Some empirical parameters of formal thinking

Sixty-five undergraduates were tested on five formal thinking tasks and the verbal and figural sections of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. The percentage of students operating at the formal level for three of the four ordinally scored formal problems was significantly above the 50% figure usually reported with a more intellectually representative sample of adolescents. It was suggested that the norms developed by Piaget for formal tasks were more suitable for a cognitively superior population. The low intercorrelations between formal tasks were reflected by the failure of a unified factor of the formal operations to emerge. The superior male performance on formal tasks was interpreted in terms of a social role hypothesis and the limited scientific subject matter of the problems.     

Exceptional giftedness in early adolescence and intrafamilial divergent thinking

Two groups of boys and their parents (N=54) were given five divergent thinking tests as one part of a longitudinal investigation on exceptional giftedness in early adolescence. One groups of adolescents was selected because their IQs were above 150, and the other group, was selected because of their outstanding math-science abilities. Canonical and bivariate analyses indicated that there was a strong correlation between the adolescents' divergent thinking test scores and their parents' divergent thinking test scores (Rc=.55). Additionally, there was some indication that these correlations differed in the two exceptionally gifted groups, with the high-IQ group having divergent thinking test scores related to those of both parents, and the math-science group having divergent thinking test scores related only to those of their mothers. These findings are very consistent with earlier investigations on exceptionally gifted adolescents.This research was supported by a grant to M.A.R. from the University Research Council of the University of Hawaii, and by grants to R.S.A. from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.Received Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate School. Research interests include creative, gifted, and autistic children, and psychometrics.Received Ph.D. from Boston University. Research interests include child development, long-term family involvement, giftedness, and the achievement of eminence.     

Operational thinking at adolescence in relation to psychosomatic disorder

This article represents an attempt from a developmental point of view to construct theoretical links between psychic and somatic functioning as they are manifest in psychosomatic illness and to relate this process to the types of thinking — preoperational and operational — that determine the insights into disease available to the adolescent mind.Presented at the International Congress of Pediatrics at New Delhi, India, October 26, 1977.Received his M.D. from University of London. Major interests include research on childhood psychopathology in relation to parenting.     

Adolescent thinking ála Piaget: The formal stage

Two of the formal-stage experiments of Piaget and Inhelder, selected largely for their closeness to the concepts defining the stage, were replicated with groups of average and gifted adolescents. This report describes the relevant Piagetian concepts (formal stage, concrete stage) in context, gives the methods and findings of this study, and concludes with a section discussing implications and making some reformulations which generally support but significantly qualify some of the central themes of the Piaget-Inhelder work. Fully developed formal-stage thinking emerges as far from commonplace among normal or average adolescents (by marked contrast with the impression created by the Piaget-Inhelder text, which chooses to report no middle or older adolescents who function at less than fully formal levels). In this respect, the formal stage differs appreciably from the earlier Piagetian stages, and early adolescence emerges as the age for which a single path model of cognitive development becomes seriously inadequate and a more complex model becomes essential. Formal-stage thinking seems best conceptualized, like most other aspects of psychological maturity, as a potentiality only partially attained by most and fully attained only by some.This work has been supported by NIMH Research Career Development Award K3-MH-18, 701.Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, AECM. Received Ph.D. in physics from MIT, M.D. from University of Minnesota, adult and child/adolescent psychiatry training at AECM; graduate of New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Main current interests are developmental psychology and psychopathology of adolescence and young adulthood.     

关于行动学习法在基层干部培训中的实践与思考

行动学习法是近年来培训领域比较流行的一种方法,因其"在做中学"、"在反思中学"和"在学习中学会学习"等特点,而被广泛运用于企业、高校和党政机关等机构的教学和培训。一些基层党校围绕地方党委和政府的重点工作运用行动学习法开展干部教育培训,取得了实效。作为培训组织者,应当在遵循行动学习法基本原理的基础上,精心选择任务主题,努力做到基本原理与具体实践的最大契合。     

