Preschool Children's Social Cognition and Cultural Cognition. A Cognitive Developmental Interpretation of Race Dissonance Findings

Summary Symbolic interactionist notions and Piagetian theorizing form the basis for exploring social cognitive abilities as significant influences on black children's cultural cognition. One-hundred thirty black preschool children were administered a set of measures including the California Preschool Social Competency Scale, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a Racial Attitude/Preference measure, a Racial Awareness measure, and two measures of Decentering ability. The sample was near equally divided by gender; the majority of children (80%) were of middle-income families. The measure of racial attitudes and preferences, as expected, was not related to social cognitive abilities. However, social cognitive abilities did predict race awareness. Results indicated that young preoperational period children obtain cultural stereotypes from social learning experiences, although the more subtle cultural differentiation, integration, and categorization are more directly predicted by cognitive prerequisites.