bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Continuity and Change in Women's Characteristics over Four Decades
Authors: Mussen Paul , Eichorn Dorothy H. , Honzik Marjorie P. , Bieber Stephen L. , Meredith William M.
Published: March 2013

Fifty-three mothers of participants in the Guidance Study of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley, were rated on 21 cognitive and personality-social characteristics at approximately 30 years of age and again at age 70. As judged by the interage correlations, all 5 of the cognitive variables and 10 of the 16 personality variables, proved to be relatively stable over the 40-year period. Ratings of intelligence, mental alertness, speed of mental processes, use of language, and accuracy in thinking were relatively consistent and the following personality-social characteristics also showed continuity over the 40-year interval: talkativeness, cheerfulness, frankness in discussion, tendency to criticize, excitability, energy level and self-esteem. Ratings of self-assurance, attitude toward child and satisfaction with life showed little stability over this long interval. A new factor analytic method was used to extract 3 factors common to both ages, together with 2 factors specific to age 30 and 3 factors specific to age 70.
The Semantic Structure of Animal Terms: A Developmental Study
Authors: Storm Christine
Published: March 2013

This study explored the role of semantic structure within the domain of animal terms in children's and adults' spontaneous operations on these terms. Twenty-four subjects at each of six educational levels were given four tasks. Freelisting of animal terms and animal associations to animal words showed similar semantic structures across all educational levels, including doctoral students in zoology, with a few strongly associated terms, and a large group of fairly isolated terms. Sorting of animal terms and ratings of animal pair dissimilarities yielded a dominant dimension of size for grades seven, eleven, and undergraduate groups. The dominant dimension for zoologists, however, was based on food habits. The implications of these results for the development of semantic structures are discussed.
Independence and Dependence in Self-Care Behaviors in Nursing Home Residents: An Operant-Observational Study
Authors: Baltes Margret M. , Burgess Robert L. , Stewart Robert B.
Published: March 2013

In the present research project, an attempt is made to delineate the relationship between dependent/independent behaviors of nursing home residents and the consequent behaviors of the staff. In this context, dependence in residents is limited to self-care behaviors during morning care in the nursing home. Subjects were six staff members of one ward in a nursing home and the 48 patients they cared for. Observations of behavior sequences were recorded with the BOSS system by four observers over 11 days for one hour each morning. Interrater reliability, established during eight sessions, ranged from 0.89 to 1.00 (X= 0.946). In terms of frequencies of behaviors, elderly residents exhibited significantly more independent behaviors than dependent behaviors. Staff engaged significantly more often in 'no response', followed by dependence-supporting behavior, and lastly by independencesupporting behavior. In terms of interactive sequences, an independent response by a resident was most often followed by 'no response' from staff. In contrast, staff members almost invariably responded to the dependent behavior of the residents with dependencesupporting behavior. These temporal contingencies when interpreted within an operant paradigm should have consequences for the maintenance of dependent and independent behavior in elderly residents.
Do Friends Share and Communicate More Than Non-Friends?
Authors: Sharabany Ruth , Hertz-Lazarowitz Rachel
Published: March 2013

Eighty children, kindergarteners and first graders, were assigned to classmate same-sex pairs of friends and non-friends. Each dyad was asked to draw on a single sheet of paper using paints and cuttings. Social communicative behaviors; smiles, looks and verbal activity, and sharing behaviors; exchange of materials and use of space, were observed. Interobserver reliability was 0.80. Results showed that friends unexpectedly exhibited less sharing and less communicative behaviors, while they showed more task activity. An explanatory model is suggested to account for social intimacy among friends; task relevant behaviors are maximized, and other social behaviors minimized among friends. Non-friends minimized task relevant behaviors and maximized social communicative behaviors. Implications for the vicissitudes of intimacy among friends are discussed.
Retrospective Reports by Healthy Intelligent Elderly People of Personal Events of their Adult Lives
Authors: Field Dorothy
Published: March 2013

The veridical nature of recollections of the same group of 60 adults over 40 years is examined. Parents of the subjects of the Berkeley Guidance Study, mean age 68.8 when seen, were intensively interviewed at three time periods from 1929 to 1969. Twenty-four factual and 24 attitudinal variables were studied. All information, from questions about education, occupation and place of birth, to relationship and bond with spouse, parents and children, about which the parents reported two or more times, is included. Some parents were more consistent reporters than others. Factual variables were recalled with greater agreement than attitudinal variables. Analysis of ratings of happiness of the parent's childhood found an increasing number of parents reporting having had a happy childhood at succeeding interviews. Reports were no more and no less consistent for periods when parents were younger or when time periods were shorter. However, parents' perceptions of factual and attitudinal variable showed a drop in the middle period, when their children were 17 years old.
Children's Strategies in Imagining Spatio-Geometrical Transformations
Authors: McGillicuddy-De Lisi Ann V. , de Lisi Richard
Published: March 2013

