Genetic psychology monographs最新文献

In this report extrapolations were made to behavior therapy from two related lines of social-psychological research: attribution and self-perception. A review of the relevant research literature on attribution suggested that (a) the perception and causal attribution of physiological arousal is an important determinant of emotional behavior and (b) self-attribution of behavior change increases the likelihood of maintenance of that change. A review of research concerned with Bem's self-perception theory indicated that inferences arising from self-observation of one's own overt behaviors may affect subsequent behavior, attitudes, and beliefs. These two lines of research converge in suggesting that an individual's perception of himself (in terms of overt behavior, situational circumstances, and physiological states) may have a marked influence on behavior change and the maintenance of that change. In the major body of this paper the implications of this research are discussed, particularly in terms of new procedures and specific modifications for existing procedures in behavior therapy. The major areas of behavior therapy discussed include: (a) behavioral assessment; (b) role playing (behavior rehearsal); (c) operant procedures; and (d) self-control strategies. Emphasis was placed upon treating the specific implications delineated as hypotheses requiring empirical investigation in the clinical arena. Strategies for such research were outlined.

Information concerning their environments was obtained from 127 first and 165 fifth grade children and their patents. These data were examined interactively--to determine whether patterns of relationships among environmental components changed as a function of the general status variables of sex, age, class, and race--and factorially, to obtain groupings of components. Chi square comparison of subgroup intercorrelation matrices revealed no differences among matrices as a function of the status variables. Factor analysis revealed six common factors: Social Class, Interactive Opportunity and Experience, Maturity, Aspiration Level, Family Interaction, and Amount of Income.

Sociolinguists have contended that children, and especially black children, from families of poverty commonly fail in school not because they have either a cognitive or language deficit but because they have a dialect problem. Being unfamiliar with standard English, they are forced to undertake a double task while learning to read. In order to test the validity of this contention, 54 Head Start and 33 nursery-school children of four years were examined with a test of shape identification. The children of Head Start identified six shapes perceptually by matching them about as well as did the nursery-school children. On the other hand, a much smaller percentage of Head Start than of nursery school named correctly all the shapes as they were indicated by the examiners or indicated correctly all the shapes when they were named by the examiners. Sex differences in semantic mastery of shapes are absent; and among the children of Head Start, race differences in semantic mastery of shapes are also absent. The deficit in semantic mastery for shapes is clearly evident, and demonstrating the existence of such deficits can be useful in guiding compensatory education.

This study examined the relationship between demographic and preschool social-emotional variables, on the one hand, and first grade social-emotional and intellectual achievement variables, on the other. Three hundred twenty-three children from New York City public day care centers were followed up 12 and 18 months later in elementary school. Emotional impairment in first grade was found to be a function of social class, race, and preschool emotional impairment. Two major dimensions of social-emotional functioning showed same-factor stability but not cross-factor correlation over time; one of the dimensions (Apathy-Withdrawal) predicted to first grade underachievement.

This study was done to test the validity of two hypotheses of why children, and especially black children, of families of the poverty sector commonly fail in school. Sociologists deny for them either a cognitive or a linguistic deficit, and blame their failures on having to master the unfamiliar dialect of standard English while learning to read. The authors, on the other hand, blame the failures on inadequacies of early preschool experience that result in such deficits as one in semantic mastery of various elementary abstractions. In 1970-1971, 87 four-year-old students (58 black and 29 white) of Head Start and 33 of nursery school were examined with a five part test of number identification. In 1971-1972, the study was repeated with 69 four-year-olds of Head Start and 46 of the nursery school. A much smaller percentage of Head Start than of nursery school identify the numbers of blocks from 2 through 4 by either the heard or spoken mode of number identification. For numbers 5 and 6, most children of both classes fail. The evidence for a semantic deficit for number is very strong. The evidence indicates also a deficit in the span of apprehension and suggests the existence of class differences in the power of examiner demands for heard and for spoken identification to elicit the counting strategy. Evidence of sex differences in semantic mastery of number is absent, and among Head Start children, race differences lack statistical significance. These findings are highly dissonant with the contention of the sociolinguists that no cognitive or linguistic deficits exist and uncovering them can be helpful in guiding compensatory education.

This series of studies concerns the relative validity of two explanations of why children of parents of poverty do poorly in school. Both explanations assume that nearly all children have the genetic potential to learn what the schools attempt to teach. One holds that children, and especially the black children, of poverty are in no way deficient in cognitive and linguistic skills. They fail merely because they enter school with a dialect differing from standard English. This complicates the task of learning to read in standard English. The other view holds that the rearing conditions in families of poverty limit the number and variety of objects and places and action models with which the poor child becomes acquainted during his infancy and preschool years, resulting in a cognitive deficit. These conditions also hamper the poor child's acquisition of phonemic symbols for objects and places and the relationships among them, resulting in a deficit in semantic mastery. This series of studies employs several strategies of investigation. This paper indicates their nature. It also describes in some detail the economic and educational characteristics of the parents of the two sets of children examined.

