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Genç yetişkin ve yaşlı bireylerde algılanan sosyal destek ve otobiyografik bellek işlevlerinin, otobiyografik bellek özellikleriyle ilişkisinin incelenmesi
Bu araştırmanın amacı genç yetişkin ve yaşlı bireylerde otobiyografik bellek özelliklerinin gelişimsel farklılıklarını incelemektir. Ayrıca algılanan sosyal desteğin ve otobiyografik bellek işlevlerinin otobiyografik bellek özellikleri ile arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmaktır. Belleğin gerçekliği birebir kaydeden bir kayıt cihazı olmadığını vurgulayan kuramsal yaklaşımların etkisiyle, otobiyografik bellek özellikleri birçok sosyokültürel değişkenle birlikte incelenmiştir. Bu araştırmada aileden ve arkadaştan algılanan sosyal desteğin otobiyografik bellek özellikleri ile olan ilişkisi incelenmiştir. Araştırmaya İzmir'de yaşayan 20-35 yaş arası 85 genç ve 65-94 yaş arası 85 yaşlı olmak üzere 170 yetişkin katılmıştır. Katılımcılardan 'aile' ve 'arkadaşlar' ile ilgili hatırladıkları otobiyografik anıları istenmiştir. Araştırma bulgularına göre, yaşlı bireyler her iki anıyı da gençlere oranla daha net hatırlamaktadırlar. Aileden algılanan sosyal desteğin aile anısının detay düzeyi ve netliğiyle pozitif ilişkili olduğu bulunurken, arkadaştan algılanan sosyal desteği yüksek olan bireylerin arkadaş anılarını özgül ve daha erken yaşlardan hatırladığı görülmüştür. Elde edilen bulgular bu konuda daha önceden yürütülmüş araştırmalar ışığında tartışılmıştır. Gelecekte çocukluk ve ergenlik dönemi örneklemlerinin de dâhil edildiği kesitsel ya da boylamsal araştırmaların alanyazın için oldukça değerli olacağı düşünülmektedir. Anahtar Sözcükler: otobiyografik bellek, algılanan sosyal destek, otobiyografik bellek işlevleri, genç yetişkin, yaşlı
Okul öncesi çocukların paylaşma, yardımlaşma ve rahatlatma becerilerini geliştirme programının etkililiğinin değerlendirilmesi
Bu araştırmanın amacı dört-beş yaşındaki çocukların yardımlaşma, paylaşma ve rahatlatma davranışlarını geliştirmeye yönelik bir programın oluşturulması, uygulanması, etkililiğinin değerlendirilmesi ve bu becerilerin sosyal bilgi işleme ve duygu tanıma becerileri ile ilişkisinin incelenmesidir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda olumlu sosyal beceriler ve bilişsel becerilere yönelik bir program geliştirilmiş ve çocuklara altı modülden oluşan üç haftalık bir eğitim verilmiştir. Eğitim programı kapsamında çocuklarla her hafta yardımlaşma, paylaşma ve rahatlatma davranışlarını arttıracak etkinlikler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu çalışmaya dört-beş yaşlarında anaokuluna devam eden 57 müdahale, 39 kontrol grubunda olmak üzere toplam 96 çocuk katılmıştır. Araştırma kapsamında hem çocuklardan bireysel ölçümler alınmış, hem de ebeveynler ve öğretmenlerden çocukların olumlu sosyal davranışlarını değerlendirmeleri istenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlar, uygulanan sosyal beceri geliştirme programının hem çocuklardan alınan ölçümlerde hem de ebeveyn ve öğretmen bildirimlerinde anlamlı bir farklılaşma yarattığını göstermektedir. Programın uygulandığı gruptaki çocukların yardımlaşma, paylaşma, rahatlatma davranışlarının, duygu tanıma becerilerinin ve olumsuz bir duruma karşı verdikleri sakin yanıtların arttığı tespit edilmiştir. Ebeveyn ve öğretmenlerden alınan bildirimlerde de sosyal beceri geliştirme programı uygulanan grubun aldığı puanların, kontrol grubunun aldığı puanlardan istatistiksel olarak anlamlı düzeyde yüksek olduğu bulunmuştur. Bu nedenle çocuklardan alınan ölçümler ile ebeveynler ve öğretmenlerden alınan ölçümlerin tutarlı olduğunu, uygulanan programın çocukların sosyal becerileri üzerinde etkili olduğunu söylemek mümkündür. Çalışma kapsamında aynı zamanda çocukların olumlu sosyal davranışları ve bilişsel becerilerinin demografik özelliklerle ilişkili olup olmadığı incelenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlar, cinsiyet, yaş, kardeşe sahip olma ve annenin eğitim düzeyinin bu davranışlar ve beceriler üzerinde en etkili değişkenler olduğunu göstermiştir.