Seventy-five children aged 6-13 years were assigned to one of five groups on the basis of performance on Piagetian tests of spatial-geometrical knowledge. Each child was then observed on a procedure which required that he or she imagine and execute three transformations of geometric figures: square-enlargement, diamond-enlargement and transformation of a small diamond to a large square. The figures were composed of a rubber band stretched around four pegs placed on a pegboard. Children transformed the figure by moving the pegs which altered the shape formed by the stretched rubber band. Rates of success, number and type of peg movements, and strategies for performing the transformations varied with operative level and task. Results were discussed in relation to Piaget's position on the image-operation relation and current investigations of imaginal processes.
Elements Contributing to a Theory and a Methodology of Action-Research in Education
Authors: Bataille Michel , Clanet Claude
Published: March 2013

By endeavouring to go beyond the opposition between two modes of apprehension, one of an objectivist nature and the other of a phenomenological nature, there emerges the broad outline of an approach peculiar to action-research, which is characterised essentially by taking into account a dialectic expressed through systems of "loops" between subject and object, theory and practice, etc. Around these concepts of complexity and proximity/distance are subsequently presented some aspects of the changes produced by such an approach (the position of the researcher, the relations between theory and practice, the concept of change).

These theoretical considerations are illustrated from some aspects of an actionresearch project now in progress (the ARPEGE action-research project on home-school co-operation in education [1] at pre-school and elementary level).
Mode of Instruction and Memory Test Performance
Authors: Rogoff Barbara
Published: March 2013

Cross-cultural literature suggests that schooling's effect on cognitive test performance is due to school's reliance on instruction using language removed from its everyday context, in contrast with informal instruction using demonstration of skills. The present study takes advantage of variability in use of verbal instruction and demonstration by mothers teaching their 9-year-olds, in order to test the relation of mode of instruction to memory test performance. In study 1, with 31 children from a society (Highland Mayan) in which much of children's learning occurs through observation, maternal mode of instruction was highly predictive of performance on two verbal memory tests. However, mode of instruction was unrelated to performance on two scene memory tests. Thus, mode of instruction has specific predictiveness to verbal memory skills but not memory performance in general. Study 2 replicated study 1 with 30 U.S. children, and found that the U.S. mothers provided more verbal instruction and less demonstration than the Mayan mothers. In study 2, mode of instruction was not predictive of the children's memory test performance. This may be due to the U.S. children's exposure to a high level of verbal instruction rather than demonstration, a threshold above which further variation is unpredictive. The question whether exposure to verbal instruction vs. demonstration accounts for some of the demonstrated effects of schooling on test performance is answered with a qualified "yes": There is a relationship between maternal mode of instruction and test performance but only for tests relying on verbal material and for children whose exposure to verbal instruction is not as extreme as in Western culture. The effect is not general, and is contextually influenced.
Young Children's Compliance and Noncompliance to Parental Discipline in a Natural Setting
Authors: Chapman Michael , Zahn-Waxler Carolyn
Published: March 2013

In order to determine the effects of different parental disciplinary techniques on young children's compliance and noncompliance, mothers were trained to observe emotional incidents involving their own toddler-aged children. Reports of disciplinary encounters were analyzed in terms of the types of discipline used (reasoning, verbal prohibition, physical coercion, love withdrawal, and combinations thereof) and children's responses to that discipline (compliance/noncompliance and avoidance). The relation between compliance/noncompliance and type of misdeed (harm to persons, harm to property, and lapses of self-control) was also analyzed. Results indicated that love withdrawal combined with other techniques was most effective in securing children's compliance and that its effectiveness was not a function of the type of technique with which it was combined. Avoidant responses and affective reunification with the parent were more likely to follow love withdrawal than any other technique. Physical coercion was somewhat less effective than love withdrawal, while reasoning and verbal prohibition were not at all effective except when both were combined with physical coercion.
The Social Networks of Preadolescent Children in Sweden
Authors: Tietjen Anne Marie
Published: March 2013

A study was undertaken to assess the influence of personal and environmental factors on the composition of children's networks and the relative amounts and use of time spent with people of various ages, sexes, and roles. Seventy-two Swedish children between the ages of eight and eleven replied to interview questions about their family members, relatives, friends, and the non-relative adults they knew. A four-way ANOVA was performed to assess the influence of the child's sex and school grade, the presence or absence of a father in the child's home, and the type of neighborhood the child lived in. Boys reported having contact with more peers more often than girls, while girls reported spending more time in peer dyads and with their families. Differences by school grade suggest movement toward fewer, more intensive friendships with school mates and away from family members. Children in father-absent homes seemed to have more limited peer networks than children in two-parent families and reported spending less time with their families. Children in neighborhoods with more commercial and social services reported knowing more adults not related to them.
Class-Inclusion Developmental Levels and Logical Necessity
Authors: Cormier Pierre , Dagenais Yvon
Published: March 2013

