Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Psychology developmental theory'

In this chapter we shall examine the theoretical assumptions that drive developmental psychology research and literature in South Africa. The basic underlying models utilised in developmental research may be described as (a) mechanistic; (b) organismic; (c) contextual and (d) social constructionist. A description of the fundamental premises of each of these will be followed by examples of research that utilise the particular approach. In the discussion, some of the controversies that plague developmental psychology research will be highlighted.

This applied theoretical paper explores the underlying capacity for caregivers to raise emotionally intelligent, well-adjusted children who grow up able to respond effectively to the demands of a complex world. A guiding supposition of the research is that diminished access to institutional privilege, especially when unrecognized and unprocessed by caregivers, is likely a risk factor connected to a variety of deleterious outcomes associated with the social determinants of health as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This connection resulted from asking the question, “How does the underlying capacity for caregivers to understand and manage diverse and complex dimensions of their personal identity, especially in terms of how they relate to institutional power and privilege, serve as a protective factor in meeting the developmental needs of their children for a safe, stable, and nourishing emotional environment?” To answer this question, two well-respected theoretical orientations were identified that each spoke to half of the question, but when brought together, could much more elegantly address many more aspects of the question in an integrated and holistic fashion. Specifically, John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory provided important context as to what developmental needs children have for a safe, stable, and nourishing emotional environment. On the other hand, Jean Baker Miller’s Relational-Cultural Theory was adept at offering a nuanced perspective on understanding diverse and complex dimensions of personal identity, especially as those dimensions interfaced with institutional privilege. Bringing these two perspectives together and synthesizing them into a new approach, an approach named Attachment-Informed Relational-Cultural Therapy, was the culmination of the research. One important outcome of the research was how it framed secure attachment as an unearned privilege (i.e. attachment privilege) that is affected by and simultaneously affects multiple variables in the caregiver and child dyad. These variables can themselves then become either protective factors supporting further secure attachment or risk factors threatening to damage or destroy it. Through the process of linking childhood attachment themes to the theme of access to institutional privilege it is hoped a greater capacity may be achieved for supporting caregivers in understanding and managing diverse and complex dimensions of their personal identity.

The empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory states that individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) can be identified by a deficit in empathy (social skills, communication skills, and theory of mind) and a propensity for systemizing (islets of ability, obsessions with systems, and repetitive behavior). This theory has been tested in various contexts, but never with adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16. The EQ-A (Empathizing Quotient for Adolescents) and the SQ-A (Systemizing Quotient for Adolescents) were administered to 47 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 who had been diagnosed with ASC and 97 adolescents with no reported physical or mental disorders to discover differences in empathizing and systemizing.

To test the specific elements and predictions of the E-S theory, the EQ-A was divided into a set of three subscales derived by conceptually mapping items to factors corresponding to the concepts theoretically underlying the scale. The SQ-A was divided into subscales using factor analysis.

It was found that all four subscales resulting from the factor analysis on the SQ-A were associated with obsessions with systems. A weak positive correlation was found between the SQ-A and the EQ-A. Although the EQ-A was able to differentiate significantly between individuals with an ASC and those without, the SQ-A was not. In addition, although the EQ-A and EQ-A subscales scores correlated with similar subscales scores of the GARS-2 (a well-validated existing autism screening test), the SQ-A and its subscales did not. Implications for the E-S Theory are discussed.

This thesis seeks to explore the association between ego threat and coping in terms of cognitive strategies and behavioral tendencies. Moreover, the current study is also intended to use attachment dimensions as an underlying mechanism to understand the impact of ego threat on coping. Within the internal working models of attachment theory, the current study seeks to examine two major questions: (1) what strategies individuals use to cope with ego threatening events: and (2) how attachment associates with coping strategies during various ego-threats conditions? The results had a significant impact when individuals were presented with ego threat scenarios suggest that individuals are most likely to use state coping of emotion focused disengagement followed closely by state coping disengagement while experiencing an ego-threat condition. However, all state coping strategies (e.g., state coping engagement, state coping disengagement, state coping problem focused engagement, state coping emotion focused engagement, state coping problem focused disengagement, and state coping emotion focused disengagement) had a significant impact when individuals were presented with ego-threat scenarios. The results of association between attachment dimensions and state coping strategies across ego-threat conditions were not significant. Further this study implies ego-threat conditions make it more likely for individuals to use dysfunctional coping strategies such as state coping disengagement and emotion focused disengagement. Overall, the study has implications for enhancing our understanding of internal working models of attachment and the tendency for ego-threat to impact coping strategies, emphasizes the potency of ego-threatening events as they impact self-view and efficacy of coping solutions.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Computer Science and Cognitive Science, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Oct. 8, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-02, Section: B, page: 1368. Advisers: Michael Gasser; Linda B. Smith.

An individual's financial position of dependence or independence can impact a person's state of psychological well-being and his/her level of functioning in society. Being financially independent can provide a sense of security and empower an individual to increase their quality of life. However, being financially dependent on others can create a hardship of fear and uncertainty about how to feed one's family or pay the rent. A number of published studies (Kruttschnitt, 1982; Natalier, 2007; Powles, 1991; Rogers, 2004; Schneider, 2000; Strube & Barbour, 1983) have been performed for specific topics related to financial dependency; however, the various developmental stages people experience when they are financially independent or financially dependent has not yet been researched or characterized. The goals of this study are: 1) to examine and identify the developmental stages of financial dependence and independence that individuals experience over the life span, and 2) to determine the benefits and challenges people encounter as a result of experiencing each of these stages of financial dependence and independence. Gaining a greater understanding of the common experiences people have in each of these states of financial dependence and independence will enable psychology and sociology professionals to better recognize the needs and concerns of their clients.

