The relationships of age, gender, and educational level with moral development in 94 middle-class 28- to 55-year-old adults (32 males and 62 females) were studied. Subjects were administered Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview (MJI). Males scored higher on the MJI than females. Findings support the continued development of moral judgment through…

Analyzed the effects of marital status, race, and gender on the timing of suicide across three adult life stages. Logistic modeling showed distinct structural effects on the occurrence of suicide in midlife compared to the life stages immediately preceding and following it. Greater attention to the crises of women in midlife appears warranted.…

Studied effects of childhood parental separation and divorce on adult loneliness among 87 college students who, when they were between the ages of 3 and 16, had experienced the divorce of their parents. Data analysis revealed that there were significant relationships between reported mourning behaviors, as well as respondents, ages at time of…

A sample of 175 British 7-year olds was interviewed, and 114 were reinterviewed at age 11. Results showed teaching and fighting to be common in school life. More boys than girls were teased or involved in fighting. Although over half said racial teasing occurred, very few said it happened to them. Retaliation was the most frequent coping strategy.…

Black college students (n=172) completed survey of biographical, educational, and vocational information about themselves and immediate relatives. Results indicated that educational realism tended to increase across college years. Found no difference in satisfaction with school or intent to leave school as function of educational or salary…

Hypothesized that, unlike second graders, most fourth graders are aware of the usefulness of category organization as a retrieval strategy and begin to deliberately activate category knowledge as a memory strategy during retrieval. Results of three experiments supported this theoretical view. Strategic competence is not mature among fourth…

The reaction times, movement times, and final accuracy of hand movements of 6, 8, and 10 year olds that were directed toward visual goals were measured by means of tasks in which direction and amplitude components of movement were required. (RH)

Twenty-six precocious preschoolers exhibited high frequencies of dramatic and associative play. Girls engaged in more cooperative and less solitary play than boys. Elder children participated in more solitary, parallel, and less cooperative and less dramatic play than younger peers. The higher intelligence quotient group undertook less…

A national survey of 142 public school districts in 1985-86 found a significantly greater proportion of girls than boys enrolled in gifted programs, however this predominance was reversed at grade 10 and continued through grade 12. Implications for high school programs for the gifted and further research are drawn. (Author/DB)

The Attitudes toward Women Scale and the Occupational Check List were administered to 24 gifted eleventh and twelfth graders and 36 gifted ninth graders. Main effects were found for age and sex with older students and females having less traditional attitudes about careers and sex roles. (Author/DB)

This study compared American Sign Language (ASL) abilities in 36 deaf adults who acquired ASL either in early childhood or in later childhood and who were born deaf or later lost their hearing. Subjects who acquired ASL as a second language after early childhood outperformed those who acquired it as a first language at the same age. (Author/DB)

Kindergartners and second, fourth, and sixth graders were shown a series of pictures that depicted an object with increasing completeness and were asked to identify the object. Found that, with increasing age, children correctly identified the object earlier in the sequence and that reaction time was longest for second graders. (BC)

Presents a theory of cognitive development that postulates a general cognitive processing system, a hypercognitive system governing self-regulation, and specialized structural systems responsible for processing different reality domains. Suggests five principles that serve as organizational pivots of developing cognition. Reports the results of…

Three studies examined naturalistic concepts of moral maturity in young through older adults to develop a more comprehensive understanding of moral excellence than in dominant theories. Findings indicated that naturalistic notions of moral excellence contained themes of principled reasoning, also referenced aspects of moral character and virtue…

Examined scientific reasoning and self-serving reasoning biases in 5th, 8th, and 11th graders. Found that scientific reasoning improved with age. Ratings of evidence quality and written justifications yielded mixed results regarding developmental trends in reasoning biases. Theoretical beliefs regarding religion and ego-protective motivations…