William Graziano, Ph.D. - US grants

Research with adults has shown that people differ in their tendencies to monitor their own behavior, through self- observation and self-control. These tendenciesm, called self- monitoring, have been measured and related to a wide variety of social behavior, including patterns of cooperation and competition, friendship formation, social comparison, and self- evaluation. What is not known, however, is how or when self- monitoring tendencies develop, what events in childhood or adolescence induce self-monitoring, or even how children engage in self-monitoring. This project, a three-step program of research, will provide data to determine whether: (a) self- monitoring can be assessed in children and adolescents: (b) self-monitoring is affected by changes in children's social environment; and (c) self-monitoring is related to basic processes of emotional communication, self-control, and interpersonal interaction in children and adolescents. The project will conduct basic foundational work upon which later work on social development can be built.

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's abstract): An interlocking, multimethod program of research will examine the origins and maintenance of individual differences in agreeableness in two minorities (Mexican-American & African American) and majority children and adolescents, and its links to adjustment. Agreeableness materializes with many different theoretical labels, but this dimension appears to be a general dispositional summary for processes of social valuation and attraction. Socialization patterns, both within cultures and between cultures, may be systematically related to its development, but there is little prospective scientific work on validity of assessments or underlying processes. Our goal is to continue basic, process-oriented, foundational work. The first research module will focus on reliability and convergent validity, using a computer assessment methodology to obtain self-ratings from Mexican-American, African American, and majority children and adolescents. This evidence will be compared with adult ratings of the same children for the convergent validity of agreeableness assessments. We will also use a prospective longitudinal design to follow the children and adolescents for evidence on the stability and predictive validity of agreeableness during periods of life transition. The second module focuses on specific processes linking agreeableness to emotional self-regulation. The third module links agreeableness to social Cognition. The fourth module examines interpersonal interaction. The four modules are designed to build basic empirical bridges toward an understanding of individual differences in adaptation in social environments.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal examines the impact of school grade retention on majority and minority children using a contextual-developmental approach. An interlocking, multi-method program of research will examine the origins and maintenance of problems associated with school grade retention with special attention to two minorities (Mexican American & African American) and majority children and adolescents, and links to adjustment. A bilingual, prospective longitudinal methodology is used to identify factors associated with grade retention and subsequent school adjustment, defined in terms of both academic achievement and individual behavioral adjustment. The first phase of the research (Module 1) focuses on descriptive associations between demographic variables and grade retention. Module 2 uses information from Module 1 to examine cross-sectional moderating processes, and explore how child, peer, family and school variables influence the relation between retention and adjustment. Sex and minority status will receive special attention as potential moderators of all processes. Retention may influence child adjustment through individual self-system processes (e.g., self-esteem, personality differences), but child, family, and school variables may moderate further the process. Control beliefs, engagement in school activities, feelings of school relatedness, and family support may buffer children from adverse effects of grade retention Module 3 uses information from Modules 1 & 2 to track processes longitudinally, from first grade through fifth grade. Longitudinal information will allow examination of processes associated with stability and predictive validity during periods of life transition It is possible that the effects of grade retention can be partitioned into temporary, situational effects due to changes in classroom cohorts, longer term effects due to self-system accommodations, and still Longer term developmental effects due to peer relations complications associated with emerging puberty. Longitudinal analysis will also allow for prospective comparisons L with appropriate age, sex, minority /majority and ability controls. Module 4 uses child, family, and school information from the three previous modules to construct and test structural models that examine possible pathways between grade retention in first grade and adjustment and achievement five years later. The four modules build basic empirical bridges between school policy for grade retention and an understanding of individual, developmental, and school processes that moderate the success of the school policy. It should be possible to identify (a) children for whom grade retention is especially disruptive; and (b) process that buffer or aggravate such disruption.

From Dualism to "Integration":Investigating Development of Engineering Students' Social and Technical Perceptions

Engineering education provides students with foundational technical knowledge and skills, as well as a sense of engineering identity. Yet as prior sociological studies suggest, most engineering degree programs place primary emphasis on technical topics, which tends to marginalize or exclude the social dimensions of engineering identity and work practices. This investigation responds to such research by exploring engineering students' cognitive perceptions of their social and technical worlds, the relationship between their perceptions of these two domains, and how such perceptions develop. This study employs an embedded, sequential mixed-methods approach, which includes an interpretive phenomenological analysis of how engineering students integrate and/or split their social and technical perceptions of engineering ability and identity. This qualitative portion of the study is preceded and supported by data from instruments that probe how students perceive and orient to their social and technical worlds.

The proposed investigation builds on literature from the social sciences, psychology, and engineering education by examining students' technical and social perceptions. It fills a gap in the existing research by investigating the cognitive models that undergird how students develop the integrated, sociotechnical perception needed to address the broad, global challenges facing engineers today. This project lays key foundations for reforming curricula to enhance the development of these perceptive abilities and associated skills within engineering education. This investigation has potential for broad impact by informing engineering educators of critical experiences that shape the technical and social perceptions of students. The findings can be used to develop curricula, assessment techniques, and pedagogical strategies that better enable educators to guide students into a coherent integration of their social and technical perceptions. Such integration can cultivate engineers with enhanced capabilities who can tackle the engineering problems marked by sociotechnical complexity, including the "grand challenges" that face society. Integrating social and technical perceptions within the curriculum also has potential to enhance diversity in engineering by appealing to underrepresented groups of students who may be drawn toward more integrated, sociotechnical approaches to engineering.