Instant Download PDF Developmental Psychology 1st Edition Keil Test Bank Full Chapter

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 39

Developmental Psychology 1st Edition

Keil Test Bank


Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-psychology-1st-edition-keil-test-bank/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Developmental Psychology Childhood Adolescence 9th


Edition Shaffer Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-psychology-
childhood-adolescence-9th-edition-shaffer-test-bank/

Developmental Mathematics 1st Edition Blitzer Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-mathematics-1st-
edition-blitzer-test-bank/

Interactive Developmental Mathematics 1st Edition


Rockswold Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/interactive-developmental-
mathematics-1st-edition-rockswold-test-bank/

Developmental Psychology From Infancy to Adulthood 4th


Edition White Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-psychology-from-
infancy-to-adulthood-4th-edition-white-test-bank/
Developmental Mathematics through Applications 1st
Edition Akst Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-mathematics-
through-applications-1st-edition-akst-test-bank/

CDN ED Developmental Psychology Childhood and


Adolescence 4th Edition Shaffer Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/cdn-ed-developmental-psychology-
childhood-and-adolescence-4th-edition-shaffer-test-bank/

Looking Forward Through The Lifespan Developmental


Psychology 6th Edition Peterson Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/looking-forward-through-the-
lifespan-developmental-psychology-6th-edition-peterson-test-bank/

Developmental Mathematics 1st Edition Blitzer Solutions


Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-mathematics-1st-
edition-blitzer-solutions-manual/

Developmental Psychology From Infancy to Adulthood 4th


Edition White Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/developmental-psychology-from-
infancy-to-adulthood-4th-edition-white-solutions-manual/
CHAPTER 7: The Origins of Emotion, Temperament, and Personality

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. ________ refer to transient states that correspond to physiological and cognitive processes associated
with distinct internal sensations, or feelings.
a. Display rules c. Moods
b. Emotions d. Temperaments
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: Emotional Development
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Remembering

2. Darwin believed that ________ were good indicators of underlying emotional states in infants.
a. approach behaviors c. facial expressions
b. body posture d. vocalizations
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Emotional Development
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Remembering

3. Emotions can be thought of as ways of mobilizing ourselves to achieve certain goals. This idea
represents the ________ approach to emotion.
a. basic c. functionalist
b. complex d. structuralist
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Emotional Development
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Remembering

4. ________ is a brain structure involved in forming memories of emotional events.


a. Amygdala c. Cerebellum
b. Basal ganglia d. Parietal lobe
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Remembering

5. Seven-month-old infants participating in a study watched videos showing hippos and snakes
accompanied by fearful or happy voices. Infants in this study:
a. looked longer at the video of the snake when they heard a fearful voice
b. looked longer at the video of the snake when they heard a happy voice
c. looked equally long at videos of snakes when they hear a happy voice as when they hear a
fearful voice
d. did not look at videos of snakes but only looked at videos of hippos
ANS: A DIF: Easy
REF: Evolutionary Preparedness and Emotional Development TOP: Learning Objective 1
MSC: Understanding

6. All of the following statements are true EXCEPT:


a. facial expressions cannot yet be used to infer emotional states in infants
b. facial expressions can be used to infer emotional states in older individuals
c. some expressions are difficult to interpret
d. some people can mask their emotions more effectively than others
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Development
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Understanding
7. The goal of maintaining integrity of self is associated with which emotion?
a. anger c. fear
b. disgust d. sadness
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Development
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Understanding

8. Donovan tries to conserve energy by disengaging and withdrawing. He is likely feeling:


a. anger c. fear
b. disgust d. sadness
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Development
TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Applying

9. All of the following are considered basic emotions EXCEPT:


a. disgust c. guilt
b. fear d. joy
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Remembering

10. ________ emotions are meant to influence others and not simply to reflect an internal state.
a. Complex c. Machiavellian
b. Display d. Moral
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Remembering

11. Most theorists see the newborn as having:


a. no emotions c. complex emotions
b. 6 basic emotions d. undifferentiated emotions
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Understanding

12. Shame may result from sadness combined with anger. Shame represents a ________ emotion.
a. complex c. Machiavellian
b. composite d. phylogenic
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Understanding

13. All of the following are considered self-conscious emotions EXCEPT:


a. anger c. empathy
b. envy d. pride
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Understanding

14. Which of the following statements about moral emotions is true?


a. The idea that emotions are part of morality emerged recently as a result of new research.
b. Moral emotions in infants are the same as mature moral reasoning and judgments.
c. New research suggests that preverbal infants may have some intuitive sense of right and
wrong.
d. Infants do not yet react differently to mean and nice social agents, but rather respond
based on the appearance of stimuli.
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Understanding

15. All the following statements about complex emotions are true EXCEPT:
a. complex emotions build on basic emotions
b. complex emotions are evident within the first six months of development
c. complex emotions may involve goals that are at least partly socialized and vary across
cultures
d. all possible combinations of the six basic emotions can yield thousands of complex
emotions
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Understanding

16. Which of these emotions is the last to develop?


a. envy c. fear
b. empathy d. pride
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Remembering

