Correction to Ferguson and Rule.

Reports an error in the article original article "Effects of Inferential Set, Outcome Severity, and Basis for Responsibility on Children's Evaluations of Aggressive Acts" by Tamara J. Ferguson and Brendan Gail Rule (Developmental Psychology, Vol. 16. [2],141-146). On page 144 there was an error in Table 1. The mean value for the older children/foreseeable cell should be 2.39, not 3.39. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1980-07374-001). 49 boys and 58 girls in Grades 2 and 8 made moral judgments about stories describing a same-sexed child expressing aggression. Each child, under either a situation-matching or a value-maintenance set, judged 8 behaviors that represented 4 of F. Heider's (1958) responsibility levels and had mild or serious consequences. Moral judgments of older Ss were sensitive to Heider's differing levels of responsibility, whereas younger Ss' judgments were more sensitive to outcome severity. The aggression was viewed as less reprehensible by older than by younger Ss; this difference was especially pronounced for girls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's judgments of their own and their peers' academic competence.

A standardized open-ended interview was used to study how 96 4–8 yr old children judged their own and their classmates' abilities. Ss were asked to explain how they knew who in their class was best and who was worst at various tasks and who was the best and who was the worst thinker. Ss also rated themselves and their classmates on how smart each was and explained their ratings. Content analyses of responses revealed that younger Ss, particularly males, were more likely than older Ss to refer to sociability in their ability judgments; they were less likely to base their judgments on social comparisons or on the difficulty level of the task. Ss at all age levels frequently explained ability judgments in terms of effort or work habits, although work habits tended to be referred to less by preschool-age Ss than by older Ss. Ss' ratings of their own ability declined with grade; ratings for peers were lower than self-ratings and did not change as a function of grade level. Self-ability ratings of Ss in kindergarten through the 3rd grade and their ratings of classmates were significantly correlated to teacher ratings of relative academic standing. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's reactions to apologies.

In 2 experiments, 221 kindergartners and 1st, 4th, and 7th graders judged actors who committed a transgression under conditions of low or high responsibility and low or high consequences. The actor's motives were good or bad and the act was intended or accidental. The actor then either did nothing or employed 1 of 3 increasingly elaborate apologies. As hypothesized, the actor's predicament was most severe, producing the harshest judgments when (a) the actor had high responsibility for committing an inadvertent act that produced high consequences, and (b) the act was the result of a bad rather than good motive or was intended rather than accidental. More elaborate apologies produced less blame and punishment and more forgiveness, liking, positive evaluations, and attributions of greater remorse. The judgments of the 7th graders were more affected by the actor's apology than those of the younger Ss. These age differences reflect the younger Ss' poorer ability to integrate social information and appreciate the implications of social conventions. However, the younger Ss' judgments were similar to those of older Ss. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and illusory correlation in judgments of co-occurrence.

Examined the influence of aging on illusory correlation in judgments of co-occurrence. Ten older (aged 60–76 yrs) and 10 younger (aged 17–29 yrs) Ss judged the probability of co-occurrence for events associated with preexisting expectancies after receiving nonsalient or salient information about the true probabilities of co-occurrence of the events. Results showed that when current information on event co-occurrence was not salient, preexisting expectancies strongly influenced the judgments of both younger and older Ss. However, when this information was salient, younger Ss' judgments reflected more accurate adjustment to the probabilistic relationships in the information than did older Ss' judgments. This age difference may be related to changes in memory processes that accompany increasing age and to differences in judgment processes necessitated by these changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motives for helping behavior: Kibbutz and city children in kindergarten and school.

Studied the motives for helping expressed by 80 children 4–5? and 7–8? yrs of age. Half of each age group were from a kibbutz and half from a city. Half of each group were boys, half girls. Ss were presented with 3 pictures depicting 3 situations in which one child had an opportunity to help. They were asked whether the child in the picture would help and if so, what the child's motive would be for such an action. They were also asked questions regarding motives for helping behavior in general. Three hypotheses were stated: (1) Older Ss would express higher-level motives for helping than younger Ss. (2) Kibbutz Ss would express higher-level motives than city Ss. (3) Girls would express higher-level motives than boys. Only the 1st hypothesis was confirmed. No differences were found between kibbutz and city Ss or between boys and girls. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggression in childhood: Developmental perspectives.

Studied 102 preschool children and 1st and 2nd graders, using a combination of time and event sampling procedures to observe aggressive events. Results indicate the older Ss were less aggressive per unit time than the younger, with older Black Ss significantly more aggressive than older Whites. Results suggest that the developmental course of human aggression may be best understood by a differential functional analysis, and that the distinction between instrumental and hostile aggression is heuristically valuable for studying aggression in early childhood. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Older and younger adults' attributions of responsibility toward rape victims and rapists.