Developmental relations between Turkish preschool children's theory of mind skills and their ability to track character references in narrative discourse
This thesis investigates the developmental relationship between young children?s theory of mind (ToM) abilities and their competence in organizing narratives through character references, to see how ToM contributes to the emergence of the narrative skills. For this purpose, narrative competence of 75 Turkish speaking children (ages 3;0 to 6;0) was assessed; focusing on how adequately they refer to characters in different discourse contexts where mutual knowledge was blocked: i) story-retelling, ii) picture-elicited stories with 1MC and 2MC, iii) picture-elicited story acted out with toys. For the assessment of ToM skills, children were presented with the tasks scaled by Wellman & Liu (2004). In addition, working memory (WM) measures were included as control variables. It was hypothesized that children?s adequate use of referential expressions in all types of discourse would increase with age and ToM development would be positively related to referential adequacy.A one-way MANOVA revealed that except for the story-retelling, referential adequacy performances in different story contexts increased with age; 4 and 5-year-olds performed better than 3-year-olds. Also, children refer more adequately to characters in stories with 1MC than in stories with 2MC. Hierarchical regression analyses show that forward word span performance was positively associated with referential adequacy in story-retelling. ToM skills were also positively associated with referential adequacy in 1MC stories while the association between ToM skills and referential adequacy in 2MC stories was marginally significant. Finally it has been found that WM performance was positively and strongly associated with ToM skills.Following the adequacy analyses, the specific linguistic forms Turkish children are using in their narratives for introduction, maintenance and reintroduction functions were examined. Age and story type affected the patterns for using different linguistic forms. Three-year-old children were not yet capable of using indefinite forms for introducing characters; instead, they mostly used zero pronouns and on some occasions bare noun phrases. The use of bare noun phrases increased with age and almost 50% of children used bare noun phrases for the first character introductions in all story types except story retelling in which the proper name was used as it was given when the story was first told. The use of indefinite noun phrases began to appear at ages four and five. When maintaining reference to the same character, children in all age groups preferred using zero pronouns. In addition, children mainly used zero pronouns for character reintroductions and age-related increase in the use of definite forms for reintroduction function was not observed in any of the story types.
Socioeconomic-related differences in Turkish mothers' autonomy granting to adolescents
This study aims to gain insight into mothers of adolescence's conceptualization of the adolescence period and their understanding toward adolescence's autonomy in the context of their socioeconomic status (SES), more specifically their education level. The sample consisted of 20 high-SES (Mage = 45.87, SDage = 3.51) and 20 low-SES mothers (Mage = 40.20, SDage = 4.93) who have children in the mid-adolescence period (20 girls, 20 boys, Mage = 15.71, SDage = .55). For data collection, each mother was interviewed in-depth individually and filled out a demographic information form. Mothers were asked to describe the period of adolescence, its difference from childhood and adulthood, as well as their expectations of a well-functioning adolescent. Finally, mothers were asked to reflect on possible generational differences in autonomy granting. Results revealed that mothers from low-SES were more likely to associate the adolescence period with children's experience of anger, annoyance, and negative mood than high-SES mothers. It was also found that high-SES mothers mentioned about individualistic competences and low-SES mothers mentioned about relational competences when they describe a well-functioning adolescence based on their maternal beliefs. There were also differences in some topics of psychological autonomy granting (asking for child's opinions and voicing own opinions) between two groups of mothers, mothers from high-SES group who indicated their positive attitude toward this dimension of autonomy were more than low-SES group. Generational differences were also more apparent in the response of low-SES mothers, while high-SES mothers mentioned about more similarities with their own parents.
Exploring selectivity in children's knowledge transmission: The effects of group affiliation and knowledge type
A wealth of studies investigated factors guiding children's decisions when learning from others, while less is known about factors that govern children's decisions when they transfer knowledge to others. This research asked whether children would privilege ingroup members when informing others and if so, whether this tendency would be observed to similar degrees when transferring different kinds of information (social norms vs. moral norms). Five- and 6-year-old children were assigned to minimal groups on the basis of their color preference. Children were then introduced to two potential recipients differing in their group membership, and were asked to choose one or both of these recipients to teach social or moral norms. Later children were asked to rate how much they liked members of their own group and the other group. Results showed that children were more likely to choose ingroup members for teaching social norms, and they were more likely to choose both members when teaching moral norms. In both conditions, children gave higher liking ratings for members of their own group. Thus, while children displayed an overall ingroup preference indicated by their explicit liking ratings, their selectivity to inform ingroup members depended heavily on the type of information that was to be taught.
