Sex and race effects in the conformity behavior of upper-elementary school-aged children.

Reports 2 experiments with a total of 368 Black and White lower- and middle-class 9-12 yr olds in which a novel technique was used to study sex and race effects on children's conformity behavior. Neither the White, lower-class Ss nor the White, middle-class Ss showed any consistent tendency to conform differentially to Black and White models. A tendency of Blacks in Exp I to conform more to White than to Black models constituted the only race effect of any consequence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A measure of moral values.

Presents a measure of moral values which seems to have acceptable conceptual and psychometric properties, and evidence concerning the personological correlates of mature moral judgment. Using a brief, semiprojective task, moral judgments were elicited from 3 differing groups of male undergraduates (n = 92) which could be reliably (r = .88) scored for maturity of moral judgment. Additional data from 71 Ss indicates that Ss whose moral judgments were rated as mature tended to be sensitive to injustice, well socialized, empathic, and autonomous, and based their judgments on an intuitive understanding of morality. Those whose judgments were rated as immature tended to be insensitive to injustice, less socialized, nonempathic, and conforming, and their moral reasoning had a rational as opposed to an intuitive flavor. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minors' attitudes and competence toward participation in psychoeducational decisions.

27 7–23 yr olds, 33 14–25 yr olds, and 21 16–20 yr olds enrolled in a university-based day-school program for children with learning and related behavior problems were given a choice about participating in decisions about their subsequent placements. Ss were also offered instructions on how to prepare for participating in the decision process. Structured questions and ratings of observed behavior were used to measure Ss' current and subsequent interest in participation, perspective of competence to participate, interest in instruction to increase competence, expectations, actual participation, and judgments of outcome. Findings were similar to those found in a previous study by the present authors (see record 1984-16316-001). A high proportion of Ss wanted to participate, perceived themselves as competent to do so, knew what outcomes they wanted, followed through, and judged their involvement as effective. Most Ss were interested in improving skills related to such participation. Adults involved (6 teachers, 76 parents, and 4 school psychologists) rated the participation of Ss as effective. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Means-ends thinking, adjustment, and social class among elementary-school-aged children.

Presented 6 stories to 74 normal and 34 emotionally disturbed middle- and lower-class 10-12 yr. olds to test Ss' cognitive capacity in solving simulated real-life problems. This capacity was measured by means-ends thinking, defined as an ability to construct a story plot that reflects planning, awareness of potential obstacles, and recognition of time necessary to reach a stated goal. Irrespective of social class and intellectual functioning, disturbed youngsters in special schools expressed both fewer elements of means-ends thinking and stories more limited to pragmatic, impulsive, and physically aggressive means than did normal Ss in regular schools. Implications are that training in this area early in a child's life could supplement a preventive mental health program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of two hypotheses concerning the dynamics of cognitive impulsivity: Anxiety-over-errors or anxiety-over-competence?

To test the appropriateness of the anxiety-over-errors and the anxiety-over-competence hypotheses in explaining reflective and impulsive behavior, 85 8–11 yr olds were classified as reflective or impulsive on the basis of their performance on 1 form of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT). Half of each cognitive style group was randomly assigned to a failure or control group. Ss in the failure group were given failure feedback concerning their performance on the 1st 10 items of an alternate form of the MFFT and were then tested on the 2nd 10 items. Control Ss were given a short rest period between the 2 10-item test administrations. All Ss rated their expectancy of success and completed the Test Anxiety Scale for Children. Teacher ratings of the children's reflection–impulsivity, confidence, and concern over errors were also obtained. Results support the anxiety-over-errors hypothesis: The impulsives in the failure group showed a significant decrease in errors from pre- to posttest, whereas controls did not differ in this respect. The reflectives in the failure group did not differ from those in the control group in their pre–post error rates. MFFT performance measures were significantly correlated with teacher ratings of concern over errors but not with confidence ratings. It is concluded that impulsive behavior may stem from a lack of motivation to perform well. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influences of student background and teacher authoritarianism on teacher expectations.

