Title:
Self-deception: children's motivated use of biasing strategies
Author:
Caitlin B. Dunning
Thesis Advisor:
Sharon Green-Hennessy
Committee Member:
Matthew Kirkhart
Committee Member:
Kerri Goodwin
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2005
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
reformatted digital
Abstract:
This research project examined the cognitive strategies children use to create and maintain self-deceptive beliefs. Four major strategies were included: negative misinterpretation, positive misinterpretation, rationalization, and selective evidence-gathering. It was hypothesized that there would be developmental trends in strategy use that parallel the Piagetian model of cognitive development. Participants were given a battery of Piagetian tasks to determine whether they were in the preoperational or concrete operational stage. The two groups were compared with regard to self-deceptive strategy use by completing a card sort task following a situation in which children were expected to self-deceive. Data analysis provided evidence for developmental trends in strategy use. As hypothesized, use of negative misinterpretation decreased and use of positive misinterpretation increased from one cognitive stage to the next. Contrary to what was predicted, use of rationalization decreased. The findings regarding selective evidence-gathering provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that use of this strategy would decrease with cognitive development. However, the selective evidence-gathering results should be interpreted with caution due to questionable scale reliability. The results of this study support the idea that self-deceptive strategy use is linked to level of cognitive development rather than intelligence. These findings have implications for therapists working with child clients.
Subject:
Cognition in children
Subject:
Self-deception
Subject:
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Third Edition (PPVT-III)
Degree:
Doctor of Psychology
Level:
Doctoral
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online to Loyola Notre Dame Library basic constituency.
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Identifier:
DunningCB-05
