Nathan Kogan

Beliefs, Attitudes, and Stereotypes about Old People A New Look at Some Old Issues

The study of beliefs, attitudes, and stereotypes about the old is impeded by a number of conceptual and methodological difficulties. These are discussed, and possible future alternative directions are outlined. Some of the major sources of difficulty include confusion between attitudes and beliefs, the neglect of attitude-behavior relations, the discrepant outcomes generated by within-Ss and between-Ss designs in the person-perception paradigm, and the inherent defects in generalized attitude scales. There is good reason to believe that investigators in the present domain are unaware of the degree to which their empirical outcomes reflect the specific methods employed rather than the construct under study. Greater methodological awareness and a more theoretical orientation are deemed essential to future progress in the field.

Creativity and Cognitive Style: A Life-Span Perspective

ABSTRACT Theory and research on creativity and cognitive styles are surveyed with particular emphasis upon their implications for life-span developmental psychology. Within the creativity domain, particular emphasis is given to the developmental aspects of the creativity-intelligence distinction. Problems of cross-age generality, the influence of the testing context as a function of age, the long-term stability of indexes of creative ability, and age and cohort-relevant aspects of creativity in “real-world” settings are considered. Attention is given to the issue of the usefulness of testing for creativity in adulthood when extrinsic behavioral criteria are generally available. The need for alternative predictive models for creative performance is discussed . The similarities and differences between cognitive styles, on the one hand, and creativity and intelligence, on the other, are described. A threefold classification of cognitive styles is offered on the basis of distance from traditional ability indexes and inclusion of value judgments in defining alternative poles of the style dimension. Several cognitive styles are reviewed with particular attention to the methodological difficulties in drawing developmental inferences from cross-sectional data. Consideration is given to the developmental relevance of the style-capacity distinction. Finally, the developmental problems associated with the construction of real-world criteria for cognitive styles are discussed .

Careers in the Performing Arts: A Psychological Perspective

The history of creativity research reveals extensive studies of the members of occupational groups noted for creative productivity. Much less attention has been paid to performing artists for whom interpretive skill rather than strictly original output constitutes the core of their professional activity. The similarities and differences between athletes and performing artists are considered, with special attention given to the distinctive memory requirements of the performing arts. A review of relevant personality research in the field points to uncertainty as to whether particular personality traits are antecedents or consequents of participation in the performing arts. Much weight is assigned to early socialization experience and motivational patterns that influence career choice and sustained commitment. The article concludes with a generic working model of the life span that considers intrinsic and extrinsic determinants contributing to eventual failure or success in this highly competitive domain.

Mental health professionals' experiences reporting suspected child abuse and maltreatment.

OBJECTIVEnThe purpose of this study was to provide systematic data on the experiences of mental health professionals (e.g., psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) who reported cases of suspected child abuse and maltreatment concerning their clients.nnnMETHODnMail surveys were completed by 258 mental health professionals known to have reported a case of suspected child abuse and maltreatment to the New York State Central Register (NYSCR) in 1993. Subjects were asked to complete a survey describing their experience with making reports, referring to a specific case they reported.nnnRESULTSnAbout 40% did not inform the client about the limits of confidentiality until reportable material came up. Most clinicians reported that informing clients about the limits of confidentiality did not deter them from entering treatment. Many clinicians learned about abuse/maltreatment after approximately 3 months into therapy. Even very experienced clinicians usually consulted with others before making the report. Clinicians most typically informed the client about the report directly and before it was made, but did not call the NYSCR in the presence of the client. Following the report, most clinicians performed additional activities such as calling clients and scheduling additional sessions. When clients evidenced resistance to continuing therapy, it usually dissipated after a brief period of time. In over 72% of the cases, making the report did not disrupt the relationship and in many instances it was helpful in the therapeutic process; about 27% were continuously resistant or terminated therapy shortly after the report was made.nnnCONCLUSIONSnImplications for practice, training, program development, and research are discussed.