The relation between class inclusion developmental stages and the logical necessity of the judgments provided by the children is not yet strongly established. 192 children from grades 2 to 6 showing three different levels of class-inclusion answers (failure, correct answer based upon counting, correct answer based upon logical reasons) were submitted to one out of four different necessity tasks. In these tasks, children were required (1) to solve class-inclusion problems when the use of empirical means of verification was prevented; (2) to maintain their inclusion judgment despite a modification of the initial display; (3) to discover the B = A relationship in initial displays or through modification; and (4) to understand the impossible (B  A, B = A). Results indicate (1) that subjects using logical reasons differ from those using counting in only one specific situation, the ability to reject the impossible case, while subjects who fail class-inclusion problems also fail all necessity tasks, (2) that the four necessity tasks are not equally difficult, suggesting a gradual mastery of these problems, and (3) that the necessity tasks are more difficult than the usual class-inclusion problems. Results are discussed with reference to the two kinds of generalization process (inductive and constructive) hypothesized by Piaget and Henriques (1978).
Is Imprinting an Appropriate Model for Human Infant Attachment?
Authors: Reed G. L. , Leiderman P. H.
Published: March 2013

We generalized the results of animal imprinting studies to see if they predict the development of attachment in 28 polymatrically-reared, Kenyan Gusii infants, whose ages were 6 to 30 months. The hypotheses tested were: (1) there is a sensitive phase for attachment; (2) there is an association between age of infant attachment and developmental level, as well as between age of attachment and caregiving history.

Our results provide evidence against a sensitive phase for attachment: infants throughout the age range of the sample showed shifts in attachments, and no particular epoch in the infant's caregiving history was found to be most important in predicting their first attachment figure. There was an association between age of attachment, and both developmental level, and caregiving history. Early attached infants had higher scores on the Bayley Mental Development Index and less maternal body contact than their age matched peers.

We may conclude, therefore, that, so far as is at present known, the way in which attachment behavior develops in the human infant and becomes focused on a discriminated figure is sufficiently like the way in which it develops in other mammals, and in birds, for it to be included, legitimately, under the heading of imprinting so long as that term is used in its current generic sense. (Bowlby 1969: 223.)
Search Behavior on Multi-Choice Hiding Tasks: Evidence for an Objective Conception of Space in Infancy
Authors: Cummings E. Mark , Bjork Elizabeth L.
Published: March 2013

Nineto 10-month old infants were presented with a series of visible displacement hiding trials at a first location (A), and, subsequently, at a second location (B). Infants had to choose among 3, 5, or 6 salient alternative search locations on each trial. Infants seldom searched perseveratively during B-hiding trials, regardless of the number of alternative search locations presented. Instead, infant search attempts tended to cluster around the currently correct location during Aand B-hiding trials on all apparatuses. These findings suggest that infants do not err on visible displacement tasks because they (a) link objects with previous action-locations, (b) rely upon egocentric spatial reference systems, or (c) confuse different hiding locations as a result of a specific form of retrieval competition from the previous hiding location. The results are discussed as evidence for a memory explanation of infant search behavior which contends that infants comprehend the objective nature of spatial relationships, but are less effective information processors than older individuals.
Categorization by Children and Adults in Communication Contexts
Authors: Skeen Judith A. , Rogoff Barbara , Ellis Shari
Published: March 2013

An important difference between laboratory and real life categorization is that in everyday use, categorization generally serves as the means to an end (e.g., arranging the kitchen to be able to find things efficiently), rather than the end itself. Laboratory classification studies have found increases with development in the use of nominal rather than functional categories, with nominal categorization regarded as the superior strategy. The present study examines developmental differences in category labeling in a communication situation. Adult women and 9-year-old children instructed 7-year-olds in the organization of groceries in a mock kitchen or of photographs of common objects into compartments as a "homework" assignment.

