Social Class-Sex Contrasts in Patterns of Cognitive Style: A Cross-Cultural Replication

Abstract

In a cross-cultural replication of an Australian study, multiple discriminant function analysis was used on responses of a sample of 79 Californian adolescents (classified on an SES/Life Style index) to determine whether their pattern of cognitive functioning differed on a battery of cognitive style tests along a social-class/sex dimension. On Function I, middle-class (M) and working-class (W) boys displayed broad estimates of category width, while middle-class girls and working-class girls scored high on originality and conceptual differentiation, but low on category width. On Function II, middle-class girls and boys scored higher on conceptual preference for descriptive-analytic labels, and on category width working-class girls and boys showed a preference for inferential labels. The results indicated close similarity between the Australian and United States sample in terms of the dimensions analysed, although both groups of U.S. girls displayed greater preference for analytic and creative modes, respectively. Results were interpreted within socialization theory, the discrepant results being attributed to different socialization clusters operating within the culture.