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SOCIAL CLASS AND SEX CONTRASTS IN VERBAL PROCESSING STYLES
Author(s) -
POOLE MILLICENT E.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1978.tb02369.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , verbal fluency test , style (visual arts) , categorical variable , nonverbal communication , discriminant function analysis , preference , class (philosophy) , social psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , archaeology , neuroscience , machine learning , artificial intelligence , computer science , neuropsychology , economics , history , microeconomics
S ummary . It was hypothesised that specific styles or verbal processing would be characteristic of 96 high school students drawn from different social class/sex groups. Such distinctive patterns of functioning, it was posited, could be largely explained by earlier socialisation experiences. Individual structured interviews were transcribed verbatim and six dimensions of verbal processing examined: categories of processing; modes of expression; verbal content; ideational fluency; category breadth; and conceptual preference. Discriminant function analysis, extended and supplemented by analysis of variance, was used to test the hypothesis of style‐specific modes of functioning. Middle‐class boys and girls displayed similar overall verbal strategies: discriminating, tentative, abstract and person‐oriented. Middle‐class girls, however, preferred comparing/evaluating modes, while middle‐class boys used describing/explaining ones. Working‐class boys and girls were generally non‐differentiating and non‐discriminating and showed a distinct preference for closed‐categorical concepts. The notion of style‐specific patterns of verbal processing for the criterion groups was supported for social class but only partially for sex.