A useful approach to better understand the mechanisms underlying cognitive development has been that of constructive artificial neural networks (CANNs). This thesis presents several CANN models that contribute to our understanding of two typical and abnormal developmental phenomena.The first two manuscripts explore the mechanisms underlying false-belief (FB) task transitions. Typically-developing preschoolers go through two transitions on verbal FB tasks, in which they have to say where an agent will search to find (approach) or avoid (avoidance) an object that was moved from location A to location B in the agent's absence. Transition 1 occurs as children go from failure to success on the approach task, and Transition 2 occurs as children go from succeeding only at approach to succeeding also at avoidance tasks. Are these transitions due to learning about beliefs or to other factors? The first manuscript presents a model of a non-verbal FB task (which uses looking time rather than a verbal measure). The model captured the transitions observed with verbal tasks, predicting that transitions would be observed on non-verbal tasks. Results suggest that initial failure could be due to observing more true-belief (TB) than FB searches, and that Transition 1 may not be due to learning about beliefs but to overcoming default TB attributions by learning to distinguish FB from TB situations. Results also suggest Transition 2 may be due to avoidance goals being represented by more varied behaviour than approach goals.Autistic children usually fail at verbal approach FB tasks, even when they are older than the typical age of success. The second manuscript explores the impact of simulating specific autistic deficits on Transition 1. First, it is thought that social deficits in autism may be related to abnormal connectivity between the brain regions used in FB tasks. I explored this hypothesis by impairing in one group of networks the connectivity of the input unit providing the information about the agent, while in a second group of networks I impaired a start or end location input unit. Results suggest that the information from the agent node is computationally crucial to Transition 1, as only the first group had impaired performance. I next simulated the decreased autistic attention to social stimuli by replacing a random half of all network training patterns by random patterns, simulating observations of random situations. Because there is currently some doubt as to whether specific, early behavioural treatment of autism improves later deficits, I simulated different times of treatment by manipulating the duration of the attention impairment in networks. As the duration of the impairment was reduced, performance progressively improved, showing that computationally, early treatment can be beneficial for autism. In the third manuscript, I explored whether white-matter integrity (WMI) could be manipulated to simulate a range of performances on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), a popular test of intelligence requiring subjects to analyze a matrix to find which figure, out of a few alternatives, best fits the missing figure in the matrix. Different levels of WMI have been associated with typical, age-related cognitive improvements and decline, as well as with preterm birth. To explore the effects of different levels of WMI, I incorporated different noise proportions in the activation values of my SPM model. Best performance was obtained with no impairment, but as WMI was reduced, the model's success rate was lowered to first capture the success rate of typically-developing 9-year-olds on the SPM, and with more noise it then captured the performance of 9-year-olds born preterm. These results thus computationally support a link between WMI and typical and impaired cognitive development.In sum, these results show that CANNs are unique tools to advance our understanding of typical and abnormal mechanisms of development.
Une approche utile à la compréhension des mécanismes du développement cognitif sont les réseaux de neurones constructifs (RNCs). Cette thèse présente plusieurs modèles de RNCs améliorant notre compréhension de deux phénomènes typiques et anormaux du développement.Les deux premiers manuscrits explorent les mécanismes de transitions sur les tâches de fausse croyance (FC). Les enfants à croissance typique traversent deux transitions sur les tâches de FC verbales, dans lesquelles ils doivent dire où un agent cherchera pour trouver (approche) ou éviter (évitement) un objet déplacé de A à B durant son absence. La Transition 1 a lieu alors que les enfants passent de l'échec au succès des tâches d'approche, et la Transition 2 alors qu'ils passent du succès seulement aux tâches d'approche au succès des deux tâches. Ces transitions sont-elles dues à l'apprentissage des croyances ou à d'autres facteurs? Le premier manuscrit présente un modèle d'une tâche non-verbale de FC (utilisant le temps de regard au lieu d'une mesure verbale). Le modèle a reproduit les transitions observées avec les tâches verbales, prédisant des transitions avec les tâches non-verbales. Les résultats suggèrent que les transitions ne sont pas dues à l'apprentissage des croyances; la Transition 1 serait due au fait de surmonter une attribution par défaut de vraies croyances (VCs) en distinguant les situations de FCs et VCs, tandis que la Transition 2 serait due au but d'évitement étant représenté par des comportements plus variées que le but d'approche.Les enfants autistes échouent habituellement les tâches de FC verbales. Le deuxième manuscrit explore l'effet de simuler des déficits autistes sur la Transition 1.Premièrement, les déficits sociaux autistes pourraient être reliés à une connectivité anormale entre les régions du cerveau utilisées dans les tâches de FC. J'ai exploré cette hypothèse en endommageant dans un premier groupe de réseaux la connectivité de l'unité d'entrée représentant l'agent, et dans un deuxième groupe la connectivité d'une unité d'entrée représentant le départ ou l'arrivée de l'objet. Les résultats suggèrent que l'information de l'unité d'agent est critique pour la Transition 1, car seulement le premier groupe a échoué la tâche. J'ai ensuite simulé l'attention réduite aux stimuli sociaux chez l'autiste en remplaçant la moitié de toutes les situations d'entrainements par des nombres aléatoires, simulant des observations d'autres objets ou stimuli. Puisqu'il y a des doutes sur l'utilité de traitements comportementaux en jeune âge chez l'autiste, j'ai simulé différent temps de traitements en manipulant la durée de l'endommagement de l'attention. Devancer le début du traitement a eu pour effet d'améliorer progressivement la performance des réseaux, démontrant que les traitements des comportements autistes peuvent être bénéfiques. Dans le troisième manuscrit, j'ai exploré si des variations dans l'intégrité de la substance blanche (ISB) pouvaient simuler différentes performances sur les Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) de Raven, un test d'intelligence dans lequel on doit trouver la figure qui complète le mieux une matrice de figures. Différent niveaux d'ISB ont été reliés avec l'amélioration et le déclin typique de la cognition avec l'âge, ainsi qu'avec la naissance prématurée. Afin d'explorer les effets de différents niveaux d'ISB, j'ai incorporé différents niveaux de bruits dans les activations neuronales de mon modèle des SPM. La meilleure performance a été obtenue avec le modèle non-endommagé, mais alors que l'ISB a été réduite, le taux de succès du modèle a d'abord rejoint celui d'enfants au développement typique, et ensuite celui d'enfants nés prématurément. Ces résultats supportent donc un lien entre l'ISB et le développement typique et anormal de la cognition.En somme, ces résultats démontrent que les RNCs sont des outils uniques pour améliorer notre compréhension des mécanismes typiques et anormaux du développement.

