INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASURES OF COGNITIVE STYLE AND FANTASY PREDISPOSITION IN A SAMPLE OF 100 CHILDREN IN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES

For a sample of 100 fifth and sixth grade pupils of middle-class background (51 girls and 49 boys), intercorrelations among measures of three cognitive style constructs of reflection-impulsivity, field dependence-independence, and internal-external locus of control and three measures of fantasy predisposition were for the most part low and statistically not significant. Exceptions were noted in the instance of the sample of girls for whom coefficients of.36,.38, and.51 be-tween the measure of locus of control and each of three measures of fantasy predisposition were statistically reliable beyond the.01 level. The hypothesis of a positive relationship between a measurable con-struct of fantasy predisposition and each of three measurable con-structs of cognitive style received only limited support. Furthermore, it did not appear that fantasy was a part of a larger or more general construct of cognitive style or that a universal construct of cognitive style existed. EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT 1975, 35, 477-485. DURING the past several years considerable attention has been given to the study of fantasy, daydreaming, and imagination in children as being potentially facilitating to their cognitive and emotional develop-ment (e.g., Singer, 1973). Recently, Singer (1973, p. 220) has stressed the need to obtain evidence regarding whether a tendency toward make-believe play might not be but one component of a more general cognitive style such as reflection-impulsivity (Kagan, Rosman, Day, Albert, and Phillips, 1964) or field dependence-independence (Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, and Karp, 1971). In fact, another extensively in-vestigated construct of locus of internal-external control, which was at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 9, 2016epm.sagepub.comDownloaded from 478 EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT derived from social learning theory (Rotter, 1954) and measured by Bialer (1961), would also appear, at least on the surface, to reflect many of the same activities suggested by the construct of field independence-dependence as well as an inclinination toward autonomous or self-directed behavior patterns such as those involved in fantasy