Bridget A. Franks

Gifted adolescents: Psychological behaviors, values, and developmental implications

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the level of moral reasoning, ego identity formation, and gender role socialization among gifted adolescents by ethnicity and gender. A total of 167 gifted and talented high school seniors participated in this investigation. The students completed the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1988), Rasmussen Ego Identity Scale (Rasmussen, 1961, 1964), and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1981). Scores on the Defining Issues Test among the different ethnic groups were more variable than scores on the other two measures. The students scored at the adult level of identity development on the Ego Identity Scale. Scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory indicated that the students endorsed either androgynous or masculine sex role characteristics. No significant gender differences were found on any of the measures. Implication of these findings are discussed in terms of the role that counselors and educators should play in addressing the psychosocial developmental needs of gifted a...

Deductive reasoning with prose passages : Effects of age, inference form, prior knowledge, and reading skill

This study applied knowledge about inference-making from the deductive reasoning literature to the drawing of specific inferences from prose passages. It explored the effects of age, inference form, prior knowledge, and reading skill on inferential comprehension. In Experiment 1, fourth-grade, seventh-grade, and college students read three prose passages, each containing six inferential questions based on premises expressed in the passages. Premise information was either true, false, or neutral with regard to subjects’ prior knowledge. To answer the questions correctly, subjects were required to make deductive inferences with six different inference forms. Content (true, false, or neutral) and form interacted differently depending on the age of subjects, but content affected performance with at least some forms for all age groups. When reasoning with conditional forms, subjects’ use of more advanced reasoning patterns with true content decreased with false and neutral content, where less advanced reasoning patterns were shown. In Experiment 2, the relationships among reading skill, inference form, and content were explored with seventh-grade and college students. For college students, reading skill had a positive main effect, but did not interact with form or content. For seventh-graders, skilled readers were better able than less skilled readers to reason from false and neutral premises with determinate inference forms.

Logical Inference Skills in Adult Reading Comprehension: Effects of Age and Formal Education.

This study applied knowledge about inference‐making from the deductive reasoning literature to drawing of specific inferences from prose passages. It explored the effects of age, inference form, prior knowledge, and formal education on inferential comprehension skills in adult readers. Subjects were college‐aged, middle‐aged, and older adults with some college education and older adults with no college education. All subjects read three prose passages, each containing six inferential questions based on premiss expressed in the passages. Premise information was either true, false, or neutral regarding subjects’ prior knowledge. To answer the questions correctly, subjects were required to make six different types of deductive inferences (four with determinate conclusions and two with indeterminate conclusions). Among college‐educated adults, no effects for age were observed, but college‐educated adults in the oldest age group performed significantly better than those without college education. Although perf...

HIV/AIDS and the teachers of young children

More than half the children with HIV infection in the United States now live long enough to attend school. However, most studies of teachers’ knowledge and attitudes about HIV in schools have not assessed content that is relevant to the needs of preschool or elementary‐aged children with HIV or AIDS. We propose that content included in teachers’ training and assessment should be specifically related to HIV/AIDS in young students, including transmission of HIV in the classroom, routes of HIV transmission in children, disease processes for children with HIV, effects of HIV on intellectual and emotional functioning, and safety procedures in the classroom. The assessment of attitudes will also be critical to the success of any training program, and we discuss issues that affect teachers’ attitudes about having children with HIV or AIDS in their classrooms.

From soldiers to children: developmental sciences transform the construct of posttraumatic stress disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was first included in the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders in 1980. Long used to describe the reactions of soldiers affected by stress in combat situations, PTSD is now recognised as a disorder affecting abused and neglected infants and children, survivors of assault and domestic violence, and disaster victims of all ages. How did a construct so distinctly associated with the experiences of adult combat veterans come to describe behaviours seen in children, and even infants? This transformation can be understood by examining the way clinical researchers have applied the developmental sciences (child and adolescent development, neuroscience, and cognitive science) to the study of trauma. Each of the developmental sciences has contributed to our understanding of childrens reactions to traumatic situations, and each plays an integral part in the effort to understand PTSD as a disorder of children as well as adults.