Critical thinking when engaged in science problem solving around even simple tasks such as the Piagetian volume conservation task is a complex endeavor. Tasks such as the conservation task often require the interaction of multiple cognitive systems. Parity judgment, retrieval, and lateral thinking are three examples of such systems interacting…

Grades often decline during the high school transition, creating stress. The present research integrates the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat with the implicit theories model to understand who shows maladaptive stress responses. A diary study measured declines in grades in the first few months of high school: salivary cortisol…

The transition from secondary to higher education is a challenging process, in which the development of students' motivation plays a pivotal role. The current study examines whether self-efficacy--and how it develops--is able to explain the growth in motivation. The current longitudinal study included five waves, across a period of 25 months (i.e.…

Our understanding of the transition from school to work has traditionally been underpinned by a three-stage model. This is one in which the first stage is a preparatory one, where the focus is on school, followed by a second transition stage and ending in a third stage, the successful entry to work. This is a model that has been challenged by work…

Adolescents typically like school less after making age-graded school transitions. Stage-environment fit theory (Eccles & Midgley, 1989) attributes this to a mismatch between developmental needs and new school environments. Our in vivo study provides a basis for future quantitative designs by uncovering the most prevalent stage-environment…

The transition from middle school to high school is an important developmental period to investigate because of the negative impact it has on youths' academics. The purpose of this study was to investigate Latino youths' academic achievement prior to, during, and after the transition to high school, and gender differences in youths' achievement…

This paper considers the functions of supportive individuals in the lives of community college and 4-year college students and how such support can promote hope, defined as agency and pathways thinking. We surveyed 181 college students regarding their supportive relationships and found that parents were most likely to be nominated as a primary…

The present study illustrates the usefulness of finite mixture of generalized linear models (GLMs) to examine variability in cognitive strategies during childhood. More precisely, it addresses this variability in set-shifting situations where task-goal updating is endogenously driven. In a task-switching paradigm 5-6-year-olds had to switch…

This study examines the hypothesis that the outcome of the Eriksonian crisis of integrity vs. despair is dependent on successful coping with four developmental tasks: maintenance of active involvement, reevaluation of life satisfaction, developing a sense of health maintenance, and reevaluation of the sense of coherence (SOC). A selective sample…

This study examined the effects of an adventure orientation program on the student development behaviors of incoming first-year students at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. Student development was measured by a condensed version of the Student Development Task Inventory-2 (CSDTI-2; Gass, 1986; Winston, Miller, & Prince, 1979). Data…

Planning for the future and developing a personalized identity are conceived of as important developmental tasks that adolescents and emerging adults are confronted with on the pathway to adulthood. The present study set out to examine whether both tasks develop in tandem by using a short-term longitudinal dataset consisting of 371 college…

Using a symbolic object such as a model as a source of information about something else requires some appreciation of the relation between the symbol and what it represents. Representational insight has been proposed as essential to success in a symbolic retrieval task in which children must use information from a hiding event in a scale model to…

This study tested associations between problems in parent-youth relationships and problems with alcohol use among college students (N = 1592) using structural equation modeling. Hypotheses were that relationships between both substance-specific parenting factors (parental drinking) and non-substance-specific parenting factors (parental intrusive…

The use of rules on nonverbal balance scale problems was studied among 5- to 19-year-olds. Latent class analyses indicated that children used rules, that different rules were used by children of different ages, and that both consistent and inconsistent rule use occurred. A model for the development of reasoning about the balance scale task was…

Described the adult development of 23 police officers. Found that subjects passed through a series of psychosocial stages and that stress and stress management were an important part of this process. Training and administrative implications are discussed. (JAC)