In contrast with the usual laboratory findings, both adults and children gave more functional than nominal labels. The adults' greater use of functional labels appeared only in the homework task, and not in the kitchen task. The results lend support to the suggestion that category use varies according to the context and purpose of the categorization.
Perceived Retrospective Change of Self among the Middle-Aged in the Kibbutz
Authors: Handel Amos , Kimhi Shaol , Leviatan Uri
Published: March 2013

Self-appraisals of retrospective change were obtained from 100 middle-aged persons, members of 10 preselected kibbutzim. With reference to 32 self-attributes, respondents indicated the direction and amount of change they perceived in themselves, compared to what they were like 10 years ago. Most respondents perceived little or no change: the transition to middle age evidently has not disrupted their sense of continuity. A summary score of the absolute amount of change reported for the 32 items demonstrated a high level of internal consistency. Regression analyses of this summary score revealed that (a) the lower the amount of reported change, the higher the level of both self-perceived adjustment and adjustment as rated by peers; (b) minimal perceived change of self characterizes individuals who joined the kibbutz at an earlier age and had more formal education. Respondents tended to evaluate changes in themselves as being positive. Implications for studies of the sense of continuity during the life span were discussed.
Morbidity and Infant Development: A Hypothesis
Authors: Pollitt Ernesto
Published: March 2013

An exploratory assessment was made of the relationship between morbidity during the first six months of life and performance in the Bayley Scales of Mental and Motor Development at eight months of life. The study was conducted in 14 villages of Sui Lin Township, Taiwan, which is a rural agricultural area 180 miles south of Taipei. Prior to the study daily dietary intake of the mothers was estimated to range from 1400 to 2000 kcal and 40 grams of protein. Developmentally the children who were healthy were better off than the children who became ill during the first two trimesters. A striking adverse effect of morbidity was found on both mental and motor scale scores when gastrointestinal and respiratory illness were aggregated. Children without illness plus children who were ill with only one illness in one trimester obtained statistically significantly higher scores than the children who were ill with both types of illness and in both trimesters. These findings were explained as a function of the negative energy balance generally found among ill children in populations where malnutrition is endemic. In search for homeostasis the child reduces activity to decrease energy expenditure, and it is to be expected that the relation of a sick child with its environment may be in jeopardy. A hypothesis regarding the relationship between incidence of morbidity and development is proposed.
Classification in Children: Two Developmental Information-Processing Models
Authors: Morra Sergio
Published: March 2013

Two different theories (Pascual-Leone's and Keating's) of information processing capacity development allow predictions about subjects' performance in some classification tasks. M-space and its interaction with cognitive style are constructs of Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian theory, evaluated here together with a micromodel for classification problems, consistent with the same theory, proposed by Morra. Keating and Bobbitt maintain that cognitive processes can be divided in phases; their construct of efficiency in the "operation" phase is evaluated. Subjects are 40 6-year-olds, selected out of 76.

Predictions drawn from Keating and Bobbitt's model are falsified most likely because of the inadequacy of models based on subtractive analysis of reaction times. Predictions from Pascual Leone's theory are almost wholly confirmed. However, some unpredicted (but compatible) data raise the problem of a rediscussion of the "schema" construct, proposed by Piaget and incorporated in the neo-Piagetian theory.
Fathers' Presence During Birth of their Infants and Paternal Involvement
Authors: Grossmann Klaus E. , Volkmer Hans-Joachim
Published: March 2013

100 fathers were asked about their attitude to and their actual participation in infant care one year after their firstborn child was delivered. Subsequently, the fathers were divided into four groups: those who wanted to be present during birth of their child and those who did not want to be present in the first place ("attitude"). Each group was then divided on the basis of whether they actually were present or not (table 1). Comparisons were made between the four groups in terms of differences in answering a self-developed questionnaire. It was shown that attitude brought about more differences than did presence (table 2). Although the study has been exploratory in nature, results did support the following hypothesis: the differences obtained reflect an effect of a long-term orientation towards the child, and not a sudden effect caused by the presence of the fathers in the delivery room.
On the Existence of a Graphic Stage in Free Classification: Another Look
Authors: Silverman Irwin W. , Dansky Jeffrey L. , Laughlin Margaret
Published: March 2013

Two studies were conducted for the primary purpose of determining whether young children construct collections with graphic properties. The stimuli used were geometric figures that differed on two or three dimensions. In the first study, a clear majority of 3-year-olds constructed graphic collections, whereas 5-and 7-year-olds constructed nongraphic collections predominately. Having subjects sort the objects into a small number of boxes had no discernible effect on subjects whose free collections were graphic in form, but this technique did facilitate production of higher-level collections among subjects whose free collections were nongraphic. In the second study, involving only 3-year-olds, graphic collections again predominated, replicating the initial results but with a larger set of stimulus objects. The present results conform closely to those of Inhelder and Piaget, which some previous research had questioned.
Implications of an Interactional Paradigm for Research on Human Development
Authors: Magnusson David
Published: March 2013

