The theory of formal operations as a final stage of adult development has come under criticism for various reasons, primarily the overemphasis on logical thought processes which are based on invariant and absolute rules within a closed system. Everyday problems, in contrast, are typically "open-ended" and are defined by the context in which they are embedded. The purpose of this study was to investigate cognitive behaviors that occurred between two individuals as they cooperatively worked together to solve logical problems. Of interest were the effects of marital adjustment on cognitive performance, the relation between social behaviors, marital adjustment, and cognition, and the influence of familiar versus a stranger dyadic problem-solving setting on cognitive behaviors. It was hypothesized that well adjusted married and stranger dyads would not only demonstrate mastery of problem-solving tasks at the formal operational level, but would also demonstrate more relativistic and/or dialectical problem solving, and more facilitative social behaviors, than poorly adjusted married and stranger dyads. Forty couples between the ages of 35 and 50, who had been married between five and thirty years, were prescreened for verbal intelligence and marital adjustment. They were then randomly assigned to participate in one of four dyadic settings, that is, maritally well versus poorly adjusted couples solving problems in either married or unmarried/stranger dyads. Dyads were administered five formal operational problems. Two of the five were formal logical, or mathematical in nature, while three problems contained both mathematical and interpersonal, or social elements. Each dyad was videotaped during the problem-solving process, beginning with the instructions. Participant averaged about 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete five problems. Analyses of variance were performed on marital adjustment and dyadic setting as related to formal and relativistic cognitions. There were no marital adjustment or dyadic setting differences in overall ability to use formal operations. However, maritally well adjusted stranger and married dyads evidenced significantly more relativistic cognitions, particularly on problems involving a social/everyday element, than poorly adjusted married and stranger dyads. These differences also held constant across each of three increasingly complex levels of relativistic behaviors. Multivariate analyses were performed on four separate social behavior scales as related to formal and relativistic cognitions, as well as marital adjustment and dyadic setting groups. Again, formal operations did not distinguish between the differing social behaviors; however, the social behavior scales, particularly avoidant versus cooperative behaviors, were strongly related to marital adjustment and relativistic thinking.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ligia Cristina Bitencourt.pdf: 1329371 bytes, checksum: c31366a0d35dcd2f7d21f4c39cde35b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-17 / The process of problem solving behavior is logical, as opposed to a set of conditions, manipulate the individual variables (preliminary behavior) that changes the situation or the person generating discriminative stimuli that control later responses, and analyze data resulting from such manipulations allowing the issue of response-solution. The primary objective of this research was to describe and analyze the behavior of children and identify factors that control the situation or did not respond. To collect data we used two sets of rules available commercially: Senha and Boole. Both games were applied to six male children, aged 8 years and 10 months and 10 years. The design was composed of two experimental conditions: the basic procedure and additional procedures. The procedure-based contained three levels of difficulty (level 1, level 2 and level 3), which were overcome by the issue of response-solution. The additional procedures were added when the participant failed to give the answer with the solution within the criteria proposed in the basic procedure. The responses of the participants determined the manipulations performed. The analysis of the behavior of children showed some manipulation of stimuli to encourage the issue of response-solution in each of the games. However, a manipulation that was central to both was the deduction, which was identified through verbal and nonverbal responses of participants. The difficulty encountered in making a deduction appeared in conditional sentences. Only one participant acted under control of conditional rules to solve the problem correctly. Password for the game, specifically, an aspect that was seen as relevant was linked to the fact that the participant can not or do inductions. The manipulation of variables being the center of this process, the deductions and inductions made by the participants, specifically the derivation and / or formulation of rules, may be regarded as directory prerequisite to problem-solving software. The lack or a failure in the implementation of such manipulation impossible to issue the response-solution for the individual, which could be demonstrated in the results presented. Whereas formal education seeks to train individuals able to solve problems, the results of research become important in that they point to intervening variables that allow the installation of a repertoire suitable for solving problems of logic / O processo comportamental da resolução de problemas lógicos consiste em, frente a um conjunto de condições, o indivíduo manipular variáveis (comportamentos preliminares) que alteram a situação ou o próprio indivíduo gerando estímulos discriminativos que controlam respostas posteriores, e analisar os dados decorrentes de tais manipulações possibilitando a emissão da resposta-solução. O objetivo primordial da presente pesquisa foi descrever e analisar o comportamento de crianças e identificar que elementos das situações controlam ou não o responder. Para coleta de dados foram utilizados dois jogos de regras disponíveis comercialmente: Senha e Jogos Boole. Ambos os jogos foram aplicados a seis crianças do sexo masculino, com idades entre 8 anos e 10 meses, e 10 anos completos. O delineamento foi composto por duas condições experimentais: procedimento-base e procedimentos adicionais. O procedimento-base continha três níveis de dificuldade (nível 1, nível 2 e nível 3), que eram superados pela emissão da resposta-solução. Os procedimentos adicionais foram inseridos quando o participante não conseguiu emitir a resposta-solução dentro dos critérios propostos no procedimento-base. As respostas dos participantes determinaram as manipulações realizadas. A análise do comportamento das crianças evidenciou algumas manipulações de estímulos que favoreceram a emissão da resposta-solução em cada um dos jogos. Porém, uma manipulação que se mostrou fundamental em ambos foi a dedução, que foi identificada através das respostas verbais e não verbais dos participantes. A dificuldade encontrada ao fazer uma dedução apareceu nas frases condicionais. Apenas um participante agiu sob controle de regras condicionais e conseguiu resolver o problema corretamente. Para o jogo Senha, especificamente, um aspecto que foi observado como relevante estava ligado ao fato do participante conseguir ou não fazer induções. Sendo a manipulação de variáveis o centro desse processo, as deduções e induções apresentadas pelos participantes, mais especificamente a derivação e/ou formulação de regras, podem ser consideradas como repertório pré-requisito para resolução de problemas lógicos. A falta ou uma falha na execução de tal manipulação impossibilitou a emissão da respostasolução pelo indivíduo, o que pôde ser demonstrado nos resultados apresentados. Considerando que a educação formal busca a formação de indivíduos capazes de resolver problemas, os resultados obtidos na pesquisa tornam-se importantes na medida em que apontam para variáveis intervenientes que possibilitam a instalação de um repertório adequado à resolução de problemas lógicos