Social Mastery Motivation in Down Syndrome and Nondelayed Infants

Abstract

Indices of social mastery motivation in Down syndrome (DS) and nondelayed infants, matched on Bayley mental scores, were observed during social tasks that encouraged socially motivated behaviors and object-play tasks that did not encourage these behaviors. During the object play, the DS infants' object-directed behaviors were not appreciably lower than the nondelayed infants', while their social behaviors were significantly lower. During social tasks, no significant difference was found. The nondelayed infants' positive affect was related to social and cognitive competence, but for the DS infants, only to social competence. The findings suggest differences in behavioral integration between the two samples.

Recall memory in children with Down syndrome and typically developing peers matched on developmental age

“…The first author matched the DAs of the children with DS to those who were TD within 3 months, as has been performed in previous research (MacTurk et al . ; Venuti et al . ; Vanvuchelen et al .…”

Creating culturally sensitive and community-sensitive measures of development

“…Theoretical work (Harter, 1978) suggested that mastery motivation can be observed in several domains, and several researchers (Barrett and Morgan, 1995;Combs and Wachs, 1993;MacTurk and others, 1985) had expanded their notion of mastery motivation in young children to include actions directed toward people. This expansion of the concept of mastery motivation seemed to fit with our observations of Puerto Rican toddlers.…”

Mastery Motivation in Deaf and Hearing Infants

“…The behaviors directed toward the examiner andor mother were considered to be a form of social referencing in which infants employ the emotional responses of adults as a guide to continued interaction with the objects (Wenar, 1972;Feinman, 1982 to constitute an important element of the infants' persistent attempts to master the environment (MacTurk et al, 1985a;MacTurk, McCarthy, Vietze, & Yarrow, 1987;Wachs, 1987).…”

“…Subsequent reports (MacTurk et al, 1985a(MacTurk et al, , 1985b examined social and off-task behaviors separately and found that the ability to integrate socially oriented behaviors into the ongoing stream of object-related activities represents an important dimension of motivated behavior. This separation of categories was maintained in this report.…”

“…The focus of these studies was on the infants' motivation to explore the inanimate environment, with relatively little emphasis placed upon either efforts directed toward the animate environment (e.g., social motivation) or socially mediated expressions of motivated behavior. More recent papers have addressed the social aspects of motivated behavior (MacTurk, Hunter, McCarthy, Vietze, & McQuiston, 1985a Wachs, 1987). These latter investigations established the importance of the social domain and provided the key to furthering our understanding of an area of functioning which is considered to reside at the interface of cognition and personality (Yarrow et al, 1983).…”