This paper consists of three main parts. First, a brief review of an interactional perspective for research on individual functioning is given. The need for integrated models, taking into consideration both psychological and biological factors on the person side in studying the person-environment interaction is emphasized. Second, empirical studies from a longitudinal program are presented. These studies are used as a basis for a discussion of methodological problems connected with interindividual differences in biological maturation. Thirdly, major implications for further development research in an interactional perspective are suggested, including (a) a need for well planned longitudinal research, (b) careful systematic observation and description of psychological phenomena, (c) integration of psychological and biological variables, (d) more interest devoted to the person as an integrated totality than to variables per se, (e) more interest devoted to lawfulness of processes in human functioning than to prediction of behavior, and (f) systematic analyses of environments and situations. Finally, it is argued that an interactional perspective can serve as a general frame of reference for planning, carrying through and interpreting empirical research, in order to overcome the fragmentation that now impedes real progress.
Relationships Between State-Trait Anxiety and Locus of Control-Experimental Studies with Adults and Children
Authors: Biaggio Angela M.B.
Published: March 2013

Two studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between locus of control and anxiety. The distinction between state and trait anxiety led to the predictions that internal subjects show more state-anxiety than external subjects in 'luck' situations, whereas 'externals' show more state-anxiety under 'ability' situations. Externality was predicted to correlate positively with trait-anxiety. Results with a sample of Brazilian female college students confirmed the first hypothesis in part - externals were more anxious than the internals in the 'ability' situation, but the two groups did not differ in the 'luck' situation. The second hypothesis was confirmed; the correlation between externality and trait-anxiety was positive and significant (r = 0.47, p < 0.05). Results with a sample of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children indicate that internal children showed significantly higher state-anxiety in both 'luck' and 'ability' situations; the correlation between externality and trait-anxiety was -0.86. In addition, incentive led to higher state-anxiety, and significant decreases in externality as a function of school grade. Some of the results confirm findings from other cultures while others point to differences between children and adults regarding the relationships between anxiety and locus of control.
The Structure of Temperament among Japanese and American Young Adults
Authors: Iwawaki Saburo , Hertzog Christopher , Hooker Karen , Lerner Richard M.
Published: March 2013

To assess the generalizability of the structure of temperament, identified among American young adult samples, to similarly-aged groups in another culture, 304 Japanese college students (59.5% males) were studied. The Japanese responses to the Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS) were compared to those of the American sample studied by Lerner, Palermo, Spiro and Nesselroade (1982) through the use of confirmatory factor analytic procedures. The major results were that evidence for: (1) the five factors present on the DOTS in the American sample (i.e., the factors of Activity, Attention Span/Distractibility, Adaptability/Approach-Withdrawal, Rhythmicity, and Reactivity) were identified also among the Japanese; but that (2) large cultural differences in the Adaptability/Approach-Withdrawal dimension existed. Results are discussed in regard to methodological issues in establishing cross-cultural measurement equivalence and in regard to future research on adult temperament.
The Role of Strategies in the Development of Memory Span Assessed by Running Probes
Authors: Halford Graeme S. , Maybery Murray T. , Bennet Dianne
Published: March 2013

The running memory span task and the fixed memory span task were administered to children aged 7 to 13 years under conditions which made them directly comparable. A probe task, consisting of a short string of digits embedded in a block of longer strings, was also used. The running probe task was argued to be a better measure of strategy-free span than the standard running task. The probe task showed age differences as great as with the fixed span task, and span was reduced by only about half an item over all ages. It is therefore concluded that strategies are not responsible for memory span development over this age range.
Creativity in Middle and Late School Years
Authors: Smith Gudmund , Carlsson Ingegerd
Published: March 2013

The purpose of the study was to follow the development of creativity defined as the inclination to transgress the confines of an established perceptual context in youngsters aged 12-16 years, after having studied 4-11-year-olds previously. There were altogether 142 subjects, 24-33 in each age group, who were tested with a special percept-genetic creativity test (PG). A creativity-fantasy scale was also applied together with a percept-genetic personality test (MCT). After a creative peak among 10-11-year-olds, 12-year-olds showed a significant decrease of strong creativity signs, a simultaneous increase of compulsive and kindred defense strategies and decrease of signs of anxiety. The recovery of creativity was slow during high puberty (14-15 years) but more marked after (16 years). Using the duality of inwardness and the outside world as a point of departure the paper discusses the fluctuations between high and low creative periods and, among other things, tries to explain why they are more pronounced among subjects with an academic home background.
Perception of Depth in Photographs: A Study of Young Malawians
Authors: Ireson Judith , McGurk Harry
Published: March 2013

