Preschoolers' knowledge about the appearance of proper names

Preschoolers' knowledge of the appearance of proper names was tested in three experiments with 25 boys and 22 girls from low-income families. Children from a Head Start program, whose parents signed a permission letter, participated. Their ages ranged from 3 yr. 6 mo. to 5 yr. 6 mo. (M = 52.2 mo., SD = 4.9). When shown consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams such as Rit or baF or dEg with various capitalization patterns, the children showed a tendency to recognize that CVC trigrams with the first letter capitalized or all letters capitalized were the ones most likely to represent a person's name. When their own names were substituted, which typically contained more than three letters, their performance was markedly better. Children also had a strong tendency to consider trigrams of Latin letters as more likely to be a person's name than trigrams of non-Latin characters (e.g., Sanskrit).     

Cognitive strategies in coping with expedition stress

Expeditions provide a valuable opportunity for studying processes of coping with a stressful situation. An expedition to India organized by the British Schools Exploring Society has already been reported as being accompanied by positive changes on self-report personality scales. This paper is concerned with detailed cognitive coping measures completed throughout the 6 weeks of the expedition. It needs to be noted that the results relate to young adults and to those who provided detailed coping information; the generalizability of the result is a matter for future research. The expedition presented a mixture of physical and social stresses. Men enjoyed the physical experience more than women, but women enjoyed the social experience more than men. There was generally greater reliance on personal resources than on social support in coping with stress. This was particularly true for men in coping with physical stress and women in coping with social stress. In general, the physical stresses had been better anticipated than the social ones. Positive reformulations were much more widely used as coping strategies than avoidance/resignation strategies, especially so for physical stresses. However, use of avoidance/resignation strategies was the better predictor of outcome, with those who used them being least likely to show positive personality change as a result of the expedition. The results are related to current research on stress and coping.     

Children's strategies for coping with depression

Rippere (1974-1983) has investigated adults' commonsense beliefs concerning behavioural strategies for coping with depression. The study report here was concerned with the developmental aspects of the concept of 'common knowledge'. It was designed in order to investigate, through conversations with children of various ages, the hypothesis that children may possess a common knowledge concerning the 'things to do' when they are feeling depressed. 120 children distributed across seven age groups (ranging from 4-11 yr) were asked in an open-ended interview "What's the thing to do when you're feeling depressed?". Their responses were subjected to frequency counts and content analysis. Content analysis of the data indicated that 50% of all responses mentioned 'Play' strategies, 12% mentioned 'Help and comfort seeking', and 11% mentioned 'avoidance' activities. There was an inverse relationship between the frequency with which items were mentioned and the number of items mentioned at that frequency. This finding supports the notion of the existence of a canon of commonsense 'things to do' when feeling unhappy, and accords well with the findings of Rippere.     

Bad people doing good things: Attributions about people with immoral traits

Current Psychology - Perfect duties are those required by moral individuals, whereas imperfect duties, although not required, are expected of moral individuals. Previous research suggests it takes...     

Cognitive strategies for coping with uncertain outcomes

It was proposed that, when faced with highly desirable but uncertain outcomes, people may employ cognitive strategies in an attempt to influence their future affective responses to the outcomes in question. The present study attempted to demonstrate the use of two such strategies. First, it was hypothesized that when people are faced with a low probability of obtaining a highly desirable outcome, they tend to derogate that outcome by perceiving it as less attractive. Second, it was proposed that when people are faced with uncertainty regarding the occurrence of a highly desirable outcome, they tend to underestimate the likelihood of its occurrence, in an attempt to avoid future disappointment. These hypotheses were tested within the context of a lottery in which subjects were given a low, moderate, or high chance of winning a prize that was either high or low in attractiveness. As predicted, subjects viewed the highly attractive prize as less valuable and attractive when they had a low probability of winning than when the probability of winning was moderate or high. Subjects also perceived themselves as less likely to win when the prize was high in attractiveness than when it was low in attractiveness. The relationship of these findings to studies of self-handicapping and attribute ambiguity is discussed.     

