Carrot or stick? : a Horizon guide to raising children.

Using archival footage, this Horizon special looks at different modes of parenting advice over the last five decades. Archival footage is used to illustrate each era - beginning with the 1970s 'strange experience' experiments on young children to test attachment theory. Unfortunately, maternal 'coldness' was seen as a cause for autism in the late 1960s / early 1970s. There was a theory for it called 'refrigerator theory.' Experiments on baby rhesus monkeys are shown which seemed to prove that an unresponsive mother could lead to autism. Valuable archival footage of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim is shown, discussing his theories of child psychology. His work was key in encouraging doctors to offer therapy to disturbed children. Early research into domestic violence and destructive family patterns of abuse is shown. A scheme called Newpin helped many mothers overcome depression and overcome their own family backgrounds. This also led to a change in discipline in general with parents rejecting smacking and other more severe post-war forms of punishment. We see a session in which 'time out' was first introduced as a form of discipline; theories which have led to later reality shows like Supernanny. In contrast to this, some parents have sought out much more harsh tactics, such as those promoted by Dr Ronald Federici, shown in action here. The introduction of medical diagnoses for misbehaviour, such as ADHD, was first introduced in the early 2000s. As the various archival sequences show, we have come full circle with parenting in line with a rapidly changing world.