Elkind on egocentrism

The purpose of this paper is to respond to D. Elkind's (1985, Developmental Review, 5, 218–226) reply to D. Lapsley and M. Murphy's (1985, Developmental Review, 5, 201–217) critique of the adolescent egocentrism theory. After a reprise of the issues in contention, we address the problem of theoretical consistency and self-other differentiation in Dr. Elkind's (1967, Child Development, 38, 1025–1034) theory. The role of formal operations in the Lapsley and Murphy (1985) account of the imaginary audience and personal fable is revised, and the empirical support for Elkind's theory is reviewed. We conclude that there are good conceptual and empirical grounds for doubting the major assumptions of the adolescent egocentrism theory, and that the Lapsley and Murphy (1985) framework has promise in suggesting theoretical integration with other approaches to the self.     

Inquiry method effects on performance in a simulated business environment

The dialectical inquiry (DI) and devil's advocate (DA) techniques have been offered as two options for providing information to the decision maker. Several prior studies have not resolved the relative advantages between these two “inquiry methods.” This paper reports two studies that involve a business simulation task and an inquiry method manipulation. In the first study with student subjects as decision makers, the DA advice was more useful than the DI advice in a situation wherein plant and work force expansions were frequent. In the second study with experienced managers, very few expansion decisions were made, and the nature of DA or DI advice made no significant difference. Instead, a recommendation to engage in a high profit margin, low volume strategy proved useful in some conditions.     

The role of prior knowledge in explaining hypothetical events

Having subjects explain a hypothetical future event biases their subjective likelihood estimates for that event. However, Sherman, Zehner, Johnson, and Hirt (1983, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1127–1143) found that the biasing effects of an explanation task were reduced when subjects formed an initial impression based on the information (prior to the explanation task). Nonetheless, there are no doubt many factors that may influence subjects' ability to form strong initial impressions. The present studies address two of these factors. Experiment 1 used both subjects who were knowledgeable and unknowledgeable (naive) about a stimulus domain (football). Experiment 2 used only knowledgeable subjects, but gave these subjects information about unfamiliar teams and players. Subjects first read information about teams in an upcoming game and were then asked to explain a hypothetical victory by one team. They then made judgments about the actual future game and recalled the information. Only knowledgeable subjects given an initial impression set and given information that was easily integrated with past knowledge were able to resist the explanation bias. All other subjects demonstrated judgments that were strongly biased in the direction of the outcome explained. An examination of the relation between judgment and recall implied that knowledgeable and naive individuals differed in the ways they made judgments.     

Development of mental rotation: A speed-accuracy study

Pairs of letters and numbers were shown to 11-, 14-, and 19-year-olds. One stimulus in a pair was presented upright. The second, which was either identical to the first or a mirror image of it, was rotated 0 to 150° from the vertical. Individuals judged if the stimuli in a pair would be identical or mirror images if presented at the same orientation. They did so under instructions that emphasized accurate responses, fast responses, or fast and accurate responses. Typically, responses were (1) most accurate and slowest when accuracy was emphasized, and (2) least accurate but fastest when speed was emphasized. The data from the three instructional conditions were used to derive measures of response times in which accuracy of response was equated for the three age groups. At 95% accuracy 14- and 19-year-olds mentally rotated stimuli at the same rate, which was faster than 11-year-olds' rate. At 100% accuracy, 19-year-olds mentally rotated stimuli more rapidly than both 11- and 14-year-olds, who did not differ from one another.     

Relationships between Growth need Strength and selected individual differences measures employed in job design research

The present study examines the degree to which the Growth Need Strength scales (Job Choice and Would Like formats) of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1975, 60, 159–170) correlate with (a) other measures of needs and values employed in research as moderators of the job scope-job satisfaction relationship and (b) a measure of social desirability. Results showed (a) only moderate correlations between the Growth Need Strength scales and the other measures of needs and values and (b) a relatively high degree of correlation between social desirability and the Would Like measure of Growth Need Strength. Implications of these findings for job design research are considered.     

Examining the reliability and validity of an adapted scale of educational-vocational undecidedness in a sample of graduate students

The present study was an attempt to determine the reliability and validity of an adapted vocational indecision scale designed for undergraduates (Osipow, S. H., Carney, C. G., Winer, J. L., Yanico, B. J., & Koschir, M., In Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1976, 9, 237) for use in a graduate student population. Internal consistency, test-retest, interrater reliability, and validity coefficients were calculated. A factor analysis and a multiple regression were also conducted. The findings suggest that the characteristics of the adapted indecision scale for the graduate students sample are similar to the characteristics of the unadapted instrument for the undergraduate sample in the S. H. Osipow, C. G. Carney, and A. Barak (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1976, 9, 223–243) study. Potential therapeutic and research uses of the adapted indecision scale are also discussed.     

Levels of experienced dimensionality in children and adults

This work presents a new conceptualization of the contrast between holistic and differentiated perception of multidimensional stimuli. Specifically, two hypotheses about the experiential status of dimensions within holistic perception are proposed and tested as explanations of young children's general perceptual mode and adults' integral mode. The major result is that three levels of dimensional status are realized: (1) the hypothesis of nonprimary axes characterizes adult “integral” perception of saturation and brightness relations, (2) the hypothesis of primary but not mandatory axes characterizes kindergarteners' “integral” perception of size and shade relations, and (3) the notion of mandatory axes characterizes adults' separable perception of size and shade relations. These results indicate a new interpretation of the integrality-separability distinction and the derivative developmental hypothesis. It is specifically hypothesized that the developmental history of most dimensional combinations includes these three levels.     

Effectiveness of hand overcorrection for topographically similar and dissimilar self-stimulatory behavior

Response contingent hand overcorrection was used to reduce the frequency of self-stimulatory behaviors in four retarded adult males. For two of the subjects, the treated behaviors (hand shaking and nose touching) involved hand movements which were topographically similar to the hand overcorrection procedure. For the other two subjects, behaviors topographically dissimilar to the treatment procedure were treated (inappropriate laughing and head weaving). All four behaviors were decreased in frequency during treatment. However, the hand overcorrection procedure was more effective with the topographically similar behaviors.     

Maintenance of children's rehearsal strategies: Effects of amount of training and strategy form

Fifty third- and fourth-grade children, assigned to groups varying in Amount (1 or 2 sessions) and Type (cumulative-cluster or cluster) of strategy training or to a control condition, participated in three free recall sessions, two training sessions with blocked lists of common words and a maintenance session with a 50-states list blocked by geographical regions. During strategy training and maintenance, the cumulative-cluster groups recalled more than the cluster and control groups. Amount of training significantly influenced degree of strategy maintenance, but only in the cumulative-cluster strategy. Strategy form was highly correlated with recall in the cumulative-cluster condition, while total study time (effort) was related to recall only in conditions where strategy instructions were not given. The form of the strategy during training predicted transfer form and recall. 100% of the children who received extended training and demonstrated good strategy form during acquisition sessions successfully transferred the strategy to the geography task.