Valence Effects in Reasoning About Evaluative Traits

Autor/inn/en	Heyman, Gail D.; Giles, Jessica W.
Titel	Valence Effects in Reasoning About Evaluative Traits
Quelle	In: Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Journal of Developmental Psychology, 50 (2004) 1, S.86-109 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0272-930X
Schlagwörter	Inferences; Age Differences; Personality Traits; Children; Early Adolescents; College Students; Student Attitudes; Logical Thinking + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Inference; Inferenz; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Individual characteristics; Personality characteristic; Persönlichkeitsmerkmal; Child; Kind; Kinder; Collegestudent; Schülerverhalten
Abstract	Trait conceptions, such as smart, antisocial, and shy, can serve as tools for interpreting and making predictions about the social world. An understanding of children?s trait conceptions can lead to important insights into the way children acquire an understanding of human mental life. The present study was designed to examine positivity biases in reasoning about traits among 7- to 8-year-olds, 11- to 13-year-olds, and adults.The central question is whether there are systematic valence effects in reasoning about these traits; that is, whether children?s inferences differ when children reason about positive versus negative traits that lie along a single trait dimension. Participants were presented with four sets of questions that relate to different aspects of trait reasoning: malleability, stability, origin, and inference criterion. The four question sets appeared in random order, determined separately for each participant. provides clear evidence that children across a range of ages place more emphasis on positive information than on negative information in both the academic and social domains. Results suggest that some but not all of these tendencies become weaker across development. Further research will be needed to discover more about the consequences of these tendencies and the contextual factors that may influence them. (Contains 4 tables.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Wayne State University Press, The Leonard N. Simons Building, 4809 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201-1309. Tel: 800-978-7323 (Toll Free); Fax: 313-577-6131.
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10