The ability of young Malaw'ians to make judgements of the relative sizes and spatial locations of objects in photographic scenes with restricted cues to depth was investigated. The scenes were composed in such a way that no horizon was visible. 7-and 13-year-old children and young adults constructed three-dimensional models of the scenes on a horizontal surface. All groups of subjects responded with an accuracy that was significantly above chance with regard to both the size of the objects and their spatial location. Adults were significantly more accurate than children, and adult spatial scores were maximum for the task.
Cognitive and Motor Development in Infants of Adolescent Mothers: A Longitudinal Analysis
Authors: Carlson Dimity B. , LaBarba Richard C. , Sclafani Joseph D. , Bowers Clint A.
Published: March 2013

A longitudinal study of cognitive and motor development among infants born to adolescent mothers was conducted with 58 adolescent mothers and a control group of 59 adult mothers. The experimental and control groups were matched on race (white/black), parity, prenatal care, and SES. Data were obtained on antepartum, delivery, and postpartum performance of the mothers, along with data on infant status within each maternal group. Additionally, infants from each maternal group were followed longitudinally over the first year of life. Measures of infant mental and motor development test performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development were obtained at six and 12 months of age. The HOME Inventory was also used to obtain ratings of the infant home environment at six and 12 months of age. No differences were observed in the incidence of infant or maternal complications between the adolescent and adult maternal groups. However, birthweight, cesarean section, and labor and delivery complications were significantly related to race, with black subjects experiencing less favorable outcomes on these variables. Infants born to adolescent mothers scored significantly lower on the Mental Development Index of the Bayley relative to controls. Black infants also performed significantly lower on this Index compared to white infants. Home environments of infants born to adolescents were found to be significantly less nurturant than those of controls, and the HOME ratings for black subjects were significantly lower than those for whites.
Sociocultural Change and Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Themselves and Others
Authors: Schludermann Shirin , Schludermann Eduard
Published: March 2013

The study investigated the effects of sociocultural change on variables related to adolescents' self concepts (i.e., perceptions and expected reputations of adolescents and adults; real and ideal self; social maturity). Traditional and transitional adolescents (both sexes, 13-18 years) from two cities in North India (Ns = 632, 625) completed Indian adaptations of Hess and Goldblatts' Rating Scales, Worchel's Self Activity Inventory, the CPI So Scale and a Socioeconomic (SE) Scale. ANOVAs were used to test the effects of culture, sex, age and SE status on attitudes to adolescents and adults, real and ideal selves, and social maturity. Adolescents who viewed adults more favorably (transitionals and females in contrast to traditionals and males respectively) showed more favorable ideal selves and more social maturity. Control for SE level did not attenuate significant culture effects. The results suggest the powerful influence of macrostructural variables (like sociocultural change) on adolescent attitudes towards themselves and others.
Developmental Models and Early Experience
Authors: MacDonald Kevin
Published: March 2013

This paper attempts to describe links between the transactional or dialectical and the mechanistic models of development and to provide a rationale for why both types are useful. Examples of data sets, deriving principally from the early experience literature, are provided which conform to both, and it is concluded that the applicability of the model for describing behavioral development is strongly influenced by where the individual stands on three empirical dimensions: (1) the relative power of the environments that the individual is exposed to; (2) the plasticity of the individual's behavior; and (3) the deviation of the individual from developmental norms. These factors crucially affect the degree of reciprocity found in organism-environment interactions, and the results suggest that differences between developmental models are reconcilable.
The Development of Social Expectations in Distress-Relief Sequences: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: Lamb Michael E. , Malkin Catherine M.
Published: March 2013

Thirty infants were observed at home each month between one and seven months of age. They were unobtrusively filmed in situations in which their mothers or unfamiliar women responded to their naturally occurring cries by either picking them up or standing alongside and talking to them (the 'inhibit' condition). Picking up was effective in soothing infants from the first month on. Further, 80% of the one-month-olds began to soothe even before being picked up. Starting around four to five months of age, the infants protested (by crying more loudly) when the adults (especially mothers) failed to pick them up (i.e., in the inhibit condition). At the same age, infants began to orient away from the adults in the inhibit condition. These results suggest that infants develop conditioned associations among distress, pick-up, and comfort by one month of age and that by four to five months, they develop cognitive expectations regarding social responses. Protest and aversion occur when these expectations are violated.
The Cultural Context of Motor Development: Postural Manipulations in the Daily Life of Bambara Babies (Mali)
Authors: Bril Blandine , Sabatier Colette
Published: March 2013

