivational measures in members of the same family. There was an inverse relation between the maladjusted boy and his parents, particularly the mother. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)