Developmental Psychology

Baumrind, Diana

doi: 10.1037/h0030372pmid: N/A

Attempted (a) to replicate or modify parent-child relationships found in 2 previous studies by D. Baumrind and D. Baumrind and A. E. Black ; and (b) to differentiate further among patterns of parental authority and measure their effects upon the behavior of preschool children. Data were based upon observational procedures, and were analyzed for boys and girls separately. Ss were 146 white preschool children and their families. Results include the following: (a) authoritative parental behavior was clearly associated with independent, purposive behavior for girls but only associated with such behavior for boys when the parents were nonconforming; (b) authoritative parental control was clearly associated with all indexes of social responsibility in boys compared to authoritarian and permissive parental control, and with high achievement in girls, but not with friendly, cooperative behavior; and (c) contrary to expectations, parental nonconformity was not associated with lack of social responsibility in either boys or girls. (45 ref.)

McCandless, Boyd R.

doi: 10.1037/h0020542pmid: N/A

This editorial discusses the recent growth in manuscript submissions to Developmental Psychology and new publication criteria. Only manuscripts that meet the following criteria will be published as full articles: (1) The paper is not an extension or replication of earlier published research. (2) A modest to substantial contribution to new knowledge is made by the article. (3) The design (for research) or thinking (for reviews and theoretical articles) is impeccable.

Epstein, Ralph; Komorita, S. S.

doi: 10.1037/h0030371pmid: N/A

Evaluated personality and situational parameters related to internal-external control by investigating self-esteem and success-failure treatments. A 3 * 2 factorial design was employed with 20 4th-6th grade Negro boys in each of 6 experimental conditions. Results confirm the predictions that (a) failure rather than success experiences were attributed to external causes, and (b) high-self-esteem Ss were more internal than low- or moderate-esteem Ss. Results imply that the belief in one's powerlessness, arising from membership in a stigmatized minority group, may be cushioned by a positive self-concept. (25 ref.)

Gruber, Howard E.; Girgus, Joan S.; Banuazizi, Ali

doi: 10.1037/h0030334pmid: N/A

Modified Piaget's methods of studying object permanence in children to form 8 behavioral tests suitable for cats. 12 laboratory-reared kittens and alley cats served as Ss. It was found that Ss reached an early developmental limit. Unlike children, they were unable to follow an object through a series of invisible displacements. 7 house-reared Ss showed similar limitations, but advanced more rapidly than cage-reared Ss. A longitudinal study with 3 house-reared litter mates suggests that cats go through 4 stages rather than the 6 found by Piaget in children. In the 1st 24 wk. of life, kittens develop as far as children do in their 1st yr., but the child's behavior with respect to vanished objects eventually becomes more complex and more general.

Turnure, James E.

doi: 10.1037/h0030369pmid: N/A

Investigated the capability of young high-ability children to cope with extraneous distractive stimuli during performance on a 2-choice discrimination task. In Study I, 3.3-yr-old nursery school Ss in a noise condition exhibited significantly greater nontask orienting and significantly poorer learning than controls. In 40 Ss (3-9 and 4-9 yr. old) converse results prevailed, as the learning of noise condition Ss was enhanced compared to controls, and they exhibited less nontask orienting. In Study II with 28 Ss, an explanation of the previous results based on possible habituation to noise in the classroom prior to testing was investigated and found deficient. Results are interpreted as placing constraints on traditional views of children's distractibility, and as indicating that existing interpretations of the development of attentive abilities in children, based on an increasing attention span, need elaboration or reformulation. (24 ref.)

Keogh, Barbara K.

doi: 10.1037/h0030368pmid: N/A

75 boys and 60 girls (CAs 8-9) copied patterns by drawing and by walking in an expanded spatial field under 3 conditions: no defined reference points, reference points, and reference points plus visual tracking cues. Drawing differences among groups are nonsignificant. Boys were significantly better than girls in reproducing patterns by walking under 2 of 3 walking conditions. Boys improved in pattern walking across conditions as more visual cues were available; girls did not. Differences were reflected in objective scores and in styles of pattern walking. Findings suggest a sex difference in perceptual strategies in the organization of space.

Zelazo, Philip R.

doi: 10.1037/h0030358pmid: N/A

In Exp. I, 1 male and 1 female E each tested 5 male and 5 female infants (11-13 wk. old). 1 block (2 6-min trials) of base rate and 5 blocks of conditioning were run over 3-4 days. During base rate, Es were unresponsive; during conditioning, each infant smile received contingent smiling, talking, and touching. Results show differential smiling to E during base rate, a significant but scalloped decline in smiling to contingent stimulation, and a need to rigidly control ITIs. In Exp. II, 1 female E examined 10 Ss in each of 3 conditions: contingent and noncontingent stimulation, and an unresponsive control. 3 6-min trials were run each day for 3 consecutive days. Results reveal a significant linear decline over trials and days for all groups with an attentuation of the decline on Trial 1 and from Day 1-2 for the contingent condition. A 2-process view of smiling is proposed involving reinforcement and habituation effects. (26 ref.)

Rabinowitz, F. Michael; DeMyer, Sandra

doi: 10.1037/h0030362pmid: N/A

Investigated in 3 experiments the stimulus and response alternation of 72 preschool and 66 kindergarten children. Of major interest are the findings that (a) stimulus alternation decreased as stimulus meaningfulness increased, (b) stimulus alternation increased as stimulus discriminability increased, (c) response alternation increased as stimulus discriminability decreased for kindergarten Ss but decreased for preschool Ss, (d) stimulus alternation remained relatively constant across trial blocks for kindergarten Ss but decreased across trial blocks for preschool Ss, (e) response strategies were more pronounced in girls than boys, and (f) choice latencies were faster on stimulus-alternation trials than on stimulus-repetition trials with the more discriminable pair of stimuli.

Dusek, Jerome B.

doi: 10.1037/h0030360pmid: N/A

54 boys and 72 girls of CAs 6-7 were tested by neutral Es, or Es biased to expect boys (or girls) to drop marbles faster than girls (or boys) in a marble dropping task. 1/2 of the Ss were tested under conditions of social reinforcement and 1/2 under conditions of nonreinforcement. Es were 18 male undergraduates. There were 2 dependent variables: a base-rate score and 6 difference scores. Girls had a higher base rate than boys. The difference scores indicate a significant main effect due to E bias for girls but not for boys. Results do not support (a) the hypothesis of a greater bias effect in the social than in the nonreinforcement condition, or (b) a cross- or same-sex effect for the neutral Es. Results are related to previous studies of social reinforcement in children. (23 ref.)

Bell, Richard Q.

doi: 10.1037/h0030374pmid: N/A

Asserts that the child's contribution to parent-child interaction has been equated in the past with congenital and genetic factors, and thus neglected by socialization theorists who reacted with extreme environmentalism against instinct theory and other biological extensions of the theory of evolution. As a result, most investigators have considered the child an object on which parental actions are registered, rather than a participant in a social system, stimulating as well as being stimulated by the other. As a corrective, a way of thinking about the child's stimulus effects is advanced and applied to parent-child interactions observed in home settings. (35 ref.)