Diana Baumrind is credited with establishing authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles. She was a clinical and developmental psychologist in the late 1940s. During the 1970s she began extensive work researching parent-child relationships, The styles she came up with accounted for the child's social, emotional, and cognitive development.
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/baumrind-theory-parenting-styles-6147.html
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/baumrind-theory-parenting-styles-6147.html