TIPOS DE MATRIMONIOS

The present research suggests new and surprising information about the nature of social cognition in childhood and adolescence. Unexpectedly adolescent social problem ability did not appear to follow the expected typical pattern of refined problem solving abilities with development. Adolescent social problem ability was only more effective on stories dealing with parental conflict and conflict resolution in the classroom, areas where adolescents would have greater experience. Experience may be bolstering effectiveness in problem resolution as suggested by our results and by current studies (Pretz, 2008). Typically developing children (as verified by the CBCL and BPVS) were equally as effective as adolescents in problem solving in situations requiring making friendships, suggesting this is a more ecologically important mechanism to be acquired in the course of development. This implies that a 6-year-old and a 16-year-old can be equally as competent in problem resolution in areas where both have experience of the problem (i.e. friendship).

The initial aims of this study were to study inhibition as one possible mechanism influencing social problem solving in children and adolescents. The Stroop results

observed were straightforward and demonstrated a typical linear pattern of acquisition of inhibitory skills, with older participants more successfully avoiding errors and more quickly completing the task. It did appear that superior inhibition and a larger number of means or the steps necessary for a resolution were positively linked. However, no relationship with the effectiveness of the resolutions was given which suggested that there was yet another factor which could account for these changes. Experience was the factor that was then focused upon, not having been the initial focus of the study.

Results on the MEPS task are the ones that suggested that experience may be an important factor that should be considered. On the surface, both groups appeared equal on both means produced and the effectiveness of their resolutions. However, a closer inspection of social problem solving performance by individual story strongly suggested that the use of experience gathered in daily social interactions plays an important role in problem-solving capacity as opposed to just a steady progress in maturation of brain circuitry.

Support for the role experience may play in problem solving comes from the finding that younger participants introduce a further step to resolve the social dilemma they are presented with. Younger participants redefine the problem to fit a situation they were familiar with, utilising their own understanding as a foundation for reworking the problem at hand. Adolescent participants extrapolate solutions from a larger database of experiences, and hence do not reformulate the question for themselves (Goddard, Dritschel, & Burton 1996).

The findings on experience add to the understanding of daily interactions in the social realm, particularly during early phases of development. This study uniquely

compares social problem solving and inhibitory capacities between two key maturational epochs, development between middle childhood and mid-adolescence. Age differences in these abilities have been studied in young adults, middle-aged adults, and elderly individuals (D’Zurilla, Maydeu-Olivares, & Kant, 1988; Lazarus, 1996), but have not clarified whether these changes are related to developmental processes or contextual factors (Rich & Bonner, 2004).

The data obtained for the number of means to a goal, contained in the solutions, and effectiveness of these solutions for the MEPS is of particular interest in addressing some of the key issues this study reviews. Previous studies comparing means to a goal for the MEPS in children (6,7,8,9,10, and 11-years of age) have not demonstrated a robust relationship with child social and developmental adjustment and behaviour (Kendall and Fischler, 1984). Our results demonstrate that when viewed globally (a sum of all four stories) older participants do not produce more means and are not more effective problem-solvers. This would bolster Casey, Getz, and Galvan’s (2008) view that typical maturation does not support an understanding of the non-linear changes that occur in problem solving and decision-making in the transition from childhood to adolescence. Though prefrontal refinement does occur as noted through typical patterns of maturation in the Stroop Task, problem solving does not appear to match this linear progression with children and adults apparently performing on the same level.

When social problem-solving efficacy is viewed as a function of each individual MEPS story, however, adolescents and children are no longer both are as consistently effective. Adolescents exhibit a significant advantage in efficacy in stories that require a resolution in parental conflict or a resolution of a dilemma within the classroom. The

results suggest that children only provide equally effective resolutions in stories that pertain to making friendships or retaining friendships. The sample responses (Appendix 1) demonstrate effective problem solving by a younger participant without relying on extensive means to achieving a goal. These results imply that children as young as six- years of age are already competent in solving social dilemmas particularly in situations involving friendships.

