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Hutchinson SP, Wojcik EH. Adult beliefs about cognitive development vary across experience and expertise: A focus group study. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0272254. [PMID: 35913936 PMCID: PMC9342719 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore North American adult beliefs and perspectives on how young children develop early cognitive, language, and word learning skills, and how these beliefs vary depending on experience and expertise. While there is a body of literature that uses questionnaires to assess beliefs about how children develop, traditional rating scales (e.g., Likert scales) may miss the nuances of how people think about child development. Thus, we ran six in-person focus groups, differing in parenthood status and expertise, to learn how various adults talk and reason about cognitive development. Questions throughout the focus group sessions were aimed at determining the quality and origins of participants’ beliefs. Four main patterns emerged: developmental psychologists who were also parents were the most certain in their statements, parents used more anecdotes than non-parents, non-parents were more likely to talk about development as controllable compared to parents, and participants in all groups frequently referred to environment-based influences on development. Together, the results suggest that many adults are uncertain about how children develop and that there are differences in how parents and non-parents reason about development. These findings have implications for how we interpret past survey results and motivate future studies about how experience with children changes adult beliefs and reasoning about child development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha P. Hutchinson
- Department of Psychology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, NY, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Erica H. Wojcik
- Department of Psychology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, NY, United States of America
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Peetz J, Wohl MJA, Wilson AE, Dawson A. A chip off the (im)moral block? Lay beliefs about genetic heritability predicts whether family members’ actions affect self‐judgments. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Peetz
- Psychology Department Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa ON K1S5B6 Canada
| | - Michael J. A. Wohl
- Psychology Department Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa ON Canada
| | - Anne E. Wilson
- Psychology Department Wilfrid Laurier University 75 University Ave W Waterloo ON Canada
| | - Andrew Dawson
- Psychology Department Wilfrid Laurier University 75 University Ave W Waterloo ON Canada
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Turkheimer E. Genetics and Human Agency: The Philosophy of Behavior Genetics Introduction to the Special Issue. Behav Genet 2019; 49:123-127. [PMID: 30828745 DOI: 10.1007/s10519-019-09952-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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