| Abstracts:
October 2002, Volume 48, Number 4
Colman,
R. A. & Thompson, R. A. (2002). Attachment security adn the
problem-solving behaviors of mothers and children. Merrill-Palmer
Quarterly, 48, 337-359.
Abstract:
Attachment security may predict the development of competence
by influencing how preschoolers solicit and receive help from
their mother during shared problem solving. Based on attachment
and help-seeking literatures, we expected that preschoolers with
lower security would request help more quickly and in unnecessary
circumstances and express frustration and inability attributions
more often than children with more secure attachments. Their mothers
were expected to provide direct solutions rather than indirect
assistance (e.g., hints). Thirty-six preschoolers (mean age 58
months; 17 boys, 19 girls) and their mothers were observed in
manageable and difficult problem-solving tasks. As expected, children
with lower security scores made more unnecessary help-seeking
bids and inability statements, were more frustrated, and asked
for help more quickly; differences were observed on easy and difficult
tasks. Maternal behavior, however, did not differ.
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Simpkins, S. D. & Parke,
R. D. (2002). Maternal monitoring and rules as correlates of children's
social adjustment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 48, 360-377.
Abstract:
Maternal monitoring and play rules were examined as correlates of
children's friendship quality, social behavior, and depression in
6th grade (N=88). Maternal reports of rules were categorized into
three types: supervision rules, peer rules, and restriction rules.
Each type of rule was characterized by the number of rules mothers
established. Results indicated that monitoring was not significantly
correlated with the three types of play rules. Girls who experienced
more monitoring had friendships with less conflict and higher positive
qualities. Supervision rules were positively related to boys' prosocial
behavior and depression. Peer rules were significantly correlated
with peer-rated behavior but not with friendship quality. The importance
of distinguishing among various aspects of maternal management is
discussed.
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Banerjee, R. (2002). Children's
understanding of self-presentational behavior: Links with mental-state
reasoning adn the attribution of embarrassment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,
48, 378-404.
Abstract:
The present study addresses primary school children's cognition
about self-presentational behavior (i.e., behavior designed to shape
others' evaluations of the self). In Experiment 1 of the present
study, 48 6-11 year olds provided explanations for interpersonal
behavior by story characters. AS predicted, the youngest children
in the sample had a specific difficulty with identifying self-presentational
motives. Importantly, the children's performance on control stories
demonstrated that this was not likely to reflect difficulty with
reasoning about others' beliefs. In Experiment 2, work with a further
48 children showed that even among children who clearly had the
mental-state reasoning skills required for understanding others'
beliefs about the self, there remained variability in the identification
of self-presentational motives that was associated with variability
in the attribution of embarrassment to story characters. it is suggested
that the ability to take others' perspectives on the self is presented
in young children and that a mature understanding of the concerns
that underlie both self-presentation behavior adn feelings of embarrassment
is likely to depend additionally on social-motivational factors.
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Masur, E. F. & Eichorst, D. L.
(2002). Infants' spontaneous imitation of novel versus familiar
words: Relations to observational and maternal report measures of
their lexicons. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 405-426.
Abstract:
To explore whether imitation of novel behaviors might serve as a
lexical acquisition strategy for some infants, relations between
infants' early spontaneous reproduction of novel and of familiar
words and their subsequent lexicons were compared in a longitudinal
sample of 20 infants during natural interactions with their mothers
at 13, 17, and 21 months of age. Both maternal report and observational
measures of noun and non-noun lexicons were analyzed. There were
marked contrasts in quantit7 and proportions of nouns between reported
and observed lexicons. However, when earlier vocabulary levels were
statistically controlled, infants' early replication of novel, but
not familiar, words was associated with growth in both reported
and observed noun and non-noun vocabularies. Infants' early imitation
of novel words predicts, and my facilitate, their later lexical
development.
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Notaro, P. C., Gelman, S. A., &
Zimmerman, M. A. (2002). Biases in reasoning about the consequences
of psychogenic bodily reactions: Domain boundaries in cognitive
development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 427-449.
Abstract:
Three studies investigated the scope of children's difficulty with
mind-body interactions by asking them to reason about the consequences
of psychogenic bodily reactions, that is, ailments of psychological
responses with origins in the mind (e.g., stress-induced headache).
In Study 1, 56 children (preschool through 2nd grade) learned of
a series of psychogenic reactions and were asked which physical
and/or psychological actions could cure each one. In Study 2, the
same cures were presented to 16 preschoolers for a series of psychological
events. Study 3 highlighted either symptom or cause of each bodily
reactions for adults. Adults reported that only psychological treatments
are effective cures for psychogenic reactions. In contract, young
children reported that only physical treatments are effective cures
for psychogenic reactions. Results suggest that mind-body interactions
may pose conceptual difficulties for people of all ages, but the
nature of the difficulty changes over development.
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