This study addressed the free recall and recognition memory processes of elementary school children. It has been discovered that when children recall items from episodically related collections, a non-monotonic relationship is found between the memory strengths of those items and the order in which they are recalled. This relationship is known as cognitive triage, and it is not understood if the same phenomena would occur with recall involving semantic memory. Regarding recognition memory, experiments have tapped children's tendency to falsely remember words whose gist is the same as the gist of newly learned items. These past studies have focused primarily on a reversal of the standard false-recognition effect, where related distractors were easier to reject than unrelated distractors under some conditions. No research to date has ignored reversals and clearly examined the false-recognition effect itself. This study examined kindergarten, third, and sixth grade children's free recall organization and false-recognition of related distractors. The cognitive triage experiment examined semantic memory through having children recall exemplars from categories in Battig and Montague's (1969) lists. The recognition experiment examined developmentally the differential rate of false-recognition for related and unrelated distractors. Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) contends that the ability to inhibit interference increases with age. Hence, younger children were hypothesized to show a weaker cognitive triage effect and more false-recognition than older children. The latter result was found, whereas the former result was not. False-recognition did decrease with age but although a triage effect was observed for category exemplar production, the effect did not vary developmentally. The principle difference between this triage study and previous research is that lists offering preexperimental measures of memory strength were employed. These lists were normed on adults and therefore cognitive triage may have been different for children. Thus, this study indicates that developmental effects are found for false-recognition of related distractors but not for category exemplar production when using Battig and Montague's (1969) lists.

We have many developmental theories contributing to our understanding of children as they meander steadfastly toward maturation. Yet, none have reported on how young children interpret the qualitative meaning and importance of their own music-making experiences. Music created by average, not prodigious, young children is perceived by adults as “play” music rather than “real” music. But do young children take the same view as adults? When Piaget speaks of the young child’s qualitatively unique view and experience of the world (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988), can we assume that his statement encompasses young children’s predispositions related to music-making? Music is understood to occur when people act intentionally to produce and organize sound into rhythm and form. The guiding questions for this study are, What evidence is there to show that, when following an adult music leader, young children can engage in authentic music-making behavior and produce identifiable musical structures that move beyond random sounds or ‘noise’? What evidence is there to show that children's music-making behavior develops according to developmental stages? trek This qualitative field study observed and videotaped over 100 children between 2 and 7 years old who chose to engage in music-making behavior in a socially-rich school environment during structured activities guided by an adult “music leader.” The data gathered from this study suggest that young children’s motivation to make music derive from predispositions unrelated to notions of cultural and artistic expression thereby differing from adult musical needs and are instead based on more primary responses to their own developmental needs and their social environment. Functioning as “music leader,” the PI appeared to serve as an indispensable interface for assuring authenticity in the children’s music-making at all stages of development. The older children did not introduce any novel behavior specifically related to making music. However, due to the progression of cognitive and social maturity across the range of ages, new extra-musical behavior (EMB) slowly emerged at each developmental stage always seeming to enrich the experience relative to a particular group.

Research suggests that there is a relationship between theory of mind and moral development in young children. However, the nature of this relationship is still unclear, specifically in regards to the relationship between theory of mind and moral theme comprehension, which has yet to be studied. The current study attempted to begin to fill this gap in the research by examining the relationship between 8 preschool children’s false belief understanding, as determined by the Sally-Anne task, and moral theme comprehension. Results were not significant, but suggest a trend that children who pass the false belief task may be more able to understand the moral themes of stories. A larger sample size and further research on this topic is necessary.

Cybervictimization is related to negative psychological adjustment (e.g., Tokunaga, 2010); however, not all cybervictims report negative outcomes, and it is not clear what factors may influence vulnerability. One possibility is that cybervictims' attributions regarding technology-based communication impact their emotional adjustment. Those who make hostile intent attributions in ambiguous situations are more likely to experience negative outcomes (e.g., Crick & Dodge, 1994), and the inherent ambiguity of electronic communication may be particularly susceptible to misinterpretation. In addition, how individuals respond to cyber experiences may serve to either protect or damage their emotional well-being. Furthermore, those who are high in rejection sensitivity (Feldman & Downey, 1994) may be especially likely to perceive ambiguous electronic communications negatively. Also, friendship quality may buffer negative outcomes for those that are cybervictimized (Parker & Asher, 1993). This study examined whether college students' level of rejection sensitivity and friendship quality, as well as attributions and behavioral responses, help explain the relation between cybervictimization experiences and emotional adjustment.

Participants included 454 undergraduates (235 females) ages 18-24 years (M= 18.79) who completed an online survey assessing cybervictimization, cognitive attributions and responses to ambiguous cyber situations, depression, rejection sensitivity, friendship quality, social anxiety, loneliness, self-perception, and peer victimization.

Results indicated that cybervictimization was associated with increased social anxiety and loneliness and decreased self-worth, but not with depressive symptoms. Moderated mediation results indicated that rejection sensitive college students who experience low levels of cybervictimization and blame ambiguous peer provocation on their own inability to be socially effective are at increased risk for experiencing depressive symptoms, especially if they are female. It was hypothesized that rumination would further explain increased depressive symptoms but this assertion was not supported. It was also believed that friendship quality would mitigate poor adjustment for those who are cybervictimized. Interestingly, this was true only for those who experienced greater cybervictimization and who blamed the ambiguous peer provocation on something they could not change about themselves. Findings highlight the importance of investigating the role of cognitive attributions in the development of negative adjustment outcomes for those who experience cybervictimization.

This study examines a relatively new area of investigation: the relationship between attachment theory (Bowlby, 1973, 1980, 1982) and transformational leadership theory. Using self-report surveys and controlling for demographic variables, California community college chief executive officers’ (CEOs) attachment styles and transformational leadership characteristics are measured and the potential relationship between them examined (N=74). The two measures used are Kouzes and Posner’s (2002a) Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and Brennan, Clark, and Shaver’s (1998) Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR).

No significant correlation between attachment scores and the demographic variables was found in the study. Three moderate strength positive correlations were found between LPI scores and the demographic variables: between age and the LPI Enable Others to Act score, between female CEOs and the LPI Challenge the Process score, and between female CEOs and the LPI total score. The analysis demonstrated moderate correlations between the two attachment scales and the five transformational leadership characteristics as well as the LPI total score, with all 12 resulting correlations being negative and significant at the p <.05 level both before and after controlling for demographic variables.

The moderate correlation found in this study between more securely attached leaders and their self-assessed transformational leadership style found provides insight into the complex fields of leadership study and personality theory. Implications include the possibility of incorporating attachment and leadership measures into employee selection to better match desired styles to the organization’s needs. Individual leaders may also be able to leverage the relationship explored in this study to further their personal leadership development.

