Browsing by Subject "Cognition and culture"
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Item A comparison of postformal operations in diverse adult populations: contrasting African Americans and standard-average-European Americans(Texas Tech University, 1998-12) McBride, Lynda RossThe study of cognitive change over adulthood became important to researchers during the 1980s with the recognition and clarification of the limits of Piaget's formal operational stage and suggestions that formal operations was not the concluding or most comprehensive cognitive structure. With this recognition, researchers turned to look for a model of development that might outline systematic and positive cognitive elaboration that occurred beyond formal operations and over the adult years. Thus, the field of postformal operations was created. Postformal theories build upon Piagetian theory with expectations that postformal stages evolve from formal operations. The new stages are outlined as cognitive levels through which the adult comes to understand the contextual and contradictory nature of social life. The adult is expected to bring certain wisdom to the tasks of everyday life and look for a 'best' answer, not necessarily the most logically correct answer to whatever problem is at hand. Empirical findings suggest that indeed middle-aged and older adults do look for 'workable' answers while younger adults look for logical answers to a variety of posed everyday problems. Using interview methods to pose everyday problems and using a variety of new measurement techniques, researchers found detectable differences in cognitive processes of middle-aged adults when compared to young adults. Yet, efforts are just beginning and existing research is narrow in its focus. To date, research has centered on only White middle-class and highly educated respondents. Existing studies have not included individuals from disparate social statuses or ethnic groups. This project was designed to augment existing research. This project examined postformal levels of cognition in two previously underrepresented groups, working-class Anglos and African Americans. It was theorized, as social psychologists predicted, that social milieu would have an impact on cognitive development. It was predicted that minority status would aid in and speed the development of postformal stages. To a limited extent, the prediction was upheld and differences were found on measures of postformal operations between the working-class Anglos and African Americans who participated in this study.Item Interpreting scale items: using items on the Bem Sex Role Inventory to explore respondents' meaning construction(2007-12) Chu, Ping-Fang Martha; Emmer, Edmund T.; Dodd, Barbara GlenzingQuantitative researchers often infer the validity of a construct through some quantitative (statistical) manipulation of the numerical responses to scale or questionnaire items. The participants' meaning construction of these items, especially with affective and personality scales, are usually unexplored or assumed equivalent. The current study investigates the defensibility of such a position based on the socio-constructive view on meaning construction. The current study explored how respondents interpreted the items from the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). The instrument was chosen for its popularity, its empirically based development, and for the culturally significant issue the scale addresses. Bem also proposed a gender schema theory to account for sex related cognitive processing. Forty participants, equally divided into male and female, undergraduate and working adult groups, completed self-ratings on the Masculinity and Femininity items from the BSRI. They performed "think aloud" on half of the items while rating themselves. They also completed a follow-up interview providing more in-depth interpretations of scale items and their conceptualization of masculinity and femininity. The "think aloud" and the interviews were audiotape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The results showed that the respondents constructed various meanings for each item. There were commonly shared meanings, less shared meanings, rare, and unique meanings. There were also misinterpretations. Participants conceptualized "being masculine" and "being feminine" in many dimensions, including physical features and personal appearance. The current study identified sex differences in meaning constructions, including the contexts in which meanings were situated. The current study also found substantial differences between the student and the adult participants' meaning constructions. The limitations of the current study and its implications for test construction are discussed.