The present study is the first exploratory step of a larger investigation focusing on the influence of culturally-related caretaking practices on motor development. Four Bambara infants between 4 and 23 weeks of age were observed for two full days with a paper-and-pencil event-recording technique and with video films. We took down the infant's 'postural time-table', i.e., the different spatial positions experienced during everyday life (prone, supine, sitting, standing...) and the different postural adjustments required by maternal manipulations during caretaking and transportation.
The Developmental Niche: A Conceptualization at the Interface of Child and Culture
Authors: Super Charles M. , Harkness Sara
Published: March 2013

Anthropological approaches to human development have been oriented primarily to the socialized adult, at the expense of understanding developmental processes. Developmental psychology, in contrast, has traditionally been concerned with a decontextualized, 'universal' child. After a brief historical review, the 'developmental niche' is introduced as a framework for examining the cultural structuring of child development. The developmental niche has three components: the physical and social settings in which the child lives; the customs of child care and child rearing; and the psychology of the caretakers. Homeostatic mechanisms tend to keep the three subsystems in harmony with each other and appropriate to the developmental level and individual characteristics of the child. Nevertheless, they have different relationships to other features of the larger environment and thus constitute somewhat independent routes of disequilibrium and change. Regularities within and among the subsystems, and thematic continuities and progressions across the niches of childhood provide material from which the child abstracts the social, affective, and cognitive rules of the culture. Examples are provided from research in a farming community in Kenya.
Development of Concepts of Justification in German University Students
Authors: Kitchener Karen Strohm , Wood Phillip Karl
Published: March 2013

The Reflective Judgment (Kitchener & King, 1981) model describes a sequence of seven qualitatively different assumptions about knowledge and corresponding ways to justify beliefs in the light of these assumptions. The purpose of this study was to test the cross-national robustness of the Reflective Judgment model and the influence of academic socialisation on Reflective Judgment. Forty-eight beginning, advanced, and doctoral level students from a traditional German university were administered the analogies subtest of the Intelligenz Struktur Test (Amthauer, 1955) and a German translation of the Reflective Judgment Interview (Kitchener & King, 1981). Inter-rater reliability and agreement were high and comparable to that found on American samples supporting the cross-national robustness of the rating rules. Davison's (1979) test for sequentiality indicated that stage adjacent frequencies occurred about five times as often as that expected under the hypothesis of quasi-independence supporting the sequentiality of the model. A two-way (educational level x sex) ANOVA revealed a significant effect for education (P = 0.03) and sex (P = 0.02). The results remained significant when age was covaried out. A significant sex (P = 0.01) but not education effect was found on the Intelligenz Struktur (IST) analogies subtest. After covarying the IST the sex effect on Reflective Judgment was not significant. The data offer initial support for the crossnational applicability of the Reflective Judgment model.
The Social Nature of Private Speech of Preschoolers During Problem Solving
Authors: Goudena Paul P.
Published: March 2013

Extending Vygotsky's theory, young children's private speech during problem solving is conceptualised as having a dual nature; as a reaction to the task and as, at the same time, an indirect appeal to a potentially helpful person. The interactional function of private speech is elaborated within a developmental pragmatic frame of explanation. Based on the dual nature conceptualisation of private speech, the hypothesis was tested that children would produce more private speech during problem solving following interaction with a collaborative adult than following interaction with a non-collaborative adult, the adult being non-actively present during the child's execution of the cognitive task. Twenty-two children (ages: 4 years 2 months to 4 years 10 months) participated in the experiment. Support was found for the main hypothesis. No reliable relationship was found between the amount of private speech produced and the quality of task performance. Results are discussed in relation to other studies of private speech, two of which are re-interpreted in accordance with a dual nature conceptualisation of private speech. The role of private speech in the regulation of non-verbal task performance is critically analysed. It is emphasised that private speech should be studied while taking into account the interactional framework in which the child has been functioning.
Priorities in Developmental Psychology: a Comment on the Paper by Susan Sugarman
Authors: Bryant P. E.
Published: March 2013

I argue that Susan Sugarman is right to question the common assumption of connectedness, but wrong to claim that there is not much point in looking for causes of development. I also question her distinction between what children can do and what they actually do do, and I suggest that many of the problems raised in her paper would disappear if developmental psychologists were to concentrate on children's early achievements rather than on their early failures.
Language Development in Down's Syndrome: A Life-span Perspective
Authors: Rondal Jean A.
Published: March 2013

Do children with severe learning disabilities develop through the same stages as children without such problems, but more slowly, or do they develop along different lines? The "delay" versus "deviance" issue is a long-standing and familiar one that has surfaced in discussions of several different groups of developmentally disabled children. In this paper, Professor Rondal explores the issue in relation to linguistic development in children with Down's syndrome. He finds the traditional distinction and debates about delay versus deviance conceptually ill-founded. He explores, in the light of contemporary empirical evidence, an alternative and more "transactional" approach.
Models of Sensory Deprivation: The Nature/Nurture Dichotomy and Spatial Representation in the Blind
Authors: Millar Susanna
Published: March 2013