For nearly 30 years, researchers have been proposing and testing theories of the cognitive mechanisms that underlie children’s abilities to comprehend the mental states of others and to predict behavior on the basis of those abilities. One such theory, the “theory theory,” contends that children evaluate their own understanding of others’ minds, developing a theory and expanding it when they encounter situations incongruent with their predictions. Wellman and Liu (2004) present a scale of the changes that children’s understanding of mental state representations commonly undergo as children develop a mature theory of mind. The present study aims to clarify how children pass from one stage of understanding to the next, employing a training study paradigm to examine the possible role of verbal scaffolding on children’s progression in this sequence. Specifically, the present study hypothesizes that verbally emphasizing the connection between one’s knowledge and thoughts will advance children’s performance on false belief tasks. This hypothesis was not supported. Even though children may appear to be at the same developmental level on Wellman and Liu’s (2004) scale, the variation in their performances after training may indicate more nuanced underlying processes than are currently expressed by Wellman and Liu’s (2004) scale.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1996.
Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Dawn Person. Dissertation Committee: Lee Knefelkamp. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-240).

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--Boston University, 1986
This qualitative study investigated the reasons why American priests resigned their ministries. Two separate analytical lenses were used. One lens included a thematic analysis of reasons for resignation, and a second lens involved a developmental study of the men applying Levinson's psychosocial theory of adult development. Regarding the developmental analysis, the intent of this study was not to confirm or refute Levinson's theory but to understand the development of the sixteen men by applying his theory. Nevertheless, the results of the developmental analysis seemed to support Levinson's postulation of alternating structure-building and structure-changing periods but appeared to question his construct of age-linked periods especially for men in middle adulthood. Although this study supported his reported developmental tasks, it found that the men in the study dealt with some of them at a later age than postulated. Consequently, the writer concluded that Levinson's theory may need to be modified when applying it to men who have committed themselves to a Catholic professional religious life-style. The men developed differently than Levinson's sample because of the unique structure of the institutional Church and priesthood that seemed to delay the men's attainment of responsibility and independence. Several implications and recommendations for further research were suggested. [TRUNCATED]

In this research, I used a mixed-methods approach employing both autobiographical reasoning and psychometric instruments through a survey design to explore how the four cognitive mechanisms of Work Identity Theory (WIT) were developed in 754 college-educated participants’ lives. WIT is a vocational identity theory, which posits that, four cognitive mechanism: Effort, Reflection, Appraisal and Fusion are used by individuals to define their vocational identities. By vocational identity, I am referring to the sum total of a person’s self-thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and actions that are informed by work experience. By cognitive mechanisms, I am referring to the mental processes used to develop a vocational identity. Multiple theories have emerged over the past one hundred years to explain the concept of a vocational identity. This study seeks to make two new contributions to the set of existing theories. First, the definition I propose of vocational identity does not have an implied, positive valence for having a well-developed vocational identity, but it encompass the many ways people define themselves in relation to their work. In contrast, the most frequently cited vocational identity theories are stage theories in which the highest stage is regarded as optimal. I posit this difference is important because it permits individuals to have different attitudes toward work and themselves without being stigmatized by the theory. Second, the focus of this research is to identify how the cognitive mechanisms come to exist through the study of participants’ self-identified most important developmental experiences in relation to each WIT cognitive mechanism. In addition to experiences, I also study the participants’ Need for Cognition (NFC), the propensity to engage in and enjoy thinking. This study has two key finding. First, people who think more deeply about their own lives, experience more development, at least in the cognitive mechanisms of WIT. Second, our life experiences do not matter as much as the depth of thought we give to them and subsequently what we take from them concerning the development of WIT’s cognitive mechanisms.

A comprehensive theory of the ontogenesis of the delinquent personality is presented and supported by self-report data from a sample of American adolescents. The theory postulates that socialization requires the development of two complementary faculties: the ability to engage in prosocial behavior in the face of adversity (diligence) and the ability to avoid antisocial behavior despite temptation (self-control). Innate traits are thought to interact with particular experiences to create the mature personality. During development, a lack of diligence can inhibit the development of self-control, and can facilitate the development of a characteristic set of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors associated with delinquency, including the willingness to deceive and manipulate others, a callous disregard for their feelings, attitudes and beliefs justifying a lack of diligence and a continuation of antisocial behaviors, and short-term mating activity. The characteristic personality of the delinquent, then, is both low in diligence and high in antisociality. This contrasts with the conceptions of control theory, which subsumes diligence within the construct of self-control. The delinquent personality itself facilitates an adaptive strategy, or approach to life, that involves short-term mating and deception. Two kinds of deception related to delinquency are distinguished: overt deception and deception based on unpredictability. A cross-sectional version of this model was tested with data from 1139 adolescents from a medium-sized city in the Southeastern United States, and found to explain 58% of the variance in self-reported delinquency. Within a confirmatory structural equation model, the constructs thought to comprise factors relating to prosociality, antisociality, and social bonds loaded as expected. Each of these constructs significantly correlated with delinquency on their own. A longitudinal study will be necessary to test the full model, and a behavior genetics design will be necessary to determine the extent to which the constructs deemed important to this theory may be subject to environmental influences.

The purpose of the present study was to better understand creativity and creative development as well as the many factors that contribute to the processes that lead young adults to channel their creativity in various fields and degrees of social acceptance. Adolescents, parents, teachers, educational systems, and society as a whole would benefit from a deeper understanding of how creative individuals interact with, shape and seek out environments to fulfil their various creative needs. Society can ill-afford the incalculable loss of squandered or negatively applied creative talent. The present project was guided by an interactionist (Woodman & Schoenfeldt, 1989)/ecological (Harrington, 1990) process model of creativity which takes into account the four major strands (person, process, product and press) of inquiry involved in creativity research and provides the basis for a robust conceptual framework for their holistic study. To this end, a constructivist, qualitative approach was adopted. The research design for the present study adheres most closely to the social constructionist interpretation and application of the grounded theory method as outlined by Charmaz (1990, 2000). Biographical questionnaires and interviews, or "guided conversations", were undertaken with twenty-six (26) participants; ages ranging from 17-31 with the majority (22) aged between 18-24. They were chosen because they are notably creative in fields of varying degrees of social acceptance and because they represent a wide variation of schooling experiences and backgrounds. Specifically, they represented, among many others, high school valedictorians and drop-outs, graffiti artists, JUNO nominated musicians, painters, writers, actors, as well as scientific innovators. They were selected as a result of high school peer and teacher nominations, nominations from two guidance counsellors in a high school, judgement of products, snowballing, and informal peer nominations. Insights resulting from the questionnaire and interviews include a grounded theory process model for the "evolution" of the creative person. In addition, the methodological implications of adopting a constructivist perspective together with the newer relational views of research validity are examined; as are the implications the findings hold for educational policy and practice as well as the potential implications the research holds for the future study of young adults and creativity.

