Reflection-impulsivity and social reasoning

R. DeV. Peters, Gary A. Bernfeld
1983 Developmental Psychology  
The major purpose of this study was to assess the degree to which cognitive style, as indexed by the Matching Familiar Figures test (MFFT), is related to the way DI which children respond toproblems with social or interpersonal content. Fifty-two reflective and 64 impulsive first-and second -igrade boys were presented with a number of stories in which one of the characters was faced with a decision as to how to react to other people it'a variety of conflict situations. A number o different
more » ... .of-responses were , presented to each child who-was required, too select the one-he considbred most appropriate. To further examine thee relationship between cognitive style and variou4 socialpbehaviofs and personality characteriseics, a teacher -rating scale was completbd by'the subjects' teachers (N=13). Each child was rated on'six different -diMenSions of classroom behavior: aggression need achievement, anxiety, academic disabilitY,'isolationc and. e/traversion. Results indicated that the impulsiie boys consistently responded more quickly than did the reflectives. Also; the,immliires considered yielding to be an apgropriate response to social conflict more frequently than , ed the refledtives, while the reflectives viewed assertive behavior or direct confrontation to be more-appropriate than did the impulgives. Tdacher ratings on Miller's (1971) School Behavior ,Checklist -yielded no diVemences between the two cognitive style groups on any of the six classroom behOior measures. (Author/MP) 4
doi:10.1037//0012-1649.19.1.78 fatcat:cxlibixk5bczbhpmhxik6nbo2i