Subjects for the present study were 20 retarded, 20 brain-injuried, 20 normal, and 20 disadvantaged children equated for average MA of 4 years 10 months. The study focused on a Concept-Matching task that required subjects to match an index object to one within a multiple-choice array on the basis of function or class. Materials were controlled so that this choice had a conceptual, rather than perceptual, base. Subjects were required to identify objects before proceeding to the Concept-Matching task. It was assumed that Identification responses served as mediators for the Concept-Matching task. Materials consisted of 84 common objects and a duplicate set of drawings. One set of hypotheses predicted that all groups would be hampered by the two-dimensional format for both the Identification and Concept-Matching tasks. A second set of hypotheses pertained to the correlation between Identification and Concept-Matching responses. They predicted (a) significant correlations between Identification and Concept-Matching scores for all groups; (b) a rank order for these correlations as follows: brain-injured greater than normals greater than disadvantaged greater than retardates. Hypotheses dealing with format were confirmed with two exceptions: the retarded and the brain-injured did equally well on the Concept-Matching task in either format. Data concerned with correlations were significant and followed the predicted rank order in the case of three groups: the retarded, disadvantaged, and brain-injured. Results were interpreted in the light of two interrelated theories that emerged from the study: a mediational pattern theory and a coping response theory.

The four-year-old children of Head Start (two-year-classes of 90 for 1969-71 and 72 for 1971-72) performed on a test of perceptual identification approximately as well as four-year-old nursery-school children of parents predominantly of college background. On the other hand, only 28.9% and 19.4% of the children of Head Start, as compared with 87.9% and 90.2% of the children of the nursery-school pointed correctly to all six of the blocks when the examiner named the colors. Also, only 25.6% and 23.6% of those of Head Start, as compared with 81.8% and 76.5% of those of the nursery school, named the colors of all six blocks as they were designated by the examiners. Sex differences and race differences, except in the case of brown, among the children of Head Start were negligible and not significant. Somewhat more children showed semantic mastery for the warn colors, orange and red, than for the cool colors, blue and green. The finding of a deficiency in semantic mastery for such an elementary abstraction as color is highly dissonant with the contention of many students of sociological linguistics that children of poverty, and especially black children of poverty, are without cognitive or linguistic deficit, and that they fail in school only because they use a dialect differing from standard English. The finding is quite consonant with the contention that children of poverty do have a cognitive and linguistic deficit which may, and probably does, derive from the rearing conditions in their homes during the preschool years.

The four-year-old children of Head Start (two-year-classes of 90 for 1970-71 and 67 for 1971-72) performed on a test of perceptual identification of a sample of six positions approximately as well as did four-year-olds of parents with predominantly college backgrounds. On the other hand, only 22% and 16% of those of Head Start as compared with 70% and 67% of those of the nursery school placed blocks in all six positions that they heard the examiner name, and only 12% and 9% of the former as compared with 45.5% and 44.9% of the latter gave appropriate names for all the six positions designated by the examiner. Sex differences and differences between black and white children of Head Start were negligible and not significant. Somewhat more children of both Head Start and the nursery school showed semantic mastery based on both heard and spoken identification for positions based on body-object relations (in, on, and under) than for those based on object-object relations (in fromt of, between, and in back of). The fact that the children of Head Start perform so much less well than those of the nursery school on the test semantic mastery for position information is highly dissonant with the contention that children of poverty are without either cognitive or linguistic deficit, but quite consonant with the contention that they suffer a deficit that may well and probably does result from the rearing conditions in their homes during the preschool years.

Research approached and substantive findings pertaining to determinants of the nonmedical use of illicit psychoactive drugs are reviewed. Discussion focuses upon the dimensions of drug use as a behaviorial phenomenon, the findings and limitations of four basic approaches to research in the ares--sociocultural, psychopathological, functionalist, and social learning-- and upon methodological problems. Drug use must be treated as a multidimensional phenomenon, with analyses extending well beyond simple user vs. nonuser comparisons or arbitrary categories of users. Research must be conducted within a coherent field-theoretical conceptual framework, directed toward the formulation of nomothetic laws concerning patterns of drug use. Inadequacies in sampling and measurement and the absence of longitudinal design have compromised the utility of a vast research literature.