Sex Differences in Risk Taking and Its Attribution.

In the original Kogan-Wallach Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ), an oftused measure of risk-taking disposition, the central character in the majority of items is male. For this study, a revised 10-item CDQ was constructed with content appropriate for both sexes. Two forms were employed, identical in all respects except for the use of a male or female name to identify the central protagonist in each CDQ item. When the two forms were administered to male and female undergraduates, the female form elicited somewhat higher levels of risk taking. This effect was especially pronounced in the male subjects. When asked to specify how their peers would respond to each of the CDQ items, subjects attributed greater caution to female than to male peers relative to their own preferred risk level. The outcomes suggest that subjects (especially males) find highly achieving women in the CDQ items more “exceptional” than their male counterparts, and hence able to tolerate more risk. In striking contrast, subjects female peers are considered a rather cautious lot.

Categorizing and Conceptualizing Styles in Younger and Older Adults

The classification behavior of male and female college students was compared with that of healthy, well-educated older males and females. Object-sorting and photo-sorting (male and female faces) proce

Gender influences on age cognitions and preferences: sociocultural or sociobiological?

The present article reviews research concerned with gender effects on cognitions and evaluations of people varying in age. Sontags (1979) article on the double standard of aging--the purportedly more negative consequences of aging in women in contrast to men--serves as a point of departure for the review. Research using attitude-scale, semantic differential, and person-perception methodology points to sex-of-target, sex-of-subject, and target-subject interaction effects in response to a diversity of age-relevant stimuli. Though the reported studies are not completely consistent, there is much suggestive evidence that age is a more salient dimension for men than for women when judging others. Furthermore, men exhibit a stronger youth bias. The overall evidence is consistent with an evolutionary hypothesis, but further research that focuses on the proximal determinants of the observed effects is urged.

Cognitive styles and reading performance

ConclusionThe cognitive style-reading connection appears to represent a case of promises not yet fulfilled. Further, it is dubious whether fulfillment is just around the corner. Certainly, one can question the one-cognitive-style-at-a-time approach that has been dominant thus far. The time may have come to think about cognitive styles along with other cognitive measures in combination. Multiple-regression and other multivariate techniques are clearly called for. Without any doubt, the Cronbach-Snow (1977) ATI approach deserves further consideration, not only in the sense of matching styles with instructional treatments in reading — what is called the capitalization approach — but also in the sense of devising methods that can serve a prosthetic function to overcome styles that are maladaptive for reading — a compensatory approach, in other words.The foregoing theme as well as others scattered through the paper could potentially be developed into systematic research proposals aiming to bridge the domains of cognitive style and reading performance. Loose ends abound in the present area, and much progress is possible if energy and imagination are applied to the task. It is my hope that this state-of-the-art article offers a modest step in that direction.

Cognitive styles in children: some evolving trends∗

∗The present paper represents a revised and updated version of a chapter entitled “Kognitive Stile” originally published in German. The latter appeared in G. Steiner (ed.), Piaget und die Folgen, Vol. 7 (pp. 445‐465) in a 15‐volume collection entitled Die Psychologic des 20 Jahrhunderts, Zurich: Kindler Verlag, 1978. We would like to thank Donna Palumbo for her assistance in the preparation of this chapter.

Reflections on aesthetics and evolution

Abstract Experimental research with human infants has demonstrated a level of sensitivity to music comparable to that of musically unsophisticated adults. This evidence points to the biologically hard‐wired nature of musical responsivity, and further raises the question of the evolutionary roots of the phenomenon. The question is addressed by examining (1) the ontogenetic and phylogenetic order in which speech and music are acquired, (2) the possible adaptive properties of music and dance, and (3) cognitive evolutionary retrodictions about the period in prehistory when art began. Much uncertainty continues to surround these issues, but there is a strong indication that the performing and visual arts are natural phenomena with distinctively different evolutionary roots.