Schizophrenia in adolescence

The emergence of schizophrenic psychoses during middle and late adolescence poses the question of how adolescence as a developmental stage is related to the emergence of severe psychopathology. This paper examines several possible explanations for adolescence as the beginning of the high-risk age, particularly for the schizophrenias. After discussing the nature of adolescence as distinguished from puberty, and then considering the nature of schizophrenia, we report some data from a long-range study of young adult psychiatric patients, both schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic. Our data support the idea that serious psychopathology—not only schizophrenia—occurs in a setting of poor competence in a variety of crucial skills which include the social, intellectual, and physical realms. The demands made on adolescents by societal expectations for independence and role establishment summon a variety of competencies. Where these competencies are dysfunctional, societal demands strain an already vulnerable youth, and potentiate disorganization.This work is supported in part by Public Health Service grants MH-05519, MH-18991, and MH-19477.This research is part of a program investigating schizophrenia which is being conducted jointly by the Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Institute of Michael Reese Hospital, the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, and the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Kansas. His research has been in individual consistencies in cognition and perception, and more recently in perceptual aspects of severe psychopathology. He was for 22 years on the senior staff of the Menninger Foundation, where he performed clinical and research functions, including that of Training and Supervising Analyst in the Topeka Psychoanalytic Institute, and Director of Research Training. He currently is a recipient of a Career Scientist Award from the NIMH (K5-MH-70900).Received his medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago. His psychiatric and psychoanalytic training took place in Chicago, Vienna, Zurich, Hamburg, and London. His research has been in psychosomatic medicine, stress and anxiety, clinical syndromes (including schizophrenia), normal development, and psychotherapy.     

Social support and self-esteem in adolescence

This study assessed contingencies in the effect of social support from parents and friends on adolescent self-esteem. Questionnaires were administered to 76 Israeli adolescents regarding self-esteem, stressful life events, and perceived level of support from mother, father, and friends. Maternal support had a strong effect on self-esteem. Aid from friends was influential primarily when that of mothers was absent. Paternal support had little effect, once other support sources were controlled. Despite the negative influence of stress on self-esteem, support and stress had no interactive effects. These findings, consistent with attachment theory and social provision theories, were contrary to cross-pressure or separate world models of peer/parent influence.He received his doctorate in Educational Psychology from University of California at Los Angeles. His current research interests involve stress, coping, and social support in childhood and adolescence, as well as factors bearing on interethnic relations in the Israeli classroom.where she is working on her doctorate in social psychology from Bar Ilan. Her research addresses resilience in early and middle adulthood.Received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She studies ego development and identity across the life span, the transition to parenthood, and stress and coping.     

Birth order and self-concept in adolescence

The effect of birth order on self-concept was examined in a sample of adolescent boys and girls. Based upon self-theory, which suggests that the two main processes of self-concept formation (e.g., reflected appraisals and social comparisons) are affected by the power and role relationships associated with ordinal position in the family, several hypotheses were tested: (1) The self-evaluations of only and oldest children are more positive than those of younger siblings; (2) middle-borns have the lowest self-evaluations; (3) these relationships are affected by the sex and spacing of nearest sibling; and (4) the self-conceptions of oldest and only children are more similar to those of their parents than the self-conceptions of younger siblings and their parents. Using analysis of variance and several different measures of self-evaluation, very little support was found for any of these hypotheses. The strongest support was found for the hypothesis on middle-borns, but even these relationships were not large. Several explanations are offered for these weak and inconsistent findings.     

Health habits and depression in adolescence

In a study of the relationship between health habits and depression, 80 high school students, selected on an availability basis, were administered a Health Behaviors Questionnaire (HBQ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The HBQ and the BDI significantly correlated (r=0.43p<0.01). Those who smoked were more frequently depressed than those who did not (X ²=10.5p<0.05), and those who used drugs other than marijuana were depressed more frequently than those who did not (X ²=9.2p<0.01). Mildly overweight boys (overweight by more than 5% of their ideal weight) and mildly under-weight boys (underweight by more than 5% of their ideal weight) were moreThis research was supported in part by a grant from the American Diabetes Association and by National institute of Health Grant MH 15529.Received his M.D. at George Washington School of Medicine. Major interest is interface of child psychiatry and pediatrics.Received his M.D. at Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York. Major interest is metabolic changes in adolescence.Received her M.A. from Queens College, New York. Major interest is measurement of human behavior.Received his M.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Major interest is adolescent sexuality.Received her Ph.D. in psychology from Hofstra University. Major interest is evaluation of clinical programs. depressed than boys of normal weight (p<0.02). The more pounds underweight the girls were, the more depressed they were (r=0.482, p<0.05). The closer the weight of a girl who perceived herself as overweight was to her ideal weight, the more depressed she was (r=–0.428,p<0.05).     

