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Complexity of Homemaking Tasks
Author(s) -
Steidl Rose E.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
home economics research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.372
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1552-3934
pISSN - 0046-7774
DOI - 10.1177/1077727x7500300401
Subject(s) - cognition , context (archaeology) , quality (philosophy) , psychology , cognitive psychology , product (mathematics) , elementary cognitive task , work (physics) , control (management) , applied psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , paleontology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , epistemology , neuroscience , engineering , biology
The cognitive demands of homemaking tasks were studied by asking young wives to name tasks high and low in certain cognitive requirements and to provide explanatory information, ratings, and rankings. Their explanations of the cognitive factors (attention, judgment, planning) concerned most often the content of the work and less often the environmental context and more general cognitive and affective factors. For the high cognitive tasks, the homemakers often noted quality and quantity considerations, timing, and procedural activities. For the low cognitive tasks, the homemakers indicated less demanding aspects of timing, effort, and procedural matters. Through their ratings and rankings of the tasks, the wives consistently indicated that high cognitive tasks were complicated and low cognitive tasks uncomplicated. Their responses to direct questions asking what made homemaking tasks complicated or uncomplicated supported the working definition that the cognitive factors were dimensions of complexity. Results can be used in planning educational programs to help young consumers choose and control their personal effort levels in managing homemaking tasks and to assist manufacturers, product designers, architects, and builders in providing more humane options for consumers.