Cognitive Style and Style of Adaptation

Abstract

Understanding of the adaptive significance of styles of cognition has been limited in much of the research on cognitive style and control by a number of features of typical research strategy. Firstly, many of the measures used have clear better-or-worse implications which provide information about the possession of prerequisites for particular adaptive strategies but not about the strategies themselves. Secondly, understanding of adaptive intentions is minimized because Ss are allowed very limited choices as to adaptive requirements they will try to meet. Thirdly, the imposed situations which Ss face do not allow observation of the stimulus-generating aspects of their style, which play an important role in personality consistency. Failure to consider this process may have led to an underestimation of the degree of consistency which exists.