Sources of variation in preschoolers' relational reasoning: The interaction between language use and working memory
Previous research has suggested the importance of using relational language (i.e., same, different) and working memory in children's relational reasoning. Yet, the general tendency to use language (i.e., using relational or object-focused language, describing focal objects or background) and its interaction with working memory has not been investigated. The present thesis examined the roles of these language- and working memory-related sources of variation on Turkish-learning preschoolers' relational reasoning. We collected data from 4- to 5-year-olds (N = 41) via Zoom on a relational match-to-sample task, a scene description task, and working memory tasks (i.e., forward and backward word span). Generalized binomial mixed effects models revealed that children who used more relational language and background-focused scene descriptions performed worse in the relational reasoning task. Furthermore, children with less frequent relational language use and focal object descriptions of the scenes benefited more from working memory to succeed in the relational reasoning task. These results suggest potential different pathways children attain to strengthen their relational reasoning skills, highlighting the importance of examining the interactive effects of different cognitive mechanisms on relational reasoning.
Erken çocukluk döneminde yönetici işlev becerilerinin yordayıcıları: Kentsel ve kırsal yoksulluk
Executive function (EF) is an umbrella term of cognitive processes (working memory, inhibition, mental set shifting), which are important for achieving goal-directed behaviors. Several contextual and child factors influence EF development. Poverty is a risk factor for EF skills; however, the effects of urban and rural poverty might be different. The current study examined the differences in urban and rural poverty in terms of living conditions and parenting, EF differences in urban and rural poverty, and predictors of EF. The participants were 241 children and their mothers living in poverty. Children's EF was assessed via Corsi block tapping (visuospatial WM), forward and backward digit span (verbal WM), day-and-night (inhibition), and dimensional change card sort (mental set-shifting) tasks. The results indicated that urban and rural poverty differed in terms of the poverty level (i.e., income, education), home stimulation, neighborhood quality, and mothers' expectations about children's educational attainment, whereas they were similar in terms of parenting, conversations with children and mothers' beliefs about child development. The comparison of urban-rural poverty in terms of EF showed that children living in urban and rural poverty were not significantly different in their EF skills. Moreover, children's age, duration of attending kindergarten, receptive vocabulary, and children's perceptual sensitivity were associated with children's EF; and urban-rural poverty interacted with mothers' positive parenting predicting children's verbal WM and mental set-shifting. The findings of the study are important for describing urban-rural poverty differences in Turkey, and the findings have implications for future studies.
Algılanan ebeveynliğin öncüllerinin günlük hayatta ve COVID-19 pandemisinde incelenmesi: Aile süreçleri modeli perspektifi
This thesis examined the antecedents of parental rejection in everyday life and stressful conditions. Study 1 examined predictors of parenting separately for mothers and fathers by testing parent characteristics, namely, education, depression, and socialization goals; famil social context, namely, marital conflict, and social support child characteristics, namely child age, gender, and negative affect. Moreover, the dyadic link among parents in terms of socialization goals, authoritative parenting beliefs were tested for parental rejection. Study 2 examined perceived rejection amid the Corona Virus Disease- 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic by considering the role of pandemic-related risk and protective factors through the mediating role of mothers' psychological distress when controlling for pre-pandemic conditions. Study 1 showed that education level and social support was associated with less maternal rejection, whereas hierarchical relatedness goals was associated with increased maternal rejection. Moreover, social support for mothers was associated with less rejection, especially for girls with high negative affect. For fathers, depressive symptoms and children's negative affect were associated with paternal rejection. Autonomy supporting goals was associated with less perceived rejection by their sons. In cases of high marital conflict, fathers were perceived as less rejecting parents by their daughters and children with less negative affect. Dyadic analysis showed that fathers' authoritative parenting beliefs mediated the link between autonomy supporting goals and parental rejection for both parents. Study 2 showed the mediating role of maternal psychological distress for pandemic-related anxiety, chaos in the family environment but not for decrease in income in predicting maternal rejection. Neither marital satisfaction nor social support had a protective role for mothers.