Deviant behavior and self-enhancement in adolescence

The hypothesis that “among initially high self-derogation subjects deviant response patterns (alcohol and drug abuse, delinquent patterns, etc.) are related to subsequent decreases in self-derogation” was tested with data from a longitudinal survey study of adolescents. Among higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) males initially high self-derogation subjects who adopted (relative to those who did not adopt) any of several deviant patterns manifested significantly greater subsequent base-free decreases in self-derogation. For higher SES females only narcotics use (and among lower SES females no deviant pattern) was significantly related to subsequent decrease in self-derogation. Together with collateral data, these results indicated that where the deviant patterns were compatible with valued social roles and the subjects were able to defend against negative responses by others (but not under mutually exclusive conditions), deviant patterns functioned to reduce self-rejecting feelings among initially highly self-derogating subjects.     

Pregnancy in early and late adolescence

The degree to which adolescent pregnancy is viewed as a social problem varies with the age of the adolescent: the younger the adolescent, the greater the perceived risks and costs. The young adolescent has been found to be at greater risk medically; both the young adolescent and her infant are subject more frequently to prenatal and postpartum complications. A sample of 130 pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers was surveyed to determine the factors that discriminate between girls who become pregnant in early years versus late adolescence. The younger group had begun dating and particularly steady dating at a significantly earlier age than the older group. The age discrepancy between the groups is even greater for the average age at which subjects began steady dating, that is, dating 1 boyfriend exclusively. While ages at which the adolescent began dating and particularly steady dating were found to be significantly related to early pregnancy, this vulnerability was increased by the subjects' lack of knowledge and use of birth control. Subjects in both groups reported that prior to pregnancy they desired quite frequently to leave their parents' home and be on their own. Early pregnancy appeared instead to have increased the adolescents' dependence upon her parents, especially the mother. The findings point to a need for instruction in reproduction and birth control to begin at an earlier age. Opportunity is needed for guided discussion among peers about their feelings regarding the costs and benefits of relationships and how one might deal with potential problems.     

Adjustment and sex-role orientation in adolescence

The purpose of the present study was to reexamine the relationship between sex-role orientation and self-esteem in adolescence. One hundred and six senior high school students completed the Rosenberg self-esteem measure (Rosenberg, 1965) and two measures of sex-role orientation, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, Short Form (BSRI; Bem, 1981), and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire Short Form (PAQ; Spence et al., 1975). The relationship between sex-role orientation and self-esteem was found to vary depending on the sex-role measure employed. Results of the BSRI revealed that androgynous individuals had higher levels of self-esteem than masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated adolescents. PAQ results indicated that androgynous individuals had higher levels of self-esteem than feminine and undifferentiated individuals. When the independent contributions of masculinity and femininity were assessed, both BSRI and PAQ masculinity and femininity significantly predicted self-esteem. Analyses also revealed that the effects of sex-role orientation on self-esteem varied by sex across both the BSRI and PAQ. Implications of the present findings for previous work on sex-role development in adolescence are discussed.Received Ph.D. in human development and family studies from Texas Tech University. Present research interests are sex-role orientation and its relationship to self-esteem, adjustment, and shyness in adolescents and young adults.     

Manic-depressive illness in adolescence

The efficacy of lithium carbonate as a treatment for manic-depressive illness has stimulated a reevaluation of the syndrome. In this paper, the authors review the obstacles to timely diagnosis of manic-depressive illness in the adolescent. Three cases are presented demonstrating the usefulness of a unitary concept in which manic-depressive illness is understood and appreciated as having a physiologic basis, manifesting its effects in the total body system. The heterofore diverse and confusing psychological and behavioral symptoms of manic depressive illness in adolescents become intelligible when regarded as secondary phenomena: the psychic experience of the process as filtered through the psychological constitution of the individual adolescent.Supported in part by a grant from Mr. and Mrs. A. Frank Rothschild, Sr.Received her postgraduate training in psychiatry at P&PI.     

