Albert S. Dreyer

The Social Relations Model: A New Approach to the Analysis of Family-Dyadic Interaction

The Social Relations Model (Kenny and La Voie, 1984), which allows one to partition social interaction into component parts, is presented. The model consists of (a) actor effects (a persons behavioral consistency across partners), (b) partner effects (consistency in responses elicited by a given individual across different actors), (c) and interaction effects (the unique adjustment of a person to a particular partner). Actor and partner effects take the individual as the level of analysis; interaction effects take the dyad as the level of analysis. Family interaction data are reanalyzed using the model, and the subtle influence of partners on the behavior of actors is highlighted. The strengths and limitations of the model are discussed.

Continuous-discontinuous concept attainment as a function of individual differences in cognitive style.

Continuities and discontinuities in concept learning were studied in 30 white, male, middle socio-economic level, kindergarten children differentiated with respect to field independent-field dependent cognitive style. The children, homogeneous as to age and Verbal IQ, were presented with a two-choice simultaneous discrimination problem. Backward learning curves from the last error before criterion were constructed. As predicted, the learning curve for the field-independent group was characterized by discontinuity over precriterion trials, with no statistical dependence from one trial to the next. The curve for field-dependent Ss exhibited marked continuity, with significant departures from stationarity, and significant dependence in learning from one trial to the next. The results were interpreted in light of the incremental and mediational models of concept learning, and highlights the use of perceptual orientations in the formation of mediators as a developmental function.

Portable Rod-and-frame Test as a measure of cognitive style in kindergarten children.

Data on the relationship of a newly developed Portable Rod-and-frame Test to other measures of cognitive functioning are presented for 300 kindergarten children. A test-retest correlation of .96 was obtained over 1 mo. Sex differences were found on both the Portable Rod-and-frame Test and the Childrens Embedded-figures Test. High correlations between these two measures were found for both boys (.61) and girls (.66), corroborating work done on global-analytic cognitive style with older age groups.

Cognitive Performance in Montessori and Nursery School Children.

AbstractCognitive performance was measured in fourteen pairs of children, matched in social class, CA, sex and IQ, selected from a Montessori and from a “traditional” nursery school. No differences were found between the parents in these schools on such measures of social and parental attitudes and behavior as: achievement orientation, traditional family ideology, dogmatism, anomie, parental control behavior, or task oriented vs. person oriented values. The nursery school children were significantly more creative on a measure of non-verbal creativity, were more socially oriented, and less task oriented than the Montessori children.Style of approach to tests was felt to be a critical outcome of the two educational environments. The Montessori children used significantly more physical characteristics to describe commonplace objects, whereas significantly more functional terms were used by the nursery school children in their descriptions. Montessori children’s drawings had people present significantly less ...

Communication via Facial Cues in Intimate Dyads

The communication of emotion via spontaneous nonverbal expression was studied as it functions in the social penetration process. Two measures of nonverbal sensitivity to facial cues, sensitivity to general or unknown others and sensitivity to a dating partner, were obtained with seventeen exclusively dating, but noncohabiting couples. It was predicted from social penetration theory that both the duration of the relationship and the degree of involvement in the relationship would be reflected in the dating partners sensitivity to one another. Neither prediction was supported.

Perceptual Structuring: Cognitive Style Differences in the Perception of Ambiguous Stimuli

The study was designed to investigate the relationship between analysis and structuring as stylistic modes of perceptual functioning. 37 boys, ranging in age from 66 to 75 mo., were administered the Childrens Embedded-figures Test (CEFT) as a traditional measure of perceptual style. The Elkind Ambiguous Pictures Test (APT) was used to assess level of structuring under an unstructured search condition, a condition which was considered more conducive to a study of individual preferences in perceptual structuring. The strong correlation between scores on the CEFT and APT was interpreted as an indication of perceptual structuring as an additional attribute of the field-independent dimension of perceptual style.

Note Concerning Stability of Cognitive Style Measures in Young Children.

Test-retest data for the Childrens Embedded-figures Test are presented for 46 children tested in kindergarten and again in Grade 1. Scores on both administrations correlated .87, indicating stability of this cognitive-style measure for these young children over a 6-mo. period.

RELATIONSHIP OF COGNITIVE STYLE TO LOCUS OF CONTROL

The extent to which the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control model and the Witkin Field Dependence-Field Independence model were concerned with the same psychological dimensions was examined. Correlations between the Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and the Group Embedded-figures Test of .102 for 80 males and −.001 for 99 females were found. It was concluded that these are independent psychological constructs.

COGNITIVE STYLE AND SENDING AND RECEIVING OF FACIAL CUES

Sending and receiving accuracy of nonverbal facial cues was assessed in 17 dating but non-cohabiting college couples. Field-dependence/field-independence of each person was measured using the Embedded-figures Test. There were no relationships between several measures of receiving accuracy and cognitive style. However, field-dependent individuals were better senders of facial expressions. This finding is consistent with the literature on verbal self-disclosure and with other recent studies of accuracy of nonverbal sending.

Sociometric status and cognitive style in kindergarten children.

The sociometric status and cognitive style of 113 male and female kindergarten children were investigated using a free-play and a school-related task. Analyses of variance indicated that field-dependent girls and field-independent boys had significantly higher sociometric status in the free-play situation; boys had significantly higher social status in the task-situation. Other analyses showed field-dependent girls have higher sociometric status and are more varied in their sociometric choices. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.