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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

Thesis (M.S.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Deborah Laible.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Ageliki Nicolopoulou.

<p> What influences the thinking and decision processes of donors when they engage in philanthropy? This study employed developmental psychology to explore this question. Developmental theorists agree that an adult develops in sequential stages over the course of a lifetime, gradually adopting an increasingly complex mental map. An individual&rsquo;s developmental stage at any point in time, theorists argue, is made manifest as a type of &ldquo;action logic&rdquo; through which the individual interprets his/her external world and internal experience. One&rsquo;s action logic is subtle and, for most of one&rsquo;s life, operates outside of conscious awareness. It becomes evident, however, through attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors. In recent years, some theorists have developed techniques to measure an individual&rsquo;s developmental level. </p><p> Stage theories of development have been used successfully for a variety of purposes in a number of fields. To date, however, neither the theory nor the associated measurement techniques have been employed to study philanthropic giving. </p><p> This study, which represents the first step in a long-term research agenda, explored how the action logics of a sample of donors affect philanthropic giving. The purpose was to (1) identify donors&rsquo; action logics, (2) explore what types of influences a donor&rsquo;s action logic may have on a donor&rsquo;s philanthropic decisions; and (3) determine how, if at all, a donor seeks feedback from others or engages in self-reflection regarding his/her philanthropic agenda. </p><p> The study, which included 11 participants, employed a four-phase mixed-methods design. First, qualitative interviews were conducted and data generated were developed into cases studies using a process characterized as narrative analysis. Second, the developmental theory was used to code the data and hypothesize each participant&rsquo;s developmental level(s). Third, three formal tests of trustworthiness were implemented to test the qualitative analysis: member checking of the narrative analysis, triangulation with the results of the Global Leadership Profile instrument, and a formal research audit of three cases. Finally, a cross-case analysis highlighted key themes from the qualitative data.</p>

One hundred twenty-two mothers, 89 children with chronic illnesses, and 56 of their brothers and sisters participated in a study designed to elucidate the processes by which one child's chronic illness affects two children in the same family. The investigation was guided by assumptions of a phenomenological approach, behavioral geneticists' findings on nonshared environment and by Lazarus' and Folkman's (1984) transactional perspective on stress and coping. This study had four purposes. The first was to describe and compare three different levels of influence on children's developmental context: individual child characteristics, dyadic influences, and family level influences. The individual characteristic was each child's illness appraisals, while dyadic and family level influences were represented by sibling relationship quality and maternal differential treatment, respectively. The second goal was to examine the direct associations among these influences and social emotional adjustment. The third aim was to examine the effect of illness burden and maternal differential treatment on each child's perceptions of sibling relationship quality. The final goal was to examine the influence of these two variables and sibling relationship quality on each child's social-emotional adjustment. Families were recruited through a clinic in Southern Arizona by mail and were sent questionnaires to complete if they expressed interest. For the present study, mothers provided demographic information, and information on objective illness burdens and each child's behavioral adjustment. Children provided illness appraisals and information about their sibling relationships and social emotional adjustment. Children's illness appraisals, perceptions of sibling relationship quality, maternal differential treatment, and social emotional adjustment were remarkably similar to each other. Maternal differential treatment, illness appraisals, and objective illness burdens accounted for significant portions of the variance in siblings' perceptions of sibling relationship quality, but not in the perceptions of children with illnesses. A significant regression equation for social emotional adjustment was obtained for siblings. A significant beta weight indicated that conflict was associated with more negative outcomes.