The unemployment rate for people with developmental disabilities is almost 7 times higher than the current national unemployment statistics. Research indicates that the majority of those with developmental disabilities do wish to work and moreover, have many skills and talents that organizations can benefit from. This paper aims to use common industrial and organizational psychological measures in a unique population--developmentally disabled adults. Specifically, the present study examines the job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions of adults with developmental disabilities from the Harbor Regional Center and Regional Center of Orange in Southern California. This is the first research h that examines affective feelings about employment in the developmentally disabled population in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Results from the study show that adults with developmental disabilities had higher than expected job satisfaction and affective commitment towards their job. They also had lower turnover intentions than expected.

This thesis attempts to explicate the manifestation of suicidal behavior in latency age children based on developmental object relations theory. It asserts that the susceptibility to suicidal behavior becomes part of the child's developing ego organization during the first three years of life as the result of deviant or distorted emotional development. These disturbances interfere with the normal internalizing processes of the separation individuation phases, including the development of psychological mechanisms. To accomplish the purpose of the study, the thesis generally classifies object relations theory within the parameters of developmental psychopathology and specifically classifies it as a component of contemporary psychodynamic theory. Then follows an exposition of the separation individuation process and attendant development of psychological mechanisms in normal and disturbed development. This section concludes by identifying the normally developing child around thirty-six months of age as possessing the capacity to unite disparate self and object images into a single, whole person for appropriate self comfort, self-image formation, and self-esteem regulation through having received primarily gratifying interactions with caregivers. The child with disturbed development lacks this capacity because of the internalization of primarily negative object-images through primarily negative interactions with caregivers. The child lacks trust in itself and in others, tends to perceive itself and others as all-good or all-bad, and experiences hostility and depression. A definition of latency and a description of this developmental stage follows. Cognitive development marked by secondary thought processes and reliance upon dynamic psychological mechanisms--ego defenses--to sustain a behavioral and emotional equilibrium, rather than a diminution of drives, permit latency to become established. As part of the structure of latency, fantasy serves a defensive and adaptive function by providing an outlet for drive expression and for mastery of situations intrapsychically. Children with disturbances in ego organization have a less established structure of latency than do normal children, that is, they rely to a greater extent on psychological mechanisms characteristic of the separation-individuation phases. A review of empirical and clinical research of suicidal children encompasses family environment; loss, depression, and hopelessness; cognitive functioning; and defense mechanisms. Suicidal children live in stressful, chaotic families with confused role relationships. Findings regarding the relationships among loss, depression, and hopelessness appear mixed although integrally related. Suicidal children conceive of impersonal death as final while construing personal death as reversible as a defensive maneuver. Suicidal fantasies constitute the precursors to suicidal planning and actions. Suicidal children show impaired ability to devise active coping strategies. They seem to rely excessively on ego defenses considered developmentally appropriate in early stages of development, such as introjection. A synthesis of theoretical formulations and research findings sets forth the developmental sequence culminating in suicidal behavior. The model depicts a child's developing ego organization predisposed to depression, hostility, and low self-esteem caused by the internalization of a predominance of negative self- and object-images. It portrays susceptibility to suicidal behavior through the incapacity to exercise self-protection under stressful situations because of a reliance upon maladaptive ego defenses. Fantasies to relieve psychic pain as part of latency defenses transform into fantasies of suicide; these presage and allow for planning and, given the failure of ego defenses, suicidal behavior results.

Thesis advisor: Liane Young
People are often quite attuned to the minds around them, but it’s unclear whether the tendency to consider the minds of others differs depending on the context. Research on intergroup processes and interpersonal relations reveal that the tendency to consider the minds of others depend on factors like group membership; however, interactions with ingroup members and outgroup members tend to conflate with cooperative interactions and competitive interactions, respectively. Cooperation and competition are two categories of interactions that encompass most of collective human behavior and thus provide natural categories for grouping social behaviors. We test the idea that people’s tendencies to consider the minds of others depend on the type of social interaction by primarily focusing on cooperation and competition. Papers 1 and 2 directly compare theory of mind across cooperative and competitive contexts, whereas Paper 3 aims to understand the role of theory of mind in supporting one important aspect of cooperation—a sense of fairness—by studying responses to different forms of unfairness across a spectrum of ages in children. Altogether, these results show an influence of theory of mind on social evaluations and social behaviors and support the idea that sensitivity to context may emerge early in life but becomes more difficult to detect over time
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology

Often overlooked in the study of theory of mind (ToM) development, the understanding of motivational states, such as goals and desires, is both an important capacity in its own right and also a likely precursor to more advanced social and cognitive skills. This dissertation explored infants' and toddlers' reasoning about agents' motivational states, linking those representations to the domains of language and prosocial development. Parts I and II of the dissertation asked about toddlers' abilities to use representations of others' motivational states to guide helping behaviors. Part I used a spontaneous helping paradigm with two goal objects, one previously liked and the other disliked. Three- but not 2-year-olds helped appropriately by giving an actor her desired object, reflecting prosocial concern for others' specific desires at age 3. Part II probed the understanding of goals and helping of 14- and 24-month-olds. After establishing that toddlers encode simple reaching actions as goal-directed, a series of 4 experiments using an object-giving paradigm investigated toddlers' abilities to use goal representations to guide helping. The results indicate that 24- but not 14-month-olds used representations of prior goals to inform their helping behaviors; 14-month-olds were capable of using only current goals to guide helping. Part III of the dissertation asked whether there is continuity in the developmental relationship between language and ToM by investigating links between toddlers' understanding of motivational states and their vocabulary size. Experiment 1 found no correlation between the vocabulary size of typically hearing toddlers and their performance on tasks measuring motivational state understanding. Experiment 2 compared the same motivational state understanding of typically hearing toddlers and deaf toddlers with smaller vocabularies, finding no differences in performance between groups. The results of these experiments indicate that the link between language and false belief that is present at age 4 does not extend to motivational state reasoning in the toddler years. Together the findings of this dissertation highlight important limits and boundary conditions on young children's reasoning about motivational states. Further research is needed into the developmental trajectory and mechanisms of theory of mind reasoning.
Psychology

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Counseling and Educational Psychology, 2006.
"Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 26, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2061. Adviser: Rex Stockton.

