REFORT RESUMESED 018 262PS 000 484THE COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF URBAN - PDF document

1 REFO*RT RESUMESED 018 262PS 000 484THE C
REFO*RT RESUMESED 018 262PS 000 484THE COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF URBAN PRE - SCHOOL CHILDREN.MANUAL OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADMINISTERING AND SCORING PLUTCHIKEXPLORATORYINTEREST QUESTIONNAIRE.BY- HESS, ROBERT D.AND OTHERSCHICAGO UNIV., ILL., URBAN CHILD CENTERPUB DATE67EDRS PRICE14F-40.25-HC-40,244P ..DESCRIPTORS- PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, *NEGRO MOTHERS, URBANENVIRONMENT, SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND, QUESTIONNAIRES,*INTEREST TESTS, *CURIOSITY, *MOTIVATION, *MEASUREMENTINSTRUMENTS, PLUTCHIK EXPLORATORY INTEREST QUESTIONNAIRE,CHICAGO,THIS MANUAL DESCRIBES MEASURES USED IN "THE COGNITIVEENVIRONMENTS OF URBAN PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN" PROJECT AT THEUNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. THE SAMPLE FOR THE STUDY CONSISTED OF163 NEGRO MOTHER-CHILD PAIRS SELECTED FROM 3 SOCIOECONOMICCLASSES BASED ON THE FATHER'S OCCUPATION AND THE PARENTS'EDUCATION. A FOURTH GROUP INCLUDED FATHER-ABSENT FAMILIES.THE MOTHERS WERE INTERVIEWED AT HOME AND THE MOTHERS ANDCHILDREN WERE TESTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO WHEN THECHILDREN WERE 4 YEARS OLD. FOLLOW-UP DATA WERE OBTAINED WHENTHE CHILDREN WERE 6 AND AGAIN WHEN THEY WERE T. IN ORDER TOMEASURE CURIOSITY MOTIVATION, THE PLUTCHIKEXPLORATORY-INTEREST QUESTIONNAIRE WAS ADMINISTERED DURINGONE OF THE UNIVERSITY TESTING SESSIONS. THE QUESTIONNAIRECONSISTS OF 58 ITEMS DESCRIBING ACTIVITIES, HALF OF WHICH ARECLASSED AS EXPLORATORY AND HALF OF WHICH ARE CLASSED ASNONEXPLORATORY. THE MOTHER WAS READ EACH ITEM AND WAS ASKEDIF SHE LIKED OR DISLIKED THE ACTIVITY. THE SUBJECTS WERESCORED BY THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ACTIVITIES LIKED AND BY THETOTAL NUMBER OF EXPLORATORY ACTIVITIES LIKED. THE COMPLETESET OF PROJECT MANUALS COMPRISES PS 500 475 THROUGH PS DOD492. (DR) L

2 IDORTMENTOFilEKKEDUCATiONSWEIFAREOFFICE
IDORTMENTOFilEKKEDUCATiONSWEIFAREOFFICE OF EDUCATIONTHIS ODWIMENT NAT EV:1f 471.110DUCED EXACTLY'AS MEWED IMO THEKIPSON 011. ORGANIZPTION 0:11(I,NPTING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR tramsSTATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OWICIAL DEICE OF EDUCATIONPaSITION ORPouct.THE COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF URBAN PRE-SCHOOL CHILDRENRobert D. Hess, Principal InvestigatorMANUAL OF INSTRUCTIONSFOR ADMINISTERING AND SCORINGJPLUTCHIK EXPLORATORY - INTEREST QUESTIONNAIREThe measures described in this manual were developed in the project,Cognitive Environments of Urban Pre-School Children, supported by:Research Grant #11-34 from the Children's Bureau, Social Security Admin-istration, and the Early Education Research Center, National Laboratoryin Early Education, Office of Education, both of the U.S. Department ofHealth, Education, and Welfare; the Division of Research, Project HeadStart, U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; the Ford Foundation Fund forthe Advancement of Learning; and grants-in-aid from the Social ScienceResearch Committee of the Division of Social Sciences, University ofChicago. THE COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF URBAN PRE-SCHOOL CHILDRENThe research sample for the Cognitive Environment Study wascomposed of163 pairs of Negro mothers and their four-year-old children, from threesocioeconomic classes, defined by father's occupation and parents' educa-tion:upper-middle, professional and executive, with college education;upper-lower, skilled and blue collar, with high school education; lower-lower, semiskilled and unskilled, with'no greater than tenth-grade educa-tion; a fourth group included father-absent families living oil publicassistance, otherwise identical to