Preschoolers' beliefs about sex and age differences in emotionality

The goal of the present study was to assess preschoolers' beliefs about the frequency and intensity with which boys, girls, women, and men experience anger, sadness, and happiness. Sixty-seven middle-class preschool children (35 girls, 32 boys) were presented with drawings of adult and child figures of each sex, and were asked to rate how frequently and intensely the emotions were felt (91% of the children were white; the remainder were primarily black). Children's gender stereotyped beliefs were particularly strong for sadness and appeared to be based on a deficit-experience model for males. Sex of target differences also were found for children's beliefs about anger (favoring males). However, the sex difference in anger was based more on the degree to which anger is believed to be experienced rather than on differences in beliefs regarding males' and females' capacity to experience anger. Age of target differences were also found for sadness and anger, but not for happiness. It was concluded that preschoolers' beliefs about differences in emotions are complex, and vary as a function of the sex and age of the target person, and as a function of the specific emotion.Partial support for Richard Fabes was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BNS-8807784). Partial support for Carol Martin was provided by a Women's Studies Research Award (CM1-1001) and a Faculty Grant in Aid (RWR-B658) from Arizona State University. The authors would like to thank Anita Petitti, Dennis Barrett, Amy Vogelson, Melinda Deacon, Kris Hughes, Amy Secklin, Hilary Rose, Melanie Smith, and Melinda Smith for their assistance with data collection and stimulus preparation. Thanks also goes to the teachers, staff, and children at the Arizona State University Child Laboratory Programs.     

Pain sensitivity and coping strategies among dysmenorrheic women: much ado about nothing

Samples of spasmodic, congestive and combined dysmenorrheic women and non-dysmenorrheic women were subjected to an ischemic pain procedure to measure their pain threshold, pain tolerance and self-reported pain. Cognitive and behavioral strategies that subjects had spontaneously used during the pain procedure were later assessed. A classification system was derived for categorizing subjects' responses to the interview and questionnaire used in this assessment. Contrary to previous claims that dysmenorrheic women may be hypersensitive to pain, no differences in pain sensitivity were discovered among the four groups of subjects. A few differences in cognitive and behavioral strategies did emerge, but these were of insufficient magnitude to contend that dysmenorrheic women are disadvantaged in their strategies for coping with pain.     

Self-defeating personality and strategies for coping with stress.

People who scored higher on a measure of self-defeating personality also scored low on ego-strength, showed an external locus of control, and used less adaptive coping strategies than those who scored lower. These strategies (denial, mental disengagement, alcohol and drug use) were viewed as helping to perpetuate their positions as victims.     

Job stress and coping strategies in patients with subjective food hypersensitivity

Lind, R., Lillestøl. K., Valeur, J., Eriksen, H. R., Tangen, T., Berstad, A. & Arslan Lied, G. (2009). Job stress and coping strategies in patients with subjective food hypersensitivity. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 179–184. Psychological distress may be causally related to multiple, unexplained somatic symptoms. We have investigated job stress, coping strategies and subjective health complaints in patients with subjective food hypersensitivity. Sixty‐four patients were compared with 65 controls. All participants filled in questionnaires focusing on job stress, job demands and control, work environment, coping strategies and subjective health complaints. Compared with controls, patients scored significantly lower on job stress and job demands, and significantly higher on authority over job decisions. Coping strategies and satisfaction with work environment did not differ significantly between the two groups, but the patients reported significantly more subjective health complaints than the controls. Scores on job stress and job demands were generally low in patients with subjective food hypersensitivity. It is unlikely, therefore, that the patients’ high scores on subjective health complaints are causally related to the work situation.     

Teachers' views and beliefs about bullying: Influences on classroom management strategies and students' coping with peer victimization

A multilevel design was used to test a model in which teachers' attitudes (beliefs) about bullying (e.g., it is normative; assertive children do not get bullied; children wouldn't be bullied if they avoided mean kids) were hypothesized to influence if and how they intervene in bullying interactions. In turn, it was hypothesized that teachers' strategies would influence how their students cope with victimization and the frequency of victimization reported by their students. Data were gathered on 34 2nd and 4th grade teachers and 363 ethnically-diverse students (188 boys; 175 girls; M age = 9 years 2 months). Results indicated that teachers were not likely to intervene if they viewed bullying as normative behavior, but were more likely to intervene if they held either assertion or avoidant beliefs. Moreover, avoidant beliefs were predictive of separating students which was then associated both directly and indirectly (via reduced revenge seeking) with lower levels of peer victimization. No grade differences emerged for teachers' views or management strategies; however, minor sex differences were detected which will be discussed.     

