美国心理学家新书称职场成功与父亲有关 美国, 新书, 心理学家, 称职, 父亲

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How "Daddy" affects your job: psychologist

By Ellen Wulfhorst

　　在《父亲因素》一书中，斯迪芬·普特列举了五种类型的父亲——巨大成就型、脾气暴躁型、消极型、缺席型以及富有同情心/导师型——他们会对其子女的职业产生重大影响。例如，那些在家庭生活中脾气暴躁型父亲的子女在成长的过程了学会了如何察言观色。具有这种直觉能力的子女适合担任像人事部经理或谈判代表这样的职务。但是这些人可能会缺乏安全感，难以对他人产生信任。普特在一次接受采访时说：“我看到过很多人在他们的职业生涯中用头撞玻璃天花板或水泥墙，这是父亲因素的作用。在生活中你的父亲是一个怎样的角色呢？这个未知的变数对我们的职业产生了巨大影响。”

　　普特在书中写道：父亲的类型将影响他们的孩子在工作中是否会和他人和睦相处，是否有创业精神，是否对他们的职业顾虑太多，是否能成为老板。他写道，即使是缺席型父亲也会通过拒绝和遗弃意识对孩子的职业形成影响。这些人可能会成为非常成功的人士，成为他们的父亲没有成为的人，或对管理人员或权威人士容易怒火相向。在职场生涯中他们他们会全力以赴，努力将工作做到最好。他说：“很多人会说，‘我从来都不曾了解我的父亲。’”

　　但他补充说：“你知道母亲的憎恨，你知道你的脾气，你知道你的父亲是个失败者，相信我，你了解你的父亲。父亲对子女工作的影响是最不容易为人所察的秘密之一。”普特共同撰写了有关母亲和女儿的名为《修理折断的主枝》一书。《父亲因素》一书将在下个月由Prometheus Books出版社出版。心理学教授威廉·伯莱克说，书中所阐述的观点和最近其他对父亲对职场行为的影响研究相契合。伯莱克说：“大量的研究表明家庭生活经历以及我们和父母的经历不仅会影响我们的个性，还会影响我们的公司人格。不仅是作为领导者还是跟随者。”普特将自己的父亲归类为缺席型，在这本书出版后他说：“我父亲将不会再和我谈话。”

Successes or failures of employees in the workplace can be traced to what kind of father they had, a psychologist argues in a new book.

In "The Father Factor," Stephan Poulter lists five styles of fathers -- super-achieving, time bomb, passive, absent and compassionate/mentor -- who have powerful influences on the careers of their sons and daughters.

Children of the "time-bomb" father, for example, who explodes in anger at his family, learn how to read people and their moods. Those intuitive abilities make them good at such jobs as personnel managers or negotiators, he writes.

But those same children may have trouble feeling safe and developing trust, said Poulter, a clinical psychologist who also works with adolescents in Los Angeles area schools.

"I've seen more people hit their heads on what they call a glass ceiling or a cement wall in their careers, and it's what I call the father factor," Poulter said in an interview. "What role did your father have in your life? It's this unknown variable which has this huge impact because we're all sons and daughters."

Styles of fathering can affect whether their children get along with others at work, have an entrepreneurial spirit, worry too much about their career, burn out or become the boss, Poulter writes.

Even absent fathers affect how their children work, he writes, by instilling feelings of rejection and abandonment.

Those children may be overachievers, becoming the person their father never was, or develop such anger toward supervisors or authority figures that they work best when they are self-employed, he writes.

"A lot of people say, 'I never knew my dad,"' he said. But, he added: "You knew the myth, you knew your mother's hatred, you knew your anger, you knew your dad was a loser. Trust me, you knew your dad.

"The father's influence in the workplace is really one of the best-kept secrets," he said. Poulter co-authored an earlier book on mothers and daughters called "Mending the Broken Bough." "The Father Factor" is set for release next month by Prometheus Books.

Looking at the influence of fathers fits with other recent research on workplace behavior, said William Pollack, a psychology professor and director of the Centers for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital, part of Harvard Medical School.

"There's been a good deal of research to show not only that our family-life experience and our experience with our parents affects our personality, but it affects our corporate personality, both as leaders and followers," said Pollack, author of "Real Boys."

"There's also good research to show that for men and women, the way they identify with their father and their father's role may well affect how they interact as a manager or leader in the workplace."

Poulter, by the way, describes his own father as the absent type. After this book, he said, "my dad won't even talk to me."