The present dissertation investigated children's ability to understand denominal verbs and deverbal nouns that share the same forms as their parent words (e.g. brushv/brushn). Specifically, we sought to answer two general questions: 1) When do young children acquire class extension rules for denominal verbs and deverbal nouns? 2) How do children acquire these rules? We addressed these questions using a series of studies in which we tested children's ability to understand and produce flexible noun-verb pairs. The results from the study reported in Chapter 2 demonstrated that while both 2.5- and 3-year-old French-speaking children were able to understand novel nouns and verbs, only the 3-year-old children were able to understand novel denominal verbs and deverbal nouns derived from these parent words. This suggests that children acquire class extension rules for denominal verbs and deverbal nouns by 3 years of age. The results from the two studies reported in Chapter 3 demonstrated that children's ability to produce and understand flexible noun-verb pairs is related to the amount of flexible use in their input. Furthermore, children tend to use more object-denoting words flexibly than non-object and action denoting words. This suggests that children use the semantic and distributional cues associated with the flexible use of object-denoting words in their input to learn the flexible use of object-denoting words, and subsequently form class extension rules. The study reported in Chapter 4 confirmed this finding by demonstrating that 2.5-year-old children can only understand the flexible use of novel object-denoting noun-verb pairs in an experimental task if they are provided with semantic information coupled with noun and verb distributional cues in the input of the teaching trial. If they are provided with semantic information coupled with noun only distributional cues, they cannot do so. Furthermore, after having observed the flexible use of two object-denoting words, at least some of the 2.5-year-olds tested were able to understand a novel denominal-verb based on their understanding of the parent noun. Altogether, the results from the present dissertation are the first to provide direct evidence that young children acquire class extension rules by 3 years of age, by using the semantic and distributional cues that accompany the flexible use of object-denoting words in their input. / La présente thèse enquête sur la capacité des enfants à comprendre les verbes dénominaux et les noms déverbaux qui possèdent la même forme que leurs mots parents (e.g., il brossev / une brossen). Plus précisément, nous avons cherché à répondre à deux questions: 1) Quand les jeunes enfants acquièrent-ils des règles d'extension pour les verbes dénominaux et les noms déverbaux? 2) Comment les enfants acquièrent-ils ces règles? Nous avons abordé ces questions en utilisant une série d'études dans lesquelles nous avons testé la capacité des enfants à comprendre et à produire des paires de noms-verbes flexibles. Dans le Chapitre 2, les résultats de l'étude démontrent que même si les enfants francophones de 2 ans 1/2 et 3 ans sont capables de comprendre de nouveaux noms et verbes, seuls les enfants de 3 ans sont capables de comprendre de nouveaux verbes dénominaux et noms déverbaux dérivés de ces mots parents. Ceci suggère que les enfants acquièrent des règles d'extension pour les verbes dénominaux et les noms déverbaux autour de 3 ans. Dans le Chapitre 3, les résultats des deux études démontrent que la capacité des enfants à produire et à comprendre des paires de noms-verbes flexibles est liée à l'utilisation de ces mots par leurs mères. En outre, les enfants ont tendance à utiliser plus de mots désignant des objets d'une manière flexible que les non-objets et les mots dénotant une action. Ceci suggère que les enfants utilisent l'information sémantique et contextuelle associée avec l'utilisation flexible des mots dénotant des objets pour apprendre l'utilisation flexible de ces mots, et par la suite former des règles d'extension. Dans le Chapitre 4, l'étude rapportée confirme cette conclusion. Les enfants de 2 ans 1/2 ans peuvent comprendre l'utilisation flexible de nouvelles paires de noms-verbes dénotant des objets que si des informations sémantiques couplées avec des contextes nominaux et verbaux leur ont été procurées. Avec des informations sémantiques couplées avec un contexte nominal seulement, ils ne peuvent pas le faire. En outre, après avoir observé l'utilisation flexible de deux mots désignant des objets, au moins une partie des enfants de 2 ans 1/2 testés étaient capables de comprendre un nouveau verbe dénominal à partir de leur compréhension du nom parent. En conclusion, les résultats de la présente thèse sont les premiers à fournir une preuve directe que les jeunes enfants acquièrent des règles d'extension des 3 ans, à l'aide des indices sémantiques et contextuels qui accompagnent l'utilisation flexible des mots dénotant objets.