It is argued that models of sensory deprivation often depend on a nativist versus empiricist dichotomy which has little basis in empirical fact. Fallacies about the nature of abilities and learning and about the interaction between sense modalities which follow from the dichotomy are examined in relation to explanations of spatial development in the blind. It is suggested that interactions between cognitive and perceptual factors need to be taken into account in order to explain the effects of sensory deprivation more adequately.
Assessment Criteria for Severe Intellectual Disability in Various Cultural Settings
Authors: Serpell Robert , Zaman S. S. , Huq S. , Ferial S. , Silveira M. L. M. , de S. Dias A. M. C. , de Campos A. L. R. , Narayanan H. S. , Rao P. M. , Thorburn M. J. , Halim A. J. , Shrestha D. M. , Hasan Z. M. , Tareen K. I. , Qureshi A. A. , Nikapota A. D.
Published: March 2013

Professional review teams in nine Third World countries assessed a sample of children referred as probable cases (or as controls) from a door to door household survey of 1000+ children aged 3 to 9 years. Retrospectively each team specified the criteria they had used to decide on whether or not individuals should be classified as "severely mentally retarded" (intellectually disabled). The paper analyses these criteria in terms of the behavioural domains to which they refer, the measures with which they were operationalised and the ways in which they were coordinated to arrive at a "diagnosis". Substantial consensus was found on the importance of five broad domains, although the precise measures used varied across the teams. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Japanese Children's Understanding of the Distinction Between Real and Apparent Emotion
Authors: Gardner D. , Harris P. L. , Ohmoto M. , Hamazaki T.
Published: March 2013

Japanese children's understanding of the difference between real and apparent emotion was investigated in a replication of Harris, Donnelly, Guz and Pitt-Watson (1986). Children aged 4 and 6 years listened to stories featuring a protagonist in a situation where it would be appropriate to really feel a positive or negative emotion and to mask that emotion. Subjects were then asked about the real emotion felt and the apparent emotion shown by the protagonist. The results demonstrated that 6-year-olds understand the distinction between real and apparent emotion more systematically than 4-year-olds. A comparison with the performance of English children supports the conclusion that insight into the distinction between real and apparent emotion is dependent upon an underlying cognitive competency and relatively unaffected by socialisation differences.
Developmental Changes of Hemisphere Collaboration for Tactile Sequential Information
Authors: Hatta Takeshi , Moriya Kimiye
Published: March 2013

Developmental change in interhemispheric and intrahemispheric transfer of tactile information was investigated with subjects aged 4, 6, 10 and 20 years. In experiment 1, interhemispheric transfer was examined by 74 subjects in both crossed hand and uncrossed hand conditions. Sequential strikes on three fingertips was given to one hand, and subjects indicated the sequence with the thumb of the same hand, and subjects indicated the sequence with the thumb of the same hand (uncrossed condition) and the opposite hand (crossed condition). The results showed that though 4 and 6-year-old children showed a significant cross-localisation deficit, this disappeared by age of 10. This provided evidence for a developmental improvement in interhemispheric transfer which is consistent with how myelination of the corpus callosum takes place during the first ten years of life. In experiment 2, intrahemispheric and interand intrahemispheric transfer were examined with 77 subjects. Sequential strikes on three fingertips was given to one hand, and subjects indicated the sequence with the thumb of the hand or verbal response. The results were generally similar to those of experiment 1, except that when the task required both interand intrahemispheric communication, 10-year-old children did not reach the level of 20-year-old adults. The results suggest that full synergy of interand intrahemispheric collaboration continues to develop over the second decade of life.
Parents' Beliefs about Influence over Cognitive and Social Development
Authors: Knight Rosemary A. , Goodnow Jacqueline J.
Published: March 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not parents' beliefs about influence vary according to domain of development, and as a function of parental experience. Sixty married couples were interviewed about their beliefs, with reference to their eldest child (aged 4, 7, or 10 years). Parents estimated the degree of influence they as parents, and teachers, had over 15 attributes covering social and cognitive behaviours. These data were analysed for variations according to parent gender, child gender and age of eldest child. The variable of domain (cognitive vs. social development) was significant for beliefs about influence, interacting with parent gender. No significant effects were found for child gender or age of eldest child. The lack of child effects suggests only limited support for the argument that differential experience, represented by these variables, is a critical base for parents' beliefs. One alternative explanation is that parents' beliefs also operate on a functional basis. Parents may need to believe that they have influence (and that their influence is important) in order to continue the task of effective parenting, especially in the social domain for which they are most held responsible.