Ebeveynlik bilişleri ile kuralları içselleştirme ilişkisinde ebeveynliğin aracı cinsiyet ve mizacın düzenleyici rolü
The aim of the present study was to examine the mediator role of parenting behaviors (positive and negative) in the relationships between parenting beliefs and the internalization of rules among children or adolescents. Also, the study aimed to test the moderator role of temperament (frustration and sensory processing sensitivity) in the association between parenting behaviors and the internalization of rules. Lastly, the study aimed to test whether the proposed relationships differ among girls and boys. In total, 374 children and adolescents (225 girls [60.2 %], and 149 boys [39.8 %]) with the age range from 7 to 18 years old (M = 11.02, SD = 2.26) and their mothers participated in the current study. Children and adolescents were asked to fill in parenting scales including warmth, hostility, neglect, undifferentiated rejection, comparison, psychological control, and inductive reasoning. Mothers were asked to fill out demographics, parental beliefs, temperament, and internalization of rules. Results revealed that there were significant associations between parenting beliefs, parenting behaviors, and internalization of rules, and these relationships showed differences for girls and boys. The interaction between sensory processing sensitivity and between negative parenting was also significant in predicting internalization of rules. Findings were discussed in light of the literature. Keywords: internalization of rule, parenting belief, parenting, temperament, gender
Anaokulu çocuklarının deneysel gözleme dayalı kızgınlık ve üzüntü ifadelerinin anne raporlarına dayalı içselleştirme ve dışsallaştırma belirtisiyle olan ilişkisi
Emotional development in preschool age is essential for concurrent and later social and academic adjustment (Cole, Michel, & Teti, 1994; Saarni, 1999; Denham, 1998). Emotional reactivity, in particular negative emotionality, and its relations to adjustment problems has been theoretically and empirically studied in the literature of developmental psychopathology (Crick & Zahn-Waxler, 2003; Nigg, 2006; Patrick & Bernat, 2006). However, literature provides limited information on the specific mechanisms that link negative emotionality, especially anger and sadness expressions, to internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In addition, our understanding on the basic normative aspects of anger and sadness expressions in response to different eliciting contexts during preschool age is limited. The present study has two major goals: First goal was to assess contextual variability in anger and sadness expressions of preschoolers as a function of age and gender. Anger and sadness expressions of 130 children were observed in two different laboratory contexts, interpersonal and non-interpersonal. The second goal of the study was to concurrently predict maternal reports of preschoolers? internalizing and externalizing symptoms using their observed anger and sadness expressions and contextual variability in emotional reactivity. Results showed that, anger and sadness expressions of children significantly differed across the two contexts. All children showed greater levels of anger and sadness expressions in the interpersonal contexts. Observed anger and sadness expressions failed to concurrently predict mother reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results of the study were discussed in relation to observed effects of contextual variability in emotion expressions on symptom elevations with moderating effects of age and gender. Further, limitations of the findings were discussed in terms of generalizability, and strengths of the study within the theme of measurement confound.
Türk annelerin gelişimsel beklentileri, ebeveynlik davranışları ve aile ortamlarında yerleşim alanının ve eğitimin rolü
The major aim of this study was to investigate differences and similarities in developmental expectations, parenting practices, and quality of home environment in Turkish mothers of preschoolers who live in a megacity and a rural-city. Another aim was to examine the role of maternal education in these parenting variables. The participants were 161 mothers of preschoolers living in Istanbul and 73 mothers living in Konya, Kayseri, and Nevsehir. Differences between groups were examined using MANOVAs and MANCOVAs, and results revealed that mothers who lived in rural-cities reported higher levels of obedience-demanding behaviors and punishment; had earlier developmental expectations about traditional/moral rules; and provided healthier physical environment than megacity mothers. It was also found that compared to low-educated mothers, high-educated mothers reported less obedience-demanding behaviors and more permissiveness and cognitive stimulation; expected earlier development in the physical, cognitive, social, self-control, autonomy, obedience, family orientation, and agency domains; and provided more learning materials and healthier physical environment. The results partially supported the hypotheses. Taken together, the findings implied that the mothers who live in a megacity and a rural-city have some similarities and differences in terms of developmental expectations, child-rearing practices, and home context. In addition to the differences related to social environment, results showed that parenting variables differ according to mothers? education level, which is consistent with child development literature.