This investigation reports on the linguistic and communicative abilities of a deaf child whose initial exposure to conventional linguistic input occurred at the age of 10. At the time of data collection, the participant had been exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) for three years. Information concerning the participant's background, language and communication abilities was collected through caregiver interviews. Language samples were gathered through storybook and video retelling tasks and spontaneous conversations. Samples were videotaped, and later transcribed by a native deaf signer of ASL. Analyses of the participant's lexical, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic skills were performed. Results showed deficits across linguistic subsystems. Comparisons to native language learners of ASL and late first-language learners of spoken and signed languages revealed both typical and unique characteristics of late language acquisition. The results contradict past theoretical claims concerning the selective impact of language deprivation on the faculty of grammar. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Infants understand others' goals and use them to predict others' actions. Do 9.5-month-olds understand that others can act on the basis of goals not tied to specific objects? Particularly, do infants understand that a person's goal could be to select either the bigger (smaller) of two objects, a goal based on object relations? Across 4 familiarization trials, each with a different pair of objects differing only in size, an Experimenter selected either the bigger (Big object condition) or smaller (Small object condition) of two objects. In test trials with new objects, in the Big object condition, infants looked longer when the Experimenter selected the smaller than the bigger object, but in the Small object condition they looked about equally at the two test events (Experiment 1). Conditions under which the goal of smaller could be understood were further explored. Infants provided with additional information about the Experimenter's goal still looked equally at the two test events (Experiment 2), while those encouraged to compare object size both within and between pairs, looked longer when the Experimenter selected the bigger object than the smaller object (Experiment 3). 9.5-month-olds seem to understand that a person's goal can be to select either the bigger or smaller of two objects. The goal of smaller seems to be more difficult, perhaps due to infants' own preference for larger quantities or because their understanding of the size concept of small. The results suggested that infants' understanding of size relational goals involves the comprehension of the relational category of the object (big or small) and the ability to use that information to make sense of others' actions. / Les jeunes enfants comprennent les buts des autres et prédisent leurs actions en se basant sur cette compréhension. Les enfants de 9,5 mois comprennent-ils que les autres peuvent agir en fonction d'un but relationnel (des buts qui ne sont pas liés à un objet spécifique)? En particulier, est-ce que les enfants comprennent que l'expérimentateur veut toujours prendre l'objet le plus grand (ou le plus petit), un but basé sur des relations entre objets? Pendant 4 événements de familiarisation, chacun avec une paire d'objets identiques mais de différentes tailles, l'Expérimentateur choisi soit le plus grand (Condition du grand objet) ou le plus petit (Condition du petit objet) des deux objets. Dans les événements tests avec de nouveaux objets, dans la Condition du grand objet, les enfants regardent plus longtemps lorsque l'Expérimentateur choisi le plus petit des deux objets. Par contre, dans la Condition du petit objet, les enfants ont regardé à peu près également dans les deux tests (Expérience 1). Deux autres expériences avec le but du petit objet ont été explorées. Les enfants ayant obtenu des informations supplémentaires sur le but de l'Expérimentateur regardaient toujours également aux deux événements tests (Expérience 2). Contrairement, ceux invités à comparer la taille des objets de chaque paire et entre les paires, ont regardé plus longtemps lorsque l'Expérimentateur choisi le plus grand objet des deux objets (Expérience 3). Les enfants de 9,5 mois semblent comprendre que le but d'une personne peut être de choisir les plus grands ou plus petits objets. Comprendre que l'Expérimentateur a le but de choisir un petit objet semble être plus difficile, peut-être à cause de la préférence pour les grandes quantités chez les enfants eux-mêmes, ou pour leur compréhension du concept de petit. Les résultats suggèrent que la compréhension des buts relationnels implique la compréhension de la catégorie relationnelle de l'objet (grand ou petit) et la possibilité d'utiliser cette information pour comprendre les actions des autres.

Little is known empirically about parental perceptions of their young child's understanding of death, or how this perception relates to how parents talk about death with their children (Siegel, Mesagno, & Christ, 1990). The aim of the current study was to explore parental perceptions of their child's (N = 57; n males = 29, 3-8 years) understanding of death, how they talk about death with their children, and what their children actually understand about death. Firstly, parent-child dyads watched and discussed a Sesame Street video where Big Bird learns about the death of his friend Mr. Hooper. Parent-child conversations were then coded using an adaptation of a death concept coding manual (Neimeyer, Fontana, & Gold, 1984). Children's death understanding was measured using the Smilansky Death Concept Questionnaire (1987), and child fear was measured using the the Koala Fear Survey Scale for Children (FSSC-R; Ollendick, 1983). The current results indicate that parents do address a range of death-related concepts when conversing with their young children about death. It is also indicated that a child's level of fear may influence the types of death-related concepts discussed. Finally, results suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between parent perception and child understanding of death (p = .029). The current research has implications for the training of professionals who work with children and parents who are often faced with questions about death. / On connait peu de manière empirique sur la façon dont les parents perçoivent la compréhension de leurs jeunes enfants au sujet de la mort ou comment cette perception est reliée à la façon dont les parents parlent de la mort avec leurs enfants (Siegel, Mesagno, & Christ, 1990). Le but de la présente étude est d'explorer les perceptions des parents face à la compréhension des jeunes enfants (n = 57; n mâles = 29, 3-8 ans) vis-à-vis la mort, comment ils adressent le sujet de la mort avec leurs enfants, et ce que leurs enfants comprennent à ce sujet. Tout d'abord, les couples parents-enfants ont vus et ont discutés du vidéo « Sesame Street » où « Big Bird » apprend que son ami M. Hooper est décédé. Par la suite, les conversations parents-enfants ont été codées en utilisant une adaptation d'un manuel de codage du concept de la mort (Neimeyer, Fontana, & Gold, 1984). La compréhension de la mort des enfants a été mesurée en utilisant le Smilansky Death Concept Questionnaire (1987), et la peur des enfants a été mesurée en utilisant le questionnaire Koala Fear Survey Scale for Children (FSSC-R; Ollendick, 1983). Les résultats actuels indiquent que les parents prennent la parole à une gamme de concepts liés à la mort lors d'une conversation avec leurs jeunes enfants au sujet de la mort. Il est également indiqué que le niveau de peur d'un enfant peut influencer les types de concepts liés à la mort qui sont abordés. Enfin, les résultats suggèrent qu'il existe une relation significative et positive entre la perception des parents et la compréhension de la mort des enfants (p = .029). La recherche actuelle a des implications pour la formation des professionnels qui travaillent avec les enfants, et leurs parents qui sont souvent approchés de questions sur la mort.