On the development of national attitudes in children

The present study consists of three related experiments which are concerned with the development of national attitudes in children between the ages of seven and twelve. It was predicted on the basis of a structural interpretation of Allport's three-stage developmental theory of prejudice that national attitudes will increase at first due to increasing consistency of judgment and decrease afterwards due to cognitive differentiation. The hypothesis is partially confirmed with respect to the attitudes of children towards other countries but not confirmed with respect to the attitudes of children towards people who are perceived as foreigners. A tentative explanation is offered for the last finding. It was shown moreover that the attitudes of older children display more cognitive balance than those of younger children. In connection with the last problem, a quantified modification Bf Heider's theory of balanced states was introduced.     

Classical conditioning and extinction of human systolic blood pressure

Fifty-five male and female undergraduates underwent 3 sessions of conditioning and one of extinction. Shock (UCS) occurred intermittently during light-on (CS+) and never in light-off (CS-). Results showed that (1) pressure in CS+ was significantly higher than CS-throughout all sessions; (2) within session adaptation was significantly retarded while incoming pressure levels did not adapt across sessions; (3) conditioned effects persisted 6 months after the last shock session; (4) verbal information as to non-appearance of shock significantly dropped pressure levels and reduced the discriminative light effect; (5) the post-shock unconditioned pressure response was a peak rise at 52 seconds, then a decrease which stabilized to the pre-shock level at 2 minutes. Pavlovian control of blood pressure was demonstrated and the present methodology offers an explicit procedure for further laboratory exploration.     

Cross-domain semantic priming in normal subjects and a prosopagnosic patient

Cross-domain semantic priming of person recognition (from face primes to name targets at 500msecs SOA) is investigated in normal subjects and a brain-injured patient (PH) with a very severe impairment of overt face recognition ability. Experiment 1 demonstrates equivalent semantic priming effects for normal subjects from face primes to name targets (cross-domain priming) and from name primes to name targets (within-domain priming). Experiment 2 demonstrates cross-domain semantic priming effects from face primes that PH cannot recognize overtly. Experiment 3 shows that cross-domain semantic priming effects can be found for normal subjects when target names are repeated across all conditions. This (repeated targets) method is then used in Experiment 4 to establish that PH shows equivalent semantic priming to normal subjects from face primes which he is very poor at identifying overtly and from name primes which he can identify overtly. These findings demonstrate that automatic aspects of face recognition can remain intact even when all sense of overt recognition has been lost.     

“Higher” and “lower”: Comparative and categorical interpretations by children

Three-, four-, and five-year-old children's categorical and comparative understanding of high and low were examined in two experiments. Categorical knowledge was assessed by presenting subjects with a single object at varying heights (from 0 to five feet above the ground), and asking if the object was high or low. Comparative understanding of the terms was assessed by showing children two objects at a time and asking which was higher or lower. We observed two patterns of performance in children's categorical treatments: younger children in particular defined disjoint categories for high and low such that they only labelled the extreme heights as high or low, and maintained that middle heights were neither high nor low. Older children defined either-or categories such that all heights were labelled either high or low. We also found that children who defined either-or categories made correct comparative judgments across the entire range of variation whereas children who defined disjoint categories could only judge which of two objects was higher if the objects were not low (at 0 and 1 feet) and which of the objects was lower if the objects were not high (at 4 and 5 feet). The results were interpreted as reflecting a lack of appreciation that the terms are interdefined as negations of each other, and were discussed in terms of the similar semantic-congruity effects found in adults.     

COMPETENCES A COMMUNIQUER ET RELATIONS PRIVILEGIEES ENTRE ENFANTS: COMPARAISON ENTRE DEUX GROUPES D'AGE*

The purpose of this study is to analyse the specificity of interactions between preschool friends, whose relationships are built on a voluntary and stable choice of a particular partner. The sample consisted of 18 unisexual triads of children aged 3 to 4 years (9 male and 9 female) from 5 Parisian kindergarten. These triads were compared with 18 others, composed of children aged 4 to 5 years (9 male and 9 female), from a previous study (Werebe et Boudonnière, in press). Each triad was composed of a dyad of friends plus a third familiar partner, all three classmates. The dyads of friends were selected on the basis of the following criteria: (1) a reciprocal and preferential search for one another; (2) a voluntary choice of the friend, without intervention from parents or teachers. The children were videotaped without their knowledge, without adult presence, in a familiar room of their school. The experimental setting was standardized in each of the 5 schools. The experimental paradigm was a variant of the one created by Nadel and Baudonnière (1980, 1982), with an important modification: the ten categories of matching objects were provided in double sets for the three children. Four indices were used for the data analysis: holding and appropriation of objects; offering of objects; competition to hold objects and verbalizations. The findings confirmed the principal hypothesis: that interactions between friends differ from those with the third partner, in both age groups, quantitatively (density of interactions) and qualitatively (reciprocal offerings and verbal communications). Furthermore, the findings revealed that the younger children had more difficulty than the older ones, to manage the triadic situation, especially in this situation with the constraint imposed by the presence of two sets of matching objects for three partners.     

SEX ROLES AND PERCEPTIONS OF FEMININITY AND MASCULINITY OF HISPANIC WOMEN

This article evaluates the research conducted on sex roles and perceptions of femininity and masculinity of Hispanic women. It begins with a critical review of early social and anthropological studies in which the roles of Hispanic women before the advent of the women's movement in the 1960s are described. The paper continues with more recent psychosocial studies that question the traditional portrayal of male–female roles and allocation of power in Hispanic families. Finally, the studies on Hispanics that measure the psychological dimension of femininity and masculinity are reviewed and summarized in a table including authors, sample, methodology and results.     

Correspondence in children's self-report: Tacting and manding aspects

Four boys and 4 girls (3 to 5 years old) played with as many as three toys chosen from a set of six, and were then asked whether they played with each of the toys. After a baseline in which all children showed high levels of correspondence between reported and actual behavior, reports of play were differentially reinforced, first in an individual and then in a social context. Two children in the individual condition began to report play with all six toys, even though no more than three toys had been played with. When reports of play were reinforced in a group context, 5 children reported play with all six toys. When correspondence was subsequently reinforced, virtually complete correspondence returned and was maintained in a third noncontingent reinforcement condition. Correspondence and lack of correspondence were discussed in terms of self-tacting and distorted tacting or manding.