3 the Imer-lower class group.Subjects were
the Imer-lower class group.Subjects were interviewed in the home, and mothers and children werebrought to the University of Chicago campus for testing, when thechildrenwere four years old.Follow-up data were obtained from both mother andchild when the child was six years of age, and again at seven years.Principal Investigator for the project is Professor Robert D. Hess,formerly Director, Urban Child Center, University of Chicago, now LeeJacks Professor of ChildEducation, School of Education; StanfordUniversity.Co-Investigator for the follow-up study i$ Dr. Virginia C.Shims,Research Associate (Associate Professor) and Lecturer, Committee onHumanDevelopment, and Director, Project Head Start Evaluation and ResearchCenter, University of Chicago, who served as Project Directorfor the pre-school phase of the research.Dr. Jere Edward Brophy, Research Associate(Assistant Professor),Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago, was ProjectDirectorfor the follow-.up study and participated .as a member of the researchstaffof the pre-school study.Dr. Roberta Me er Bear, Research Associate(Assistant Professor),Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago,participated as amember of the research staff during the pre-school andfollow-up phasesof the project and was in charge of the manuscript preparationduring thewrite-up phase of the research.Other staff members who contributed greatly to the projectincludeDr. Ellis Olim, (University of Massachusetts,Amherst) who was responsible.for the major analysis of maternal langpage; Dr. David Jackson,(Toronto,Ontario) who was involved in early stages of development of categories forthe analysis of mothe

4 r-child interaction, and participatedin
r-child interaction, and participatedin the process-ing and analysis of data; Mrs. Dorothy Runner, who supervised thetrainingand work of the home interviewers, acted as a liason withpublic agencies,and had primary responsibility for obtaining the sample of subjects;and*iirs. Susan Beal, computer programmer. COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENT STUDYMANUAL FOR PLUTCHIKEXPLORATORY-INTEREST QUESTIONNAIRESUMMER 1967INTRODUCTIONThe Plutchik Exploratory-InterestQuestionnaire (E-I) is anexperimentalinstrument developed by RobertPlutchik (Department of Psychology,HofstraUniversity, Hempstead, NewYork), to measure curiositymotivation.It con-sists of a series of 58 itemsinvolving activities defined asexploratory ornon-exploratory in nature.ADMINISTRATIONThe E-I was administered tomothers during a testingsession at the Univer-sity.The tester read each of the58 ifems to the respondentand asked her toindicate whether this was an activityshe liked or disliked.Specific instructions were:IAM GOING TO READ YOU A LISTOF ACTIVITIES THAT SOMEPEOPLE LIKE TODO AND OTHERS DO NOT.FOR EXAMPLE, SOME PEOPLELIKE WRITING LETTERS ANDOTHERS'DO NOT.FOR EACH OF THE ACTIVITIES,TELL ME WHETHER YOU LIKETO DO IT ORDO NOT LIKE TO DO IT.IF AN ACTIVITY IS ONE THATYOU HAVE NEVER DONETRY TO IMAGINE HOW YOUMIGHT FEEL ABOUT IT AND ANSWERACCORDINGLY.EVEN ACTIVITIES ABOUT WHICHYOU DO NOT FEEL STRONGLYEITHER WAYWILL BE ASSOCIATED WITH A SLIGHTLIKING OR DISLIKING.REGARDLESSTFHOW STRONGLY YOU FEEL ABOUTAN ACTIVITY, SIMPLY TELL MEWHETHER YOULIKE' IT OR DISLIKE IT.Respondents were given as muchtime as they needed to considereach activity,and they were encouraged to answer everyitem. COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENT STUDYP

5 LUTCHIK (E -l) MANUAL-2-The 58 items, in
LUTCHIK (E -l) MANUAL-2-The 58 items, inorder of administration,were:1. meeting new people2. seeing sporting events3. reading about distant lands4. socializing5. rummaging through scrap piles6. writing letters7. experimenting with equipment8. listening to stories9. handling strange objects10. going to parties11, hearing lectures12. talking with ch.ildren13. reading surveys' (give example)14. shopping for: clothes15.. discussing philosophy16. athletics17. visiting new places18. telling stories.19. watching animals20. playing games21. going on hikes22. talking on the telephone23. looking through books24. telling jokes25. exchanging ideas26. designing things27. dissecting animals28. taking pictures29. reading non-fictionSCORING30. doing puzzles31. exploring new places32. listening to music33. smelling things34. fixing things35. questioning people about their ideas36. gossiping37.., solving problems38. discussing politics39. reading scientific articles40. reading current novels41. tasting new foods42. writing your experiences43. examining things44. reading poetry45. analyzing problems46: watching people in groups47. touching sculpture pieces48. intellectual arguments49. discovering secret places50. writing poetry51. having new experiehces52. eavesdropping53. studying history54.' collecting things.55. travelling56. reading mysteries57. asking people about their experiences58. learning languagesEach odd-numbered item in the E-Iis an "exploratory" item.Each respondentreceived two scc.res:the total.number of activities she said she liked to do(possible total 58), and the total number of explorato(odd-numbered) itemsshe said she liked (possible total 29).