Asked 25 White elementary school teachers to predict the academic grades and occupational attainment of 6 students: a middle-class White boy; a middle-class White girl; a lower-class White boy; a lower-class White girl; a middle-class Asian boy; and a middle-class Asian girl. In addition, teachers were classified as high or low in authoritarianism based on their tolerance of ambiguity and cognitive complexity. It was found that higher grade and occupational expectations were held for middle-class than for lower-class students. Grade expectations were higher for girls than boys and tended to be higher for Asians than Whites. White females were expected to attain higher occupational status than Asian females, but Asian males were expected to surpass White males on this measure. Finally, teachers who were high authoritarians were more likely than low-authoritarian teachers to utilize stereotypes that favored ingroups and tended to be less likely to use stereotypes that favored outgroups. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Noblesse oblige effect: The interpretation of Rorschach responses as a function of ascribed social class.

Presented fabricated Rorschach responses and a case history suggesting lower- or middle-class status of the patient to 41 clinical psychology students and PhD psychologists. Ss rated the patient on 22 personality scales, indicated diagnosis and prognosis, and wrote a short summary of their impressions. Neither the clinician's sex nor experience affected the ratings, but the ascribed social class of the S did. Unexpectedly, the lower-class protocol was rated less severely than the middle-class protocol (p     

The understanding of invariance by very young children.

Conducted 3 conservation experiments with a total of 164 3-6 yr. olds to determine whether young children understand the invariance of quantity. Results show that (a) even 3-yr-olds were able to transfer a quantity judgment over a perceptual transformation very well, (b) Ss only failed to make this kind of transfer when the judgments normally produced by the pre- and post-transformation displays were in direct conflict, and (c) training that some cues provide a more reliable basis for quantity judgments than others enabled Ss to transfer quantity judgments over perceptual transformations much more effectively than they had previously. It is concluded that very young children have a basic understanding of invariance, and that their real difficulty in quantity tasks is in distinguishing between a correct and an incorrect basis for quantity judgments. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Length conservation and speed concepts: Organizational disequilibrium training between concepts.

Administered training to Ss at varying levels of cognitive organization. Ss were 60 middle-class Israeli 6-7 yr olds. The training condition exploited structural mix between operational length and intuitive speed concepts, such that Ss successively alternated partial structures underlying these concepts. Findings were that (a) training was effective for operational speed concept acquisition among Ss with structural mix; (b) training was not effective for Ss without structural mix; (c) those who acquired the operational speed concept also acquired operational reasoning for the concept of movement; and (d) all Ss who employed an integration strategy during training became operational for speed on the posttest, while none who used other strategies acquired operational reasoning for the speed concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex identity in American children: Memory, knowledge, and preference tests.

Tested recall, knowledge and preference for masculine and feminine items in 240 US 5- and 8-yr-old white boys and girls from working-class and professional middle-class families. Ss recalled, knew, and preferred same-sex items significantly more than opposite-sex items. Girls' scores were less rigidly sex typed than were boys'. Older Ss showed greater stereotypy in preference tests than did younger ones. Sex differences in preference scores of older Ss were greater in the working than in the middle class. Compared with data for English 5 yr olds, US girls appeared less sex typed than did their English counterparts and accounted for the predicted decrease in sex polarity of preference scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributive justice development and social class: A replication.

28 kindergartners and 28 3rd graders, equally divided between lower- and middle-class and between boys and girls, were given the Distributive Justice Scale, a vocabulary test, and sociometric peer ratings. Results show that regardless of grade, the lower-class Ss lagged behind the middle-class Ss in distributive justice development even when verbal ability was controlled. Findings replicate those of a previous study drawn from the same population (R. Enright et al; see record 1981-07767-001). Both studies show statistically equivalent scores. The peer ratings showed that in both kindergarten and 3rd grade, lower-class Ss were most often named as having negative socioeconomic traits. Implications for social class distributive justice are discussed. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class and the nature of the incentive in discrimination learning.

"… it… [was] predicted that an interaction exists between social class and the nature of the incentive. Supecifically, it was believed that a nonmaterial incentive is as effective as a material incentive for middle-class Ss, whereas, for lower-class Ss a material incentive is more effective than a nonmaterial one." This belief was tested and results indicate that middle-class "children learn more quickly when given a nonmaterial incentive than when given a material incentive, while the reverse [was] true of lower-class children." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of multiple social categories on stereotyping.