Examined the judgments made by 384 undergraduates and 384 50–74 yr olds of assailant and victim responsibility for a sexual assault. Ss were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: they viewed slides of an assault, read a passage about the crime, or read the passage and saw photographs of both the assailant and the victim. The rapist was presented as either a well-dressed or poorly dressed young man, and the victim appeared either as a provocative or demure young woman. Ss also learned that the victim either physically resisted or failed to resist the assailant. Young Ss attributed more responsibility to the assailant than did older Ss, and the provocative woman was perceived as more responsible for the victimization than the demure woman. Young Ss attributed greater responsibility to the victim when she resisted the assault of a well-dressed assailant than when she resisted a poorly dressed assailant. Females attributed less responsibility to the demure woman when she was assaulted by a poorly dressed assailant than a well dressed assailant. In contrast to older Ss, young Ss who visually observed the crime held the victim more responsible for her victimization. Results are interpreted in terms of the defensive attribution hypothesis of E. Walster (see record 1966-02829-001) and the discounting principle of attribution presented by H. H. Kelley (see record 1973-24800-001). (French abstract) (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fathers', mothers', and security blankets' effects on the responsiveness of young children during projective testing.

Administered the Children's Apperception Test to 64 girls (aged 33–45 mo) with their fathers, mothers, or security blankets present and again, later, with the attachment agents withdrawn. Results show that younger Ss with a parent present responded more than younger Ss without one and responded as much as Ss 10 mo older. When testing was reinitiated without attachment agents, the younger formerly with their parent spoke significantly more than previously. It is concluded that the parent's presence for an initial period of interaction before formal assessment begins can help facilitate adaptation to the unfamiliar situation and the establishment of rapport. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of spatial cues on children's cardinal number judgments.

Administered a series of stimuli designed to assess the dependence of cardinal number judgments on relative length and relative density cues to 200 4- and 6-yr-olds. Among younger Ss, developmental changes were restricted to same-length/different-density stimuli and to different-length/different-density stimuli in which length differences exceeded density differences. Among older Ss, developmental changes were noted for different-length/different-density stimuli in which length and density differences were equal. Scalogram analyses revealed 4 distinct levels of stimulus difficulty for both age groups. There was some evidence that, in addition to the effects of relative length and relative density cues, children's cardinal number judgments are influenced by extreme crowding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's motivational perception as related to the instrumentality and effect of action.

On the basis of F. Heider's (1958) balance conceptions, a model was developed for specifying relations between the perceived properties of an act (its instrumentality and its consequentiality) and the intentionality attributed to the act. 129 1st-, 4th-, and 6th-graders made intentionality judgments of actions described in 10 pairs of stories, each pair made up of contrasting actions varying in instrumentality and/or consequentiality. The older Ss adhered more closely to the naive psychological model both in intentionality choice and in the reasons for their choice. The 1st-graders had more difficulty judging intentionality on the basis of an act's instrumentality as compared to its consequentiality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral judgments, behaviour and cognitive style in young children.

Assessed level of moral maturity in 2 studies with middle-class 6-7 yr olds (n = 29), middle-class 3-4 yr olds (n = 35), and lower-class 3-4 yr olds (n = 37). For the older Ss, stories were used to elicit judgments about relative goodness or badness. Level of moral maturity was scored on the basis of S's awareness of the intentions of the actor as opposed to his reliance on consequences. For the younger Ss, a group of films depicting similar situations were shown. All Ss were then given a battery of tests (e.g., the Children's Embedded Figures Test) measuring cognitive style and rated by their teachers on behavior and personality items. In 6 yr olds, level of moral maturity was found to relate to the cognitive styles of reflection-impulsivity and field dependence-independence, but not to verbal intelligence. Ss characterized as immature in their moral judgments were more impulsive and field-dependent. Ss with higher-level moral judgments were also rated by their teachers as more attentive and reflective. In preschool samples, Ss highest on moral maturity were rated as less aggressive by their teachers, least impulsive in cognitive style and in the lower-class sample, more field-independent. (French summary) (20 ref.) (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)     

Multiple modes of right-hemisphere information processing: Age and sex differences in facial recognition.