Çocukların Sosyal Anlayış Ölçeği-kısa formunun psikometrik özelliklerinin otizmli çocuklar üzerinden incelenmesi
Researchers have examined theory of mind (ToM) via individual assessments, depending on participants' behavioral performance. Recently, Tahiroğlu and colleagues developed a parent-report, the Children's Social Understanding Scale (CSUS), to assess fine-tuned individual differences in children's ToM. The CSUS has been found reliable and valid in measuring ToM of typically developing preschool-aged children in North America (Tahiroğlu et al., 2014) and Turkey (Tahiroğlu & Yağmurlu, 2014). Another group where ToM has been widely examined is individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who have varying degrees of difficulty in understanding others' mental states. However, using individual assessments to measure ToM can be problematic in ASD, since the behavioral tasks are complex, have significant linguistic and cognitive demands, and are not good at revealing nuanced individual differences. In the present study, we examined the psychometric properties of the short form of the CSUS in ToM assessment of children with ASD in Turkey. The participants were 106 children with ASD (Mage = 12.06 years, SD = 2.91) and their parents. Children's ToM was measured via the CSUS and behavioral assessments: one low-verbal and one first-order ToM task. Their ASD severity level, receptive language, nonverbal intelligence, emotion recognition, and social competence were also measured to analyze the validity of the CSUS. Reliability analysis revealed very high internal consistency for the CSUS. The CSUS score was negatively associated with children's ASD severity level and positively associated with low-verbal ToM performance, receptive language, nonverbal intelligence, and social competence. When children's ASD severity level and receptive language were controlled, the associations among the CSUS score and behaviorally measured ToM scores were non-significant. Hierarchical regression analysis was also used to test the predictive value of children's ASD severity level, receptive language, nonverbal intelligence, emotion recognition, and social competence on their CSUS score. The results revealed that better receptive language and higher social competence were significantly associated with higher CSUS score. The findings showed that the CSUS is a reliable and valid tool in measuring ToM of children with ASD in Turkey.
Sosyal bağlamda zihin kuramı: Kültür, sosyal ortam ve hedefteki kişinin özelliklerinin rolü
Theory-of-mind (ToM) describes the ability to understand mental states of others. According to the perspective of theory-theory, social context is critical for children's development and use of ToM ability as variety of experiences in social context provide children with rich input about diverse nature of others' mental states. In line with the perspective of theory-theory, the current dissertation with its three separate studies investigated the role of social context (e.g., broad cultural norms and family characteristics, general setting of the social interaction, and targets' characteristics) in development and use of ToM in children and young adults. The first study examined the developmental acquisition of ToM steps in Turkish children and explored whether this acquisition could be linked with socio-demographic factors of children's families. The results showed that majority of Turkish children in the sample displayed collectivist ToM acquisition pattern with earlier understanding of Knowledge Access (KA) than Diverse Beliefs (DB). However, further analyses focusing only on achievement in individual items of KA and DB revealed that those children who evidenced DB but not KA understanding were living in more crowded households with higher number of adults than children who evidenced KA but not DB. The findings implied that children's development of ToM takes places in line with the general norms of the society and in the context of Turkey where individualist and collectivist values co-exist, family characteristics play a critical role in determining whether children's ToM acquisition sequence would fit to individualist vs. collectivist pattern. The second study focused on the importance of children's ToM abilities in the context of peer play and tested test if acquisition of ToM transforms children's social interactions, particularly, their display of lower disruptive actions (e.g., opposition, rule breaking, yelling and aggressing) within play situation. This study also examined the role of emotion understanding and empathy as two critical socio-emotional skills associated with social behaviors of children. The findings demonstrated that not higher ToM or emotion understanding but higher empathy predicted lower disruptive behaviors of preschoolers in peer context. Although accurate interpretation of others' minds in ongoing social interactions can give rise to smooth peer relationship, in the context of peer play, ToM emerged as a general socio-cognitive ability (a cold comprehension skill) and high performance in ToM did not necessarily pave the way of more coordinated peer play behaviors. These results were in line with the claims stating that ToM is a cold comprehension skill (as opposed to empathy—affective sharing of others' emotions) which can be used either to harm or please others depending on individuals' motivation. Finally, the third study examined whether cultural characteristics of the target and associated social perceptions (e.g., perceived similarity, prejudice and threat perception) could influence accuracy of young adults' ToM performance. The results displayed that Turkish young adults performed higher mindreading accuracy toward Turkish targets than Syrian and Norwegian targets. Moreover, analyses conducted within each target group revealed complex interactions between perceived similarity, realistic threat and prejudice, documenting that both target characteristics and perceptions about these targets impact understanding minds of outgroup members. Overall, in line with the theory-theory's contention, these three studies showed that although humans are endowed with the capacity to make sense of others' subjective minds, their social experiences are critical in guiding development and later utilization of this capacity in childhood and early adulthood years.