An organizational construct approach to the study of mastery motivation in deaf and hearing infants
Abstract
Preliminary evidence suggests that groups of infants differ in their primary orientation towards objects or people. As Wachs and Combs (1995) suggested, some infants would rather be “politicians” (social-oriented) and others “engineers” (object-oriented). Findings of individual differences have been primarily based on quantitative differences in the amount of social versus object mastery motivation shown by groups of infants. The goals of the current study were to develop a measure of mastery motivation with strong psychometric characteristics and to define qualitative differences in how infants organize interactions with the social and object world. Based on an organizational construct approach a revised definition of mastery motivation was developed for the current study. This theoretical perspective was used to develop rating scales of infants' social and object mastery behaviors. The same videotaped sample of infants studied by MacTurk (1990) was utilized in all three parts of the investigation. The subject sample consisted of 75 12-month-old deaf and hearing infants who were observed in a standardized structured object mastery motivation situation. All infants were developing normally and had no additional handicaps. Part I of the study found that the proposed measure of mastery motivation demonstrated strong psychometric characteristics. The results provided good support for the organizational construct approach to mastery motivation. Part II replicated a previous finding (Wachs & Combs, 1995) that infants could be grouped according to their style of mastery motivation: Social- or object-oriented. In addition, the data indicated the possibility of a cluster of infants who maintained a balance between social and object mastery. It was suggested that some infants might not want to be “politicians” or “engineers”, but rather “social scientists”. Part III replicated a previous finding by MacTurk (1990) that deaf and hearing infants differ in their expression of social mastery behavior. The prediction that deaf infants would be more likely to demonstrate a social mastery style when compared to hearing infants was confirmed, but for deaf infants of deaf parents only. This finding was consistent with the research literature that shows different social interaction patterns for deaf infants of deaf parents compared to deaf infants of hearing parents.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Gruen, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology|Behaviorial sciences
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