Control and Cognitive Performance

This paper presents a critique of the following article:

Chapman, M., Skinner, E.A. & Bates, P.B. (1990).Interpreting correlations between children's perceived control and cognitive performance: Control, agency, or means-end beliefs? Developmental Psychology, 26(2), 246-253.

The components of the theory (an alternative theoretical explanation for existing research's repeated findings of correlations between locus of control measures and cognitive performance) is well explained provided the reader is already somewhat knowledgeable about locus of control theory. The authors seem to recognize this fact and in their delineation of problematic aspects of locus of control theory (as well as their proposed alternative view) they repeatedly refer the reader to citations providing fuller explanations of various concepts and constructs.

Since the article is in a professional journal, this reference to citations may be sufficient explanation for the various professionals reading the journal. However, if more background information was provided about locus of control, it would have been easier to follow the authors' logic and rationale for conducting the study.

In addition to delineating their theoretical views, the authors backed up both their criticisms of locus of control theory and their proposed alternatives with a wealth of citations of existing research supportive of their claims. This added power to their introductory section and gave the impression that

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involved. Agency beliefs were said to refer to beliefs about the degree to which means to achieve goals were accessible to the individual as the agent of goal accomplishment. Means-end beliefs were said to be beliefs about the extent different categories of means were likely to result in the attainment of a particular goal. Each category of beliefs was assessed using different numbers of items for each subscale. To some extent, these subscales can be questioned in that control beliefs were assessed using only eight items while means-end beliefs were assessed using 40 item. It could be that due to the greater number of items, the means-end belief score was a more precise measure that the control beliefs subscale score. Responses were scaled using a Likert-type response scale. The operationalization would appear to follow directly from theory in that items of each subscale can be directly related to the theoretical construct the subscale purported to measure. For example, control beliefs were conceptualized as a "person's belief about their capacity for obtaining desired goals without explicit references to the means involved." The CAMI control beliefs subscale items did in fact contain items that referred to capacity for

Category: Psychology - C