Examined the cognitive processes underlying stereotyping, and the effects of multiple social categories in impression formation. 60 Canadian students (aged 17–29 yrs) assessed the stereotypes of men, women, 20 or 70 yr olds, and French or English Canadians. Ss were then introduced to 8 target individuals representing combinations of gender, age and ethnicity, followed by a memory test. Stereotype judgments were relatively more automatic than nonstereotype judgments. Individuals tended to be perceived in terms of their gender and age; this effect was more pronounced on stereotype traits than on the nonstereotype ones. Memory was found to be better for age and gender than for ethnicity, and the speed for making such judgments followed the same pattern. Results support the view that individuals are perceived in terms of stereotypes and suggest that certain salient characteristics will be more influential in a particular context. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of transgressor, damage, and type of presentation on kindergarten children's moral judgments.

Assessed the role of cognitive conflict (damage vs respect for adults) in 64 kindergartners' moral judgments, using both verbal and videotape presentation techniques. In contrast to a previous study by C. Peterson et al (1974), the present Ss' moral judgments were not affected by the age of the transgressor. Ss in the videotape condition based their judgments on intention, while Ss in the verbal condition based their judgments on damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A current study of the social maturity of deaf students.

Administered the Vineland Social Maturity Scale to profoundly and prelingually deaf 5-16 yr olds. 40 Ss attended day school and 75 were in residential programs with frequent or rare home visits. In institutionalized Ss, the social maturity quotients derived from residential informants were significantly lower than those obtained from parental informants and were not significantly correlated. Social maturity quotients derived from parental interviews were found to be related to type of educational program and to be lowest for children in residential programs who visited their homes infrequently. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body image, physical attractiveness, and depression.

224 17–63 yr olds completed measures of self-perceived physical attractiveness and depression, and static full-body videotapes of Ss were assessed by objective raters, to investigate the relationship between Ss' body image, rated physical attractiveness, and depression. Measures included the Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), a body parts satisfaction scale, and a self-labeling depression scale. Ss were classified as depressed (n?=?35) or nondepressed (n?=?42) on the basis of conjunctive criteria of self-labeling and extreme groups on the CES-D. It was hypothesized that (1) depressed Ss would report being less satisfied with their body parts and physical appearance and would regard themselves as less physically attractive than would nondepressed Ss, (2) objective raters would perceive depressed Ss as less physically attractive than nondepressed Ss, and (3) depressed Ss would distort their degree of physical attractiveness and perceive themselves to be less attractive than objective raters regarded them. Results indicate that, as hypothesized, depressed Ss were less satisfied with their bodies and saw themselves as less physically attractive than nondepressed Ss. These groups did not differ with respect to observer-rated physical attractiveness. Support was obtained for A. T. Beck's (1973, 1976) cognitive hypothesis that depressed persons negatively distort their body images; however, results also indicate substantial positive distortion among nondepressed Ss. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illusory contingency in children at the state fair.

Assessed contingency judgments of 51 Ss (aged 6–14 yrs) following their participation in chance activities at a state fair. Six–20 yr olds regarded the outcomes of these activities as controllable—that is, most of them saw the outcomes of their own performance as caused by skill-related factors and regarded such factors as significantly influencing the outcomes of other children's performance. 11–24 yr olds generally identified the outcomes of their own performance as caused by luck, and they minimized the role of skill-related factors in the performance outcomes of others. Yet even older Ss regarded such factors as somewhat relevant to outcomes they predicted for others. This was true even of Ss at formal operational age levels and of Ss who explicitly identified outcomes as caused by "luck." Ss at both age levels showed evidence of self-serving bias: Those who had won prizes saw outcomes as strongly affected by effort, but those who had failed to win did not. Findings suggest that neither the attainment of formal operations nor the recognition that luck causes outcomes ensures accurate judgments about control. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of the Canter Background Interference Procedure in identifying children with cerebral dysfunction.

Compared the Canter Background Interference Procedure (BIP) for the Bender-Gestalt Test using 3 groups of 8-12 yr olds: a cerebral dysfunction (n = 66), an emotionally disturbed (n = 39), and a control (n = 63) group. Ss with cerebral dysfunction performed more poorly on the Bender itself and both scores deteriorated more on the BIP than did those of Ss in the other 2 groups. The emotionally disturbed and control groups did not differ. Applications of the BIP to the detection of cerebral dysfunction in children is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)