Due to the importance of making friendships early in life, the role of experience in these situations may translate into how these hypothetical social situations are resolved. Real-life experience appears to be applied in resolving these conflicts. Adolescents will have greater life experience in conflict resolution with authority by virtue of the nature of this life period, and thus may present an advantage in stories that would tap this experience. Adolescents as a whole are seeking to establish themselves as independent thinkers, leading to greater conflict with figures of authority (Graber, Petersen, & Brooks-Gunn, 1996).

An additional explanation for this unexpected finding is that the ability to resolve hypothetical social situations is connected to retrieval of specific events (Goddard, Dritschel, & Burton, 1998, 2001). Adolescents perform more effectively on the two stories they possess more real-life experience in – disputes with parents and teachers. It is likely that children will have fewer real life situations from which to model this particular type of conflicting situation with adults outside of parental authority. Adolescence brings with it a period of dissonance in relationships with figures of authority. The benefit of having taken part in a situation of conflict with a figure of authority is that when asked to

then resolve a hypothetical situation the recall of a personal experience can produce a richer and more detailed response (Pasupathi, 2001).

Experience may further play a role in the separate approaches children and adolescents take when resolving a hypothetical situation. When children are presented with the initial conflict situation, they apply their own personal experience of a similar situation in order to provide a resolution for the social vignette. The youngest participants provide an alternative explanation for why the conflict has arisen and proceed to answer the scenario based on their interpretation of the situation. This is consistent with the notion of retrieval of specific events as described by Goddard, Dritschel, & Burton (1997, 2001). Adolescents, alternatively, appear to rely on a standardised repertoire of experiences upon which to extrapolate their response from. The use of experience could possibly be at work moderating how both groups approach the planning of their resolutions, which suggests deviation from the notion that typical maturation is responsible for the differences we observe between children and adolescents. The link that we are presenting with experience may be tenuous, but it certainly is important in how we perceive problem-solving and eventual decision making between these two groups.

Casey, Getz, and Galvan (2008) posit that there are no significant correlations between problem solving and decision-making capacity and the refinement of prefrontal systems. Our results suggest that improvement in strategy response may not necessarily be a function of greater connectivity to the frontal lobes as mirrored in superior cognitive inhibition but that experience may play a stronger mediating factor.

Support for the notion of typical development as a factor moderating differences between children and adolescents cannot be discounted entirely, and exists in the relationship between speed and accuracy in the Stroop task. Adolescents are more effective and accurate in measures of cognitive inhibition than their younger counterparts. As participants mature their speed and accuracy improves. Older participants commit fewer errors and take less time than their younger counterparts. Participants who have better verbal skills are also quicker and more precise on the Stroop task and produce a higher number of means. It must be noted, though, that these results may be a product of improved intelligence quotas (Wechsler, 1987; Pellegrini, 1985) explained by an overall enhancement in cortical connectivity throughout the brain.

The present research suggests new information about the nature of social cognition in childhood and adolescence, acknowledging that there are limitations to the heavy emphasis experience has been given in our results. From this study we assume that there is a typical refinement in prefrontal cortical connectivity as observed through superior speed and accuracy on the Stroop Task. Unexpectedly, however, adolescents social problem ability is only more effective on stories dealing with parental conflict and conflict resolution in the classroom suggesting that experience, as suggested by Pretz (2008), may bolster effectiveness in problem resolution. Children are equally as effective as adolescents in problem solving in situations requiring making friendships, suggesting this is a more ecologically important mechanism to be acquired in the course of development.

The following chapter will be looking to replicate some of the surprising findings obtained in this study, particularly those obtained for experience. Once again, there will

be a focus on the problem solving mechanisms that are employed in day-to-day social situations. One factor that was not explored in this study and will take centre of attention in the following is education, a factor that can bee seen as an experience that shapes social problem solving ability. One method to look at the role that education plays is to look at problem solving in a matched schooled and non-schooled population. A cross- cultural study was conducted in a nation where pockets of illiteracy are still high, allowing for the further exploration of the mechanisms shaping social problem solving and decision-making.

The study following in the next cross cultural chapter is methodologically similar to one in this chapter (Chapter 4), except the focus has now shifted from studying inhibition as a key factor in social problem solving to attempting to see how education and day to day experiences in a rural and urban setting can also have an effects on the mechanisms shaping social problem solving.

Chapter 5