Michael Chapman

Development of concern for others

The development of prosocial and reparative bebaviors was investigated by examining childrens responses to distresses they caused and those they witnessed in others during the 2nd year of life. Prosocial behaviors (help, sharing, provision of comfort) emerged between the ages of 1 and 2, increasing in frequency and variety over this time period. These behaviors were linked to expressions of concern as well as efforts to understand and experience the others plight. Childrens reparative behaviors after they had caused distress also increased with age. Age changes in these early signs of moral development were accompanied by social-cognitive changes in self-recognition. In assessments at age 2, children were most responsive to distress in their mothers but also showed some sensitivity toward unfamiliar persons

Control, Means-Ends, and Agency Beliefs: A New Conceptualization and Its Measurement During Childhood

We presented a new conceptualization of perceived control in which three conceptually independent sets of beliefs are distinguished: control beliefs, expectations about the extent to which agents (e.g., the self) can obtain desired outcomes; means-ends beliefs, expectations about the extent to which certain potential causes produce outcomes; and agency beliefs, expectations about the extent to which agents possess potential means. In a study of 155 children from Grades 2, 4, and 6, we demonstrated that childrens questionnaire responses reflected the distinction between these beliefs. Factor analyses of the items for each known cause separately revealed the predicted three factors, marked by control, means-ends, and agency items, respectively. Likewise, factor analysis of the scale scores resulted in control and agency beliefs factors as well as three factors for means-ends beliefs. Initial evidence on the usefulness of the new scheme indicates that control, means-ends, and agency beliefs show differential developmental trajectories as well as differential relations with cognitive performance.

Interpreting correlations between children's perceived control and cognitive performance: Control, agency, or means€nds beliefs?

The types of beliefs responsible for correlations between childrens perceived control and cognitive performance were investigated in 180 2rid, 4th, and 6th graders. Children were interviewed for control beliefs regarding the attainment of desired goals, for agency beliefs regarding the accessibility of different types of means to the self, and for means-ends beliefs regarding the efficacy of different types of means. Cognitive performance variables included fluid and crystallized intelligence as well as short-term and recognition memory. Of the three types of beliefs, only agency beliefs were strongly and consistently related to cognitive performance. Correlations were greater than zero beginning in 4th grade, increased monotonically from 2rid to 6th grade, and occurred for all cognitive performance measures.

Functions, operations, and décalage in the development of transitivity

The hypothesis that some attempts to reduce the performance demands of concrete operational tasks may have allowed children to solve those tasks with preoperational functions was tested by administering two previously used versions of the transitivity task for length and weight to 120 children 6 to 9 years of age. In the standard Piagetian version of the task, comparison objects were presented only two at a time, with no correlation between length or weight and spatial position. In the alternate version, objects were ordered in space by length or weight, but placed too far apart for differences in length to be seen. As predicted: (a) the standard version was solvable only through an operational composition of premise relations, but the alternate version allowed children to recode length or weight as a function of spatial position; (b) the functional solution was easier and developed at an earlier age than the operational solution for length as for weight. In addition, the decalage between length and weight was found to result from childrens tendency to infer weight as a function of size rather than from an operational composition of premis e relations.

Contextuality and Directionality of Cognitive Development

A multidirectional model of cognitive development is proposed according to which development can proceed in different directions in different socio-cultural contexts but can nevertheless be characterized as progressive within each context. Following an interpretation of Piagetian theory that stresses the equilibration theory more than the structural-stage theory, developmental ‘progress’ is defined retrospectively in terms of the increasing developmental distance away from an initial state-of-reference rather than ideologically in terms of the decreasing distance toward a predetermined end state. The model is illustrated in relation to the contextuality of formal operational thinking (viewed as embedded in a literate culture) and in connection with the development of aesthetic versus theoretic forms of knowing (as a characteristic difference between Eastern and Western cultures).

Young Children's Compliance and Noncompliance to Parental Discipline in a Natural Setting.