Examined hemispheric differences in processing tachistoscopically presented faces in 8-, 11-, and 13-yr-old children of above-average intelligence. Ss viewed 4 female faces and were then asked to point to the face presented on each trial. The finding of a bimodal distribution of error scores among those Ss who showed a left visual-field (LVF) advantage supports the view that there are 2 types of information processing associated with the right hemisphere. The error scores of the younger Ss with an LVF advantage were unimodal and those of the 13-yr-olds bimodal. This bimodality characterized only the older girls. Since the unimodal error scores for the younger Ss were at a relatively high level, the data were interpreted as indicating that younger children and males at all ages use a diffuse right-hemisphere processing strategy in recognizing faces, whereas some older females use a more integrated right-hemisphere strategy. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential memory changes with age: Exact retrieval versus plausible inference.

Conducted 2 experiments on the use of direct retrieval and plausibility memory strategies in elderly and college-age adults. In Exp I, which used an episodic memory task, data were obtained from 49 65–80 yr old college alumni and from 58 college students who had served in a previous study by the 1st author (see record 1983-02731-001). Findings indicate that older Ss effectively used the plausibility strategy but performed more poorly than younger Ss when the direct retrieval strategy was required. Results of Exp II, using 18 college alumni (8 Ss aged 20–31 yrs, 10 Ss aged 64–75 yrs) with a semantic memory task, show that older Ss' accuracy was essentially undistinguishable from that of younger Ss as long as a plausibility judgment process produced the correct response. It is argued that careful inspection is a much more costly process for older adults than it is for young adults but that plausibility judgments and feature overlap processes are equally easy for both age groups. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of inferential set, outcome intent, and outcome severity on children's moral judgments.

38 1st, 2nd, and 6th graders read stories about aggressive acts that resulted in either mild or severe physically harmful outcomes that were perpetrated either accidentally or with mild or severe negative outcome intent. The inferential sets of Ss in the value-maintenance, situation-matching, and no-set conditions were manipulated, respectively, by telling Ss that they were going to play a game with or babysit and watch the "transgressor" or by telling them nothing about an interaction with the transgressor. Although younger Ss differentiated their moral judgments according to outcome intent, older Ss were uniformly harsh toward transgressors who intended to produce either mild or severe outcomes. Older Ss assigned blame on the basis of the intent to hurt and the foreseeability of harm, regardless of the degree of harm intended. Younger Ss regarded intentions with respect to severity as important, perhaps because of their greater rule orientation and concern with parental approval. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the salience of intention and consequence on children's moral judgments.

Conducted a study with 96 middle-class students in 3 age groups (6-7, 8-9, and 10-11 yrs) to examine the extent to which the recency effect is a factor in children's moral judgments. The E read 4 stories which were centered around 2 themes, one depicting a child dropping cups and the other a child spilling glue, and which combined each of 2 levels of intent (accidental and purposeful) with each of 2 levels of consequence (light and heavy damage). Within each age group, the 32 Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: intent-consequence (I-C), with intent first, followed by consequence; or consequence-intent (C-I), with consequence first, followed by intent. Results support the hypothesis that moral judgments are affected by the relative salience of cues, as manipulated by order presentation. However, the influence of order was complex and varied with the age of Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child sexual abuse: victim age, victim gender, and observer gender as factors contributing to attributions of responsibility

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of victim gender, and observer gender on the tendency to attribute responsibility for extrafamilial child sexual abuse to the victim and the nonoffending parents. METHOD: A 2 (Victim Age) x 2 (Victim Gender) x 2 (Observer Gender) between-subjects design was employed. Undergraduate students (N = 145) read a vignette describing a sexually abusive interaction between an adult male neighbor and a child. In this vignette, the child's gender and age (6 years old, 13 years old) varied. After reading the vignette, participants used a 5-point scale to indicate the degree to which they believed the victim and the parents (a) were responsible for, (b) were to blame for, (c) caused, and (d) could have prevented the abuse. RESULTS: Greater responsibility was assigned to older than younger victims. Both parents were ascribed similar levels of responsibility, and were ascribed greater responsibility when the child victim was younger than older. Male observers attributed greater responsibility and causality to the victim and the parents than did female observers. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that responsibility attributions directed toward the victim and the nonoffending parents may be a function of the victim's age. In addition, the findings support previous research suggesting that male observers may tend to hold victims more responsible for their abuse than female observers. Implications for treatment and research are discussed.     

Recognition memory development in two- to four-year-olds.

Tested 32 preschool children on 2 36-item recognition lists. 8 boys and 8 girls were in each of 2 age groups; mean ages of the 2 groups were 4 yrs and 2 yrs 11 mo. No sex differences were observed. The younger Ss responded correctly 81% of the time, and the older Ss 92% of the time. A signal detection analysis revealed that this developmental difference was due to retention components, not decision components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)