Culture is what influences us and shapes us into who we are and what we become later on in life, this study runs with this concept. This study includes three groups of participants: 60 Subcontinental adolescents, 60 (Subcontinental) Asian-American adolescents,60 European-American adolescents .The ages of these adolescents range from 17-23 years of age. The participants are asked to fill out measures pertaining to anxiety/depression, self identity , acculturation and a questionnaire at the end that asks about future marital plans. The studies hypotheses are that there is a stronger correlation between parenting technique and the degree to

The inquiry is a hermeneutic historical study of the historical factors in the life of Kazimierz Dabrowski which contributed to the shaping of his Theory of Positive Disintegration. Relatively little information has been written on the life and theory of Kazimierz Dabrowski. The researcher contends that knowledge of Dabrowski, the man, will aid in an understanding of his theory. The journey in which an individual "develops" to the level at which "the other" becomes a higher concern than the self, is the "stuff" of Kazimierz Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. It is a paradoxical theory of human development, based on the premise that "good can follow from bad." Crisis and suffering act as the propellents into an internal as well as external battle with self and environment to move out of the "what is" and travel to the "what ought to be." Illuminated within this study, is how the life of Dabrowski demonstrates this moral and psychic struggle. Data collection for this qualitative study was accomplished over a four year period through a "deep" reading of the works of Dabrowski and a search for biographical material. The researcher was the first to utilize a ten volume file on Dabrowski housed in the National Archives of Ottawa in Canada which houses a plethora of Dabrowski's books and papers. The researcher, following a hermeneutic research approach, traveled to Poland to "walk in Dabrowski's footsteps." Within this journey, the researcher utilized the facilities of many archives in Poland - at libraries, and within prisons. Given the researcher's Polish heritage, a basic knowledge of the Polish language aided the researcher greatly in these endeavors. The journey served to deepen the researcher's understanding of Dabrowski, the man - his history and his country. Finally, the researcher interviewed several of Dabrowski's friends, co-authors, students and associates. This study serves as a baseline endeavor for additional research. The researcher's purpose was to aid in understanding Dabrowski - the man and his theory. The research journey was an attempt by the researcher to keep alive and renew interest in a theory of human development that is in danger of being forgotten.
Ph. D.

In recent years the field of communication has been experiencing a movement toward newer non-tradtional approaches to the study of communication and information. Among these newer approaches is a growing body of research that focuses on interpretive behavior in the communication process. Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making model of communication/information has been the most widely used interpretive theory of information to date. Sense-Making focuses primarily upon the role of the receiver in the communication process and how individuals construct meaning in specific situations. As a result, Sense-Making has not attended adequately to larger shared frameworks of meaning and the effects that they have upon information seeking and use. It is the purpose of this thesis to strengthen Dervin's theory of Sense-Making by gaining a deeper view of the individual in the construction process and yet broadening the meaning making context to include structural concerns. The work of William Perry on cognitive and ethical development will be examined and applied to Sense-Making theory and data to provide a more in-depth understanding of how individuals construct meaning and use information. As a framework for examining shared structures of meaning, James Fowler's theory of faith development has also been applied to Sense-Making theory and data with particular emphasis on relational aspects. These theories are applied to Sense-Making in an effort to develop a more complete view of the individual in the communication process.

The boundaries within our workplace continue to disappear and employees at all levels are impacted by the cultural and technological differences among generations. The gaps in values, beliefs, life experiences and attitudes are increasing. Leadership is essential in bridging these gaps to achieve top performance and operational excellence. There is no single strategy to provide support for developing leaders, each business must implement what works for them. Executive coaching, as an increasingly popular leader development strategy, seems to maximize employee engagement while fostering collaboration and teamwork. This exploratory research study explores how executive coaches are preparing leaders to succeed in managing the multigenerational workplace. Through a virtual interview process, the researcher explores the experiences, discussions and perceptions of 88 executive coaches about different generational cohorts, as it relates to leadership development and the workplace. Most of the coaches responding to the survey belong to the Baby Boomer generation (72%, n = 55), followed by Generation X (19%, n = 14) and Traditionalists (9%, n = 7). The respondents claim to have coached on average 105 individuals during the last five years. The vast majority of them hold an executive coaching credential (72%, n = 55). Through a rigorous textual analysis process five themes emerged from the data: (a) developmental assignments, (b) feedback processes, (c) formal programs, (d) self-development assignments, and (e) developmental relationship assignments. The information gathered provides a better understanding of these best practices as well as areas of opportunity in developing leaders in a multigenerational setting. These findings suggest that although executive coaches are aware of the need their clients have for being prepared to successfully lead a multigenerational workplace; executive coaches still need to develop ways to tailor their specific coaching approaches considering the growing impact of the multigenerational workplace phenomena. In addition, findings suggest the need for organizations to have a clear strategy for addressing the multigenerational workplace phenomena and that in doing so, they can start by implementing effective leader development programs.

The transition to college is marked by poorer eating behaviors. The Theory of planned behavior (TPB) represents a promising tool for predicting eating behaviors through the examination of attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intention (INT). Despite prior application of the TPB, there exist several key methodological issues in the literature addressing eating behaviors. The present study utilized an enhanced dietary assessment methodology, the ASA24 dietary recall, and a short-term prospective design to assess the healthy eating behaviors of emerging adults in college. Dietary recalls of 68 participants (average age = 20.76 years; 70.6% female; 70.6% non-Hispanic, 48.5% White, 22.10% Black/African American, 13.20% Asian) were analyzed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010 scoring system. Results revealed that very few college students are meeting recommended dietary guidelines. Linear regression indicated that the indirect TPB variables (ATT, SN, and PBC) were related to INT (F[3,64] = 19.67, p < .001), although SN did not account for unique variance. Further, the direct TPB variables (INT and PBC) were related to HEI-2010 scores (F[2,65] = 4.00, p = .023); however, only PBC accounted for significant variance. Overall, findings suggest that more favorable attitudes relate to intention, but only perceived behavioral control consistently relates to actual healthy eating behavior.

Theory of mind has seldom been studied in normal elders (NE) or people with aphasia (APH), and has never been studied in people with Alzheimer Disease (AD). This study, based on Miller (2001), investigated false belief attribution in 10 APH, 10 AD, and 10 NE subjects. Three conditions of the false belief task varied syntactically to probe for an interaction between linguistic demand and false belief performance. Relative to normal elders, AD subjects showed impairment in false belief attribution (p < 0.001); APH subjects did not (p = 1.0). There was no effect of linguistic demand for any group. Potential confounding variables (e.g. immediate memory) were nonsignificant. The data suggest a possible nonlinear relationship between false belief attribution and measures of dementia severity and frontal lobe function. The results also suggest methods for comparing theories of theory of mind in future research.