In order to determine the effects of different parental disciplinary techniques on young childrens compliance and noncompliance, mothers were trained to observe emotional incidents involving their own toddler-aged children. Reports of disciplinary encounters were analyzed in terms of the types of discipline used (reasoning, verbal prohibition, physical coercion, love withdrawal, and combinations thereof) and childrens responses to that discipline (compliance/noncompliance and avoidance). The relation between compliance/noncompliance and type of misdeed (harm to persons, harm to property, and lapses of self-control) was also analyzed. Results indicated that love withdrawal combined with other techniques was most effective in securing childrens compliance and that its effectiveness was not a function of the type of technique with which it was combined. Avoidant responses and affective reunification with the parent were more likely to follow love withdrawal than any other technique. Physical coercion was somewhat less effective than love withdrawal, while reasoning and verbal prohibition were not at all effective except when both were combined with physical coercion.

Peers and Prosocial Development

Piaget (1965) described children’s social interactions, particularly during the middle years of childhood, as essential to the development of mature, relativistic moral thought. During middle childhood, there was hypothesized to be a decline in egocentrism, an increase in role-taking skills, and heightened sensitivity to the experiences of others. A primary catalyst for these changes was thought to be the increased reciprocity and egalitarianism that comes to characterize peers’ social interactions. Piaget’s observations have been interpreted by some investigators as indicating that peer relations in the elementary school years also may be particularly important for the development of altruism. From a psychoanalytical perspective, Sullivan (1953), too, emphasized the value of friendships between preadolescents for the organization and consolidation of prosocial patterns of interaction.

Transitivity Judgments, Memory for Premises, and Models of Children's Reasoning

A distributional model of the relation between judgments on transitivity tasks and memory for premise comparisons is proposed, according to which a total population of children solving a transitivity task can be divided into two subpopulations: (a) The operational subpopulation consists of all children who infer their transitivity judgments (e.g., stick A is longer than stick C) from a composition of premise relations (A is longer than B and B is longer than C); (b) the nonoperational subpopulation consists of all children who infer their transitivity judgments in some other way. In the operational subpopulation, memory for premises should be accurate (because operational composition of premise comparisons depends on the retention of those premises), and transitivity judgments should be correct (because operational composition leads to a correct judgment “by necessity”). In the nonoperational subpopulation, memory for premises should be stochastically independent of transitivity judgments. The assumptions of this distributional model are tested against data on transitive reasoning in 120 first, second, and third graders and found to be reasonable. From the distributional model, an equation is derived allowing the researcher to compute the minimum proportion of operational reasoners required to reject the null hypothesis of independence between judgments and memory in a sample drawn from a mixed (nonoperational + operational) population. Reports of reasoning-remembering independence in previous studies are reinterpreted in light of the present findings.

Constructivism and the problem of reality

The problem of how we know reality constrains theories of cognitive development. A constructivist model of knowing is discussed in which reality is known through acting on it and coordinating actions through interaction with others. It is argued that explaining reasoning as the manipulation of visual-spatial mental representation is based on untenable epistemological assumptions. Instead, it is proposed that reasoning involves childrens operational understanding of key terms in problems and the composition of these operations, rather than applying logical rules or manipulating mental models. This approach is illustrated with research on class inclusion and transitive reasoning.

Intentional Action as a Paradigm for Developmental Psychology: A Symposium

This symposium is devoted to the question of whether and to what extent action may constitute a useful paradigm for developmental psychology, where ‘action’ is understood as voluntary behavior employed by the agent as a means of attaining certain ends. In the first contribution, Brandtstadter enlarges upon this definition, summarizes the multiple roots of action theory in psychology, and discusses some ways that an action orientation might contribute to psychological thinking with regard to aging and development. Meacham continues the discussion, emphasizing the social and interpersonal aspects of action, especially as described in Soviet psychology. An example of empirical action research is presented by Mischel, with the finding that children’s knowledge of effective delay strategies was related to their actual ability to delay gratification. Another application of the action perspective is provided by Skinner and Chapman in an effort to understand the relation between control beliefs and cognitive development. In their respective discussions of these papers, Youniss and Baltes frame the issues in terms of the individual versus the social mind and causes versus reasons as explanatory constructs.