Curt Acredolo

Infant temperament ratings: A function of infants, of mothers, or both?

Correlates of mother-rated infant temperament (IBQ) at three months were investigated with a sample of 56 mothers and infants using parity, sex, feeding style, NBAS scores, and one-and-three-month observed infant and mother behaviors as predictors. It was found that some aspects of rated infant temperament are associated with antecedent and concurrent mother behavior even when the effects of newborn characteristics are statistically controlled. Results are discussed in terms of the processes by which mother behavior might affect infant temperament, the possible contribution of infant constitutional and maturational characteristics, and the likely transactional nature of infant and mother effects.

On the difficulty of detecting cognitive uncertainty

Uncertainty surely plays an important role in promoting and directing cognitive growth, but most investigations of children’s reasoning and problem solving have relied on procedures that are poorly suited to reveal the degree to which individuals are certain of the answers they endorse. We examine research on children’s reasoning in the context of obvious indeterminacy in order to assess whether simple modifications of the standard assessment procedures would allow us to monitor subjective certainty more reliably. It is concluded that when we set as our goal the measurement of judgment certainty, major changes in our testing methods are required. Two promising alternatives are considered, and it is hypothesized that once these new procedures are perfected and applied, we will discover that uncertainties are both prevalent and prolonged – that most of what seems to be known at any one time is actually understood only partially and therefore with some degree of uncertainty. It is argued that this is a natural and acceptable situation. Progress requires only a relative degree of confidence and not complete certainty. Persistent, vague uncertainties, on the other hand, provide continuous motivation and sensitization for further discoveries, growth, and development.

Locus of control, life stress, and social networks: Gender differences in the health status of the elderly

A sample of community-based older adults were interviewed and given a questionnaire in order to examine the effects of stress, social support, and locus of control on two measures of health: the number of actual symptoms and self-ratings of health. Subjects were 83% white, 63% female, and represented middle- and working-class backgrounds. All variables showed association with symptom levels, and for men, both locus of control and friend support networks predicted subjective ratings of health even after controlling for the level of symptomatology. Moreover, an internal locus of control was found to buffer the deleterious effect of symptoms of physical illness on self-rated health. The results suggest that a supportive network and a sense of control build confidence in ones capacity to cope both with external stressors and with sickness itself, but these factors are stronger influences for males than for females.

Acquisition of Conservation: a Clarification of Piagetian Terminology, Some Recent Findings, and an Alternative Formulation

Ever since Bruner’s, attempt in 1966 to refute Piaget’s insistence that it is the prior recognition of reversibility (i.e., the reversible operations of inversion and compensation)