17. At what point in development do negative emotions start to differentiate into the categories of sadness
and anger?
a. at birth c. 4 months
b. 2 months d. 6 months
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Remembering

18. What is most likely to elicit a smile in a newborn?


a. internal cues c. social stimulation
b. interactive toys d. recognition of specific individuals
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Understanding

19. All of the following statements about emotional expression are true EXCEPT:
a. different forms of happiness seem to fade gradually into each other in infants rather than
being sharply defined
b. different forms of happiness seem to fade gradually into each other in adults rather than
being sharply defined
c. negative emotions are often seen as more clearly distinct from each other in infants
d. negative emotions are often seen as more clearly distinct from each other in adults
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Understanding

20. Matthew is 6 months old. He probably smiles most often in response to:
a. internal cues c. social stimulation
b. interactive toys d. seeing and recognizing his mother
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Applying
21. Baby Zach’s brows are drawn together and lowered. His mouth looks like a wide-open square. This
facial expression would suggest that Zach is:
a. angry c. joyful
b. fearful d. disgusted
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Applying

22. Juan’s parents have noticed that he has just started to express fear. He only recently has been
frightened by new people and toys. How old is Juan likely to be?
a. 2 months c. 6 months
b. 4 months d. 12 months
ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Applying

23. Those low on emotional intelligence:


a. only have difficulty inferring other’s emotional states
b. only have difficulty recognizing their own emotions
c. have difficulty understanding both their emotions and others’ emotions
d. too quickly recognize others’ emotions as well as their own
ANS: C DIF: Easy
REF: The Causes and Consequences of Problems in Emotional Regulation
TOP: Learning Objective 4 MSC: Remembering

24. ________ neurons may play a role in emotional contagion by linking action and perception such that
the same neurons fire when a person either expresses an emotion or observes that emotion in others.
a. Display c. Mirror
b. Emotion d. Response
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions
TOP: Learning Objective 4 MSC: Remembering

25. Claudine, a 12-month-old, participated in a study where she watched a cartoon that depicted a triangle
that helped a ball move up the hill and a square that hindered the ball's attempts. Claudine then saw
two follow-up cartoons in which the ball approached either the triangle (the helper) or the square (the
hinderer). Claudine likely:
a. ignored the follow-up movies
b. looked longer at the follow-up movie where the ball approached the helper (the triangle)
c. looked longer at the follow-up movie where the ball approached the hinderer (the square)
d. looked equally long at both follow-up movies
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 4 MSC: Understanding

26. Emma is a 4-month-old infant. She will:


a. not yet be sensitive to others’ emotions
b. rely only on visual cues to emotions
c. rely only on auditory cues to emotions
d. rely on both visual and auditory cues to emotions
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions
TOP: Learning Objective 4 MSC: Applying
27. Martina’s friend is feeling very happy. Martina seems to “pick it up” and feel happy as well. This is an
example of:
a. display cues c. situation selection
b. emotional contagion d. social referencing
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions
TOP: Learning Objective 4 MSC: Applying

28. All of the following are methods of emotional regulation highlighted in your textbook EXCEPT:
a. attentional deployment c. situation selection
b. response modification d. social referencing
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Understanding

29. All of the following statements about emotion regulation are true EXCEPT:
a. emotion regulation includes conscious processes, such as deliberately suppressing
emotions
b. emotion regulation includes unconscious processes, such as habits that reduce the intensity
of emotional experience
c. emotion regulation applies only to negative emotions, such as anger
d. emotion regulation can involve external factors, such as parental soothing
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Understanding

30. Jose is an infant who shifts his attention away from a frightening image. This is an illustration of:
a. emotional contagion c. positivity bias
b. emotional regulation d. response modification
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying

31. Claudia’s infant is very upset. The baby does not want to stay in his crib by himself. Claudia picks up
her son and keeps him close by. This illustrates:
a. display rules c. response modification
b. negativity bias d. situation modification
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying

32. Miles, a toddler, wants to stay close to his mother. He follows her into the kitchen. This illustrates:
a. positivity bias c. situational deployment
b. response modification d. situation selection
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying

33. Sheila is very upset about something that happened at work. She tries to distract herself and focus on
her friends. This illustrates:
a. attentional deployment c. response modification
b. positivity bias d. situation selection
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying
34. Pat, a toddler, sucks her thumb whenever she is scared. This makes her feel better. This is an example
of:
a. attentional deployment c. response modification
b. goodness of fit d. situational modification
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying

35. Dena is really bothered by something that happened at school. She tries to rethink the situation and
interpret its negative aspects in a more positive way. This illustrates:
a. attentional deployment c. cognitive reframing
b. cognitive modification d. response modification
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying

36. Researchers use the term ________ to refer to an infant’s tendency toward particular emotional and
behavioral responses to specific situations.
a. affective response style c. personality
b. goodness of fit d. temperament
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Temperament and the Origins of Personality
TOP: Learning Objective 6 MSC: Remembering

37. The children in Thomas and Chess’s study were each assessed repeatedly over an extended period of
time. This is an example of