This is just one minor example. Our needs and goals and self-concepts come from thousands, maybe millions, of experiences. We'll study sex-roles more in chapter 9. They tend to have nontraditional, permissive parents who reward their achievements. The mother plays a crucial role, as does the father for males.
More research is needed here.
There seems to be a fine line between a parent being very encouraging and being overly dominant. In contrast with the research just cited about what an achiever's parents are actually like, achievement specialists recommend having a somewhat different kind of parent. These parents encourage high but appropriate goals, respect the child's abilities, take and show great pleasure from the child's successes, and give lots of praise. They let the child try hard on their own before giving suggestions or help, but they give help before the child gives up. In general, educators believe that high achievers have respectful, praising, optimistic, supportive, hard working parents who are themselves learning and success oriented.