To be or not to be a galaprock: Preschoolers' intuitions about the importance of knowledge and action for pretending

Can someone pretend to be a galaprock without knowing what a galaprock is? Do children recognize that such knowledge is required for pretending? Three studies focusing on the relations among action, knowledge and pretending suggest that children have this understanding by age 4 years. In Study 1, 4‐year‐olds and adults willingly pretended to be moving and unmoving objects but had trouble pretending to be objects that were difficult to represent physically. In Study 2, 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds claimed they could not pretend to be an unknown thing, justifying their refusals with mentalistic language indicating their ignorance of the object or its typical actions. In Study 3, 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds predicted that other children who have knowledge of an object unfamiliar to the subjects themselves can nevertheless pretend to be it, whereas those lacking that knowledge cannot. The results add support to the growing literature showing that preschoolers conceptualize pretense as involving mental activity.     

Children's strategies for coping with stress: Blunting and monitoring

The present study examined children's suggestions for coping with uncontrollable stress, from the perspective of the monitoring/blunting distinction proposed by Miller (1987). Children in the first through sixth grades heard stories depicting four stressful situations that afforded little opportunity for control. Children's coping suggestions were classified as blunting (including reappraisal, cognitive distraction, and behavioral distraction), monitoring, or seeking support. Overall, blunting strategies were mentioned most often, followed by monitoring, and seeking support. A grade-level increase in blunting suggestions was found, and this developmental pattern was identical for reappraisal, cognitive distraction, and behavioral distraction. No grade-level differences were observed for monitoring or support. Situational differences in coping suggestions were explored, and there was mixed evidence of cross-situational consistency in coping style.The author would like to thank the staff and students of the Bell Top Child Care Centers and Kinder-Care Learning Center, Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Thanks are also due to Cricket Blassage and Latoria Carroll for their help with the coding. This research was partially supported by a small grant from Illinois State University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington, April, 1991.     

Cultural regulatory fit and strategies for coping with unsuccessful outcomes

The present research seeks to explain cross‐cultural differences in two strategies for coping with unsuccessful outcomes (consideration of multiple options and persistence) through regulatory fit, a development of the self‐regulation theory. We propose that, because of regulatory fit, eager consideration of multiple options is more encouraged in promotion‐focused cultures, whereas vigilant persistence is more encouraged in prevention‐focused cultures (a culture‐strategy regulatory fit). In addition, if an incentive is introduced to motivate the use of these strategies, a gain‐framed incentive is more effective in promotion‐focused cultures whereas a loss‐framed incentive is more effective in prevention‐focused cultures (a culture‐incentive regulatory fit). The hypotheses for the culture‐strategy fit (Study 1) and the culture‐incentive fit (Study 2) were both supported, with samples of Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs (in both studies), and Hong Kong Chinese (in Study 1). Taken together, the findings contribute to the understanding of cross‐cultural differences in coping with unsuccessful outcomes and suggest the existence of cultural regulatory fit. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-mutilation and coping strategies in a college sample

The goal of this study was to examine the use of specific coping strategies among self-mutilating college students. The self-mutilating group (n = 44) reported utilizing avoidance strategies more often than did a control group (n = 44) matched for general psychological distress but with no history of self-mutilation. In addition, female, but not male, self-mutilators endorsed using problem-solving and social support seeking strategies less often than nonmutilators. These findings suggest that coping strategies in general and avoidance-based strategies in particular may be important targets for the treatment of self-mutilative behaviors.     

Updating knowledge about encoding strategies: a componential analysis of learning about strategy effectiveness from task experience

Researchers have argued for age deficits in learning about the effects of encoding strategies from task experience, partly on the basis of absolute accuracy of metacognitive judgments. However, these findings could be attributed to factors other than age differences in learning. Forty older and 40 younger adults participated in 2 study-test trials in which they studied paired associates with imagery or repetition, predicted recall for the items, attempted recall, and postdicted recall. Recall was greater after imagery than repetition, yet this effect was not fully reflected by predictions made on Trial 1. Although both older and younger adults accurately postdicted recall from Trial 1, absolute accuracy of the predictions made on Trial 2 showed little improvement. By contrast, both age groups demonstrated increases in between-person correlations of predictions with recall, which is inconsistent with age deficits in knowledge updating. Thus, both older and younger adults had updated knowledge about the relative effects of the strategies, but such updating was not evident in the absolute accuracy of the predictions.     

Common problems and coping strategies I: Findings with normal adolescents

This study investigated problems commonly experienced by adolescents and the strategies they use to cope with these events. Coping strategies were examined across the subjects' omotional state and their evaluation of the problem. In general, adolescents reported four common Stressors that were similar across age groups and gender. However, males differed from females in the frequency of these problems. Further, while the Stressors were similar, the frequency with which the coping strategies were employed and the efficacy ascribed to them differed across sex and across problem type. These findings are discussed in terms of the stress and coping literature with adults and the implications for clinical assessment and treatment of adolescents.