This paper seeks to explore the development of attachments in humans as seen through Bowlby's (1980) attachment theory. Components of the theory which focus on how attachments are formed and how they influence future behavior are explored. These are used to then examine how attachment theory applies to the attachment patterns seen in homosexual males.

Coping plays an important role in human adaptation and well-being. However, surprisingly little is currently known about the normative development of coping. The ‘coping families’ framework, outlined by Skinner and colleagues (2003), provides a promising approach to the study of coping in developmental samples. The current examination tested the coping families approach in emerging adults. A total of 425 individuals (63.5% female), aged 18-31 years (M age 25.04 years), were recruited online through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to complete questionnaires on demographic information, personality, childhood adversity, stress, coping behaviors in response to an interpersonal problem, mental health, emerging adult identity, substance use behaviors, and competence. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) examined the structure of coping behaviors. Bivariate correlations were used to examine associations between age and coping behaviors, and regression analyses examined associations between coping behaviors and various adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. EFA results yielded partial support for the coping families approach. Correlations between age and coping were not significant, suggesting that there were no meaningful age shifts in coping in the present sample. Lastly, regression analyses suggested that coping behaviors significantly predicted some adaptive and maladaptive outcomes, after statistically accounting for potential confounding variables, such as personality and childhood adversity. Findings are integrated within existing research and implications for applied work are discussed.

This study focuses on the utility of the expectancy construct in the prediction of adolescent cigarette smoking within the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), based on recommendations by Marlatt (1985). Specifically, positive and negative smoking expectancies were hypothesized to moderate the relationships of social norms and self-efficacy with smoking intentions and, and for self-efficacy only, smoking behavior. Factor analysis assessed the discriminant validity of the measures. Using multiple regression analyses, cross-sectional, self-report questionnaire data from 25,868 sixth through twelfth grade students were used to test the hypotheses. Consistent support was found for the additive effects predicting intentions to smoke and daily smoking. For the interactive effects, moderate support was found predicting intentions, but not daily smoking. Likewise, moderate support was found for school level and smoking status differences in these relationships. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and prevention implications regarding the role and etiology of expectancies within the theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, and previous conceptualizations of risk and protective interactive effects.

The study reviews the structural and psychometric underpinnings of Loevinger's theory of ego development. It is noted that the current literature investigating the validity of Loevinger's model has not adequately addressed the structural assumptions of the theory. "Process" variables are hypothesized to vary depending on the process of structural change. Two such variables, cognitive complexity and the organization of cognitive constructs, were measured in 73 college students, staff, and faculty members in three North Texas institutions. Level of ego development, measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, was assessed in each subject and the pattern of cognitive complexity and construct organization was evaluated across ego levels. Results offer only limited support for the stage model's structural assumptions. Discussion highlights several inadequacies in Loevinger's instrument and offers a direction for possible revision. Implications of the results are examined in terms of current theoretical issues.

Past research has examined the many ways individuals behave in response to unconscious primes. For instance, unconsciously activating stereotypes leads people to exhibit behavior that parallels the target stereotype (e.g., Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Dijksterhuis & van Knippenberg, 1998). Priming methodology has also been extended to inducing mortality salience, such that specific behaviors emerge in response to thinking about one’s own death. Two theories, socioemotional selectivity theory and terror management theory, hypothesize how individuals cope with thoughts about the end of life. The present study attempted to extend past research by comparing older and younger adults’ responses to unconscious mortality salience. Fifty-nine younger adults and 52 older adults were randomly assigned to one of two prime conditions: death prime or negative prime. The unconscious primes were administered through word searches, which contained 20 target words related to each prime. Defenses to the primes were assessed via suitability ratings and reaction times to a picture-caption task, which contained both neutral and emotional (positive and negative) captions paired with neutral pictures. A defense was operationalized as higher suitability ratings and faster reaction times to the positive captions, as well as lower suitability ratings and slower reaction times to the negative captions. Based on terror management theory, it was expected that individuals who were primed with death would display specific defensive behavioral responses as compared to those who were primed with negativity, regardless of age. Socioemotional selectivity theory, however, predicts that these defenses may also emerge when older adults are primed with negativity due to the increased tendency for older adults, relative to younger adults, to automatically implement default emotion regulatory goals. Analyses revealed that both younger and older adults embraced the neutral and positive captions after being primed with death. Participants primed with negativity were also more likely to embrace positivity. Age differences emerged such that younger adults were faster when reacting to emotional captions in the death condition than in the negative condition. Conversely, older adults primed with negativity reacted faster to emotional captions than those primed with death. Implications for terror management theory and socioemotional selectivity theory are discussed. Overall, both young and older adults displayed defenses to prime-activated threats of death and negativity. The implementation of death-related defenses was stronger for younger adults than the implementation of negativity-related defenses, but the opposite was true for older adults.

Developmental score scales represent the performance of students along a continuum, where as students learn more they move higher along that continuum. Unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) vertical scaling has become a commonly used method to create developmental score scales. Research has shown that UIRT vertical scaling methods can be inconsistent in estimating grade-to-grade growth, within-grade variability, and separation of grade distributions (effect size) of developmental score scale. In particular the finding of scale shrinkage (decreasing within-grade score variability as grade-level increases) has led to concerns about and criticism of IRT vertical scales. The causes of scale shrinkage have yet to be fully understood. Real test data and simulation studies have been unable to provide complete answers as to why IRT vertical scaling inconsistencies occur. Violations of assumptions have been a commonly cited potential cause for the inconsistent results. For this reason, this dissertation is an extensive investigation into how violations of the three assumptions of UIRT vertical scaling - local item dependence, unidimensionality, and similar reliability of grade level tests - affect estimated developmental score scales. Simulated tests were developed that purposefully violated a UIRT vertical scaling assumption. Three sets of simulated tests were created to test the effect of violating a single assumption. First, simulated tests were created with increasing, decreasing, low, medium, and high local item dependence. Second, multidimensional simulated tests were created by varying the correlation between dimensions. Third, simulated tests with dissimilar reliability were created by varying item parameters characteristics of the grade level tests. Multiple versions of twelve simulated tests were used to investigate UIRT vertical scaling assumption violations. The simulated tests were calibrated under the UIRT model to purposefully violate an assumption of UIRT vertical scaling. Each simulated test version was replicated for 1000 random examinee samples to assess the bias and standard error of estimated grade-to-grade-growth, within-grade-variability, and separation-of-grade-distributions (effect size) of the estimated developmental score scales. The results suggest that when UIRT vertical scaling assumptions are violated the resulting estimated developmental score scales contain standard error and bias. For this study, the magnitude of standard error was similar across all simulated tests regardless of the assumption violation. However, bias fluctuated as a result of different types and magnitudes of UIRT vertical scaling assumption violations. More local item dependence resulted in more grade-to-grade-growth and separation-of-grade-distributions bias. And local item dependence resulted in developmental score scales that displayed scale expansion. Multidimensionality resulted in more grade-to-grade-growth and separation-of-grade-distributions bias when the correlation between dimensions was smaller. Multidimensionality resulted in developmental score scales that displayed scale expansion. Dissimilar reliability of grade level tests resulted in more grade-to-grade-growth bias and minimal separation-of-grade-distributions bias. Dissimilar reliability of grade level tests resulted in scale expansion or scale shrinkage depending on the item characteristics of the test. Limitations of this study and future research are discussed.

Executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) skills develop rapidly during the preschool years and have been found to directly and indirectly contribute to school readiness. Evidence indicates that EF may influence ToM development, though this relation may not be consistent across children from different backgrounds. Additionally, socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to affect preschoolers’ EF, while the literature is mixed regarding the effects – if any – that SES may have on ToM development. Though the relation between EF and ToM appears robust across the literature, the possible effects of SES on this relation have yet to be fully explored. As children from low-SES homes are more likely to fall behind at the start of school, and this achievement gap is likely to widen through the school years, it is important to understand how the cognitive components that contribute to school readiness develop and are affected by SES so that we may work toward improving preschool education for children across all socioeconomic backgrounds. The primary purpose of the current study was to determine whether SES affected the relation between EF and ToM among urban preschool children (ages 3-5 years) from various SES backgrounds. In addition to examining the EF-ToM relation, relations among SES, general cognitive skills, EF, and ToM, as well as relations among age, EF, and ToM, were examined. Results from correlational and regression analyses indicated that SES was related to EF but not ToM, and that EF was not related to ToM after controlling for age. Inconsistent with the majority of previous findings, the results did not support the hypothesized link between EF and ToM. However, the findings from this study do add support to the large body of literature pertaining to the positive relation between SES and EF, and provide evidence that ToM may be relatively protected from the negative effects of low-SES among preschoolers. Results also support previous reports of large age-related changes in EF and ToM that occur during the preschool years. The implications for preschool development and education are discussed.

For the first time a representative Theory of Mind (ToM) scale (Wellman &
Liu, 2004) has been cast into three different linguistic forms in order to show the impact of evidential markers on ToM understanding. With Turkish children, we studied (i) a control form without explicit evidential markers, as conducted by Bayramoglu &
Hohenberger (2007), (ii) a verbal form with &ndash
DI (marking factuality in the past ) and (iii) a verbal form with &ndash
MIS (marking hearsay in the past). To predict ToM performance of children, we also conducted a working memory task and two language tasks for complex syntax understanding. Our analysis showed that Turkish children, ranging from 4 to 7 years of age, performed significantly better with the form &ndash
DI than the control form. Also one of the language tasks which measures relative clause understanding was found to be a significant predictor of ToM performance. We conclude that evidential markers may help Turkish children in their online reasoning of ToM. We think that the relation between evidentiality and ToM may be understood clearer with cross-linguistic studies by varying the presence of evidentials and also their linguistic properties (i.e. lexical or morphological) while controlling the materials across languages. Theory of Mind (ToM), Evidentiality, ToM scale, Cognitive Development, Language.

While several studies have analyzed the impact of mother-child attachment security on the child’s emotion regulation abilities, few studies have proposed interventions to help children improve emotion regulation abilities in the presence of an insecure mother-child attachment. This current study extends previous findings about the influence of mother-child attachment on the child’s emotion regulation abilities and contributes new research in determining whether an older sibling can moderate this effect. This study predicts that across points of assessments: 18 months, 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years, the quality of mother-child attachment security will influence the child’s performance on an emotion regulation task, such that securely attached children will demonstrate the most persistence and least distress, children with Anxious-Avoidant attachment will demonstrate the least persistence, and children with Anxious-Ambivalent will demonstrate the most distress. If, at any point, the child develops an insecure relationship with the mother and a secure relationship with the older sibling, the child’s persistence is expected to increase and the child’s distress is expected to decrease. In this way, the older sibling will serve as a surrogate attachment figure. These research findings have important implications for parenting behaviors as well as clinical practices.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between ego development, Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration (TPD), and the social, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of gifted adolescents. Literature exploring the experiences of gifted individuals has often focused on asynchronous development, particularly during childhood and adolescence. Also discussed in the literature concerning gifted students are the unique social, emotional, and behavioral characteristics innate to the gifted population. However, there is still an unclear picture concerning the implications of this work as related to the specific counseling needs of gifted students, and little empirical support is provided. This study seeks to build, through a developmental lens, a more comprehensive base from which to conceptualize counseling and teaching approaches with gifted students. One hundred students at Governor's Schools in central and eastern Virginia were contacted for participation in this study. A valid sample of 70 students, well distributed across grade and gender, was obtained. The findings indicated that the ego levels of gifted students, as measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), were slightly higher than those of typical adolescents. Empirical evidence of the level of development related to Dabrowski's TPD for gifted adolescents was provided, with the majority of respondents (70%) falling within Dabrowski's Level II - Unilevel Disintegration, stage. Results also indicated that gifted students at Governor's Schools were relatively well adjusted, as measured by the Clinical Assessment of Behavior (CAB), and that the behaviors exhibited by gifted adolescents were normally distributed. While a slight positive correlation was found between ego development and level of development as related to Dabrowski's TPD, significance was not achieved. Relationships between ego development and degree of internalizing and externalizing behaviors exhibited were dependent upon a number of different factors, including gender and school attending. The study results are interpreted as indicating that while ego development and Dabrowski's TPD may share similarities, they are different constructs and further investigation is needed to best utilize these theories in designing appropriate and effective counseling and teaching intervention strategies for working with gifted adolescents. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are presented.

This overview was made to discuss coping with families who have lost a child/sibling, specifically children in preschool and elementary school. This subject can be daunting and difficult to navigate for parents however, understanding the importance of communication, involvement, and proper coping techniques is vital to the child’s development and perception of death. This educational poster discusses ways to tackle the issues that come when losing a child and give parents further insight into young minds dealing with tragedy. We look at Family Stress Theory to further explain assumptions about families, how families manage conflict and stress, stressors family systems undergo, and other related concepts.