Gender-role identity and psychological adjustment in adolescence

The relationship between gender-role identity (traditional, androgynous, cross-gender, and undifferentiated) and psychological adjustment among adolescents was examined. Hypotheses were derived from theories of gender-role identity development. One hundred and three high school students completed a measure of gender-role identity (the Bem Sex-Role Inventory) and four measures of adjustment (three Offer Self-Image scales and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). Findings indicate that traditional, androgynous, and cross-gender identities are each associated with some aspect of superior adjustment. Undifferentiated adolescents are poorly adjusted. When the independent contribution of masculinity, femininity, and gender-role identity to adjustment was assessed, masculinity and femininity had greater predictive power than gender-role identity. The relationship of findings to gender-role identity development is discussed.This paper was written while the author was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mental Health Research Program in Sociology and Psychiatry at Duke University Medical School. Support for this work was provided by NIMH Grant MH14670-01.Received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado. Major research interest is personality development across the life-span, particularly the development of gender-role identity in adolescence and adulthood.     

Self-doubt in late childhood and early adolescence

This study examined the development of self-doubt in late childhood and early adolescence. Self-doubt was operationalized as the self-reported degree of uncertainty about the self's attributes. According to social-cognitive theory, self-doubt should decrease as social norms for self-evaluation are acquired through role-taking development. Seventy-five children at three ages-10, 13, and 16—were administered Selman's role-taking interview, a measure of social desirability, and a multidomain measure of self-doubt. Consistent with the social-cognitive model, self-doubt decreased with age during early adolescence. Role-taking ability increased with age. However, advances in role taking were not necessary for the resolution of self-doubt, nor could the decline in self-doubt be attributed to the tendency of older adolescents to conceal socially undesirable feelings. The findings support the view that adolescence is a period of consolidation for self-evaluations.Portions of this paper were presented at the meetings of the Society for Research on Child Development, Toronto, Canada, April 1985.Current interests include cognitive development and child psychotherapy, self-evaluation, and child psychopathology.     

The incongruous achiever in adolescence

The authors wished to study some of the internal psychological dynamics of achievement in a nonpatient identified high school population. Questionnaires were administered to the Grade 13 students and their parents in a large high school. A number of students whose achievement and educational plans were not congruous with their general background were selected for interview. The findings suggest that a wide variety of ages and developmental stages can be discerned as critical points in the development of a student's attitude toward higher education. These students have many values in common, and their values appear related to a positive or negative identification with parental values. The students themselves show a wide range of personality integration. They relate in a special way to a wide variety of teachers' personalities.Received M.D. from University of Alberta, Edmonton, in 1969 and completed specialty training in psychiatry at University of Toronto in 1974. Main interests include psychoanalysis, community psychiatry, and currently antabuse implants.Received M.D. from University of Toronto in 1960, D. Psych. from University of Toronto in 1963, C.R.C.P.(c) in 1965, and F.R.C.P. in 1972. Main interests include adolescent psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychiatric residency training programs, and mental health delivery systems.     

Identity in adolescence: Present and future self-concepts

This paper reports an investigation to test the hypothesis that anxiety concerning a concept of the self in the future will increase with age during adolescence, while anxiety relating to the self in the present will not. Subjects included a total of 80 adolescent boys from schools in a working class area of London, divided into three groups of 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds and 16-year-olds. The results strongly substantiated the hypothesis, and are discussed in relation to Erikson's theory of an adolescent identity crisis.At present Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The London Hospital Medical College (University of London). Is both a Developmental and Clinical Psychologist, with interests in adolescence and the preschool years.Medical student at The London Hospital Medical College, having a special interest in psychology.     

Parent-child attachment working models and self-esteem in adolescence

The degree of continuity over time in the quality of parent-child attachments and the relationship between these attachments and current self-esteem was investigated. Subjects were 218 nonparent college students. The attachment working model styles were determined by modified versions of two attachment measures. Epstein's Mother-Father-Peer Scale of 1983 yielded separate scores for independence-encouraging and acceptance, and Hazan and Shaver's 1987 Rocky Mountain Survey indicated secure, avoidant, or ambivalent attachment patterns. Self-esteem was measured by Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory of 1967. Data collected indicated support for Bowlby's 1988 theory of continuity over time of attachment. Self-esteem was related to both childhood and adolescent working model styles of attachment and to the dimensions of independence-encouraging and acceptance. The two attachment measures were related. Subjects who classified their parent-child attachment as secure rated their parents as high in independence-encouraging and acceptance.This paper is based, in part, on the first author's thesis for the M.A. degree at Georgia Southern University. Portions of this paper were presented at the Biennial Conference on Human Development, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1992.Received M.A. in psychology from Georgia Southern University in 1991. Major research interests include attachment theory and nontraditional students.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Georgia State University in 1980. Primary research interests are social competence development, peer relations, and mother-child attachment.