Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains [vi], 44 p. Includes bibliographical references.

The developmental aspect of the self-concept has not been investigated in Jordan. The main aim of this study is to develop a research project which will yield first results and indicate further research to be carried out in the future. Theories and studies of the self-concept during adolescence particularly in W. Europe and the U.S.A. indicate the occurence of various developments, but do not entirely agree as to their nature. This may be in part due to different conceptualizations of the selfconcept, or to different reArch methods. This thesis explores this question and developS an empirical study in the light of such considerations. The main interest of this study is to explore the development of the self concept during adolescence in Jordan. Two open ended questionnaires were designed to achieve this purpose. Random sampling of students [225 males, 200 females] at the ages of 13, 15, and 17 years provided the adolescents for this study. Their reported present possible selves and possible future occupational selves were studied at each age level. At all levels sex differences were investigated. For 17 years olds differences between teaching groups were also explored. Sex differences in approach to education and vocation were considered in the analysis. 2 Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the responses of the selfconcept descriptions mentioned by the students show certain differences in relation to the age, sex, and teaching groups. The findings are discussed in relation to the concept of unitary or multiple self-concept, attention being given to the salience of different aspects of the self in different contexts. Suggestions are made for follow-up investigations.

Previous studies of children's use of problem-solving strategies have been cross-sectional, and narrowly defined. These have described age-related development across a wide range of cognitive competencies. Parallel with this child development literature, studies in both humans and animals have linked active reduction of error in problem-solving to inhibitory function of a mature and intact hippocampus, and also to the frontal lobes. The present study was designed to investigate the development of availability and use of strategies by children in problem-solving tasks, and whether development of inhibitory ability is the underlying and enabling process for this. 96 children aged 3 years (N=32), 5 years CN=32), and 7 years (N=32), fully representative of sex and socioeconomic status, were each given a battery of six experimental tasks, (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Spontaneous Alternation, Oddity Problem, Two-Choice Discrimination Learning, Three-Choice Discrimination Learning and Attributes Task) on four separate, equal interval testing occasions over two years. Pre-tests of non-verbal intelligence, verbal comprehension and conceptual tempo were administered, prior to the first testing. The tasks were selected, following pilot study, to elicit behavioural evidence of problem-solving strategies, which might be dominant at different ages. Strategy was defined as a reflection of hypothesis forming and testing in a problem for solution. The results show age-related changes in the use of perseveration and alternation strategies, with indications of more complex strategies available to the 7 year old group. Strategies, once available, were differentially used in tasks within a testing, and appear to be linked to the cognitive demand of a task. In discussion, it is argued that the results from the use of the longitudinal design support a concept that a further functional system of inhibitory ability is developing from about 4 years of age. Both the hippocampus and frontal lobes appear to be implicated in this system which is seen as the process underlying the development of planning ability and active reduction of error. It is finally concluded that the emergent system of inhibitory ability is not unitary, but an elaboration of earlier abilities. This is reflected by the changes observed in availability and use by children of strategies for problem-solving. The development of their repertoire thus appears to be by the addition of new strategies, and their elaboration.

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Over the past 25 years, there has been tremendous interest in the development of children’s ability to reason about others’ mental states, or “theory of mind”. Much research has explored children's understanding of situational cues that lead to knowledge, but only recently has research begun to assess children's understanding of person-specific differences in knowledge. A number of studies (Birch, Vauthier & Bloom, 2008; Jaswal & Neely, 2006; Koenig, Clément & Harris, 2004) have recently demonstrated that at least by age 3 children pay attention to others' history of accuracy and use it as a cue when deciding from whom to learn. However, the nature and scope of children's interpretations of other's prior accuracy remains unclear. Experiment 1 assessed whether 4- and 5-year-olds interpret prior accuracy as indicative of knowledge, as opposed to two other accounts that do not involve epistemic attributions. This experiment revealed that preschool children can revise their tendency to prefer to learn from a previously accurate informant over an inaccurate one when presented with evidence regarding each informant's current knowledge state. Experiment 2 investigated how broadly a person's history of accuracy influences children's subsequent inferences, and showed that 5-year-olds (but not 4-year-olds) use information about an individual's past accuracy to predict her knowledge in other related domains as well as her propensity for prosocial or antisocial behaviour. Overall, children's performance in these experiments suggests that both 4- and 5-year-olds interpret others' history of accuracy as indicative of knowledge; however, 4-year-olds make a more restricted attribution of knowledge while 5-year-olds make a more stable, trait-like attribution. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research on theory of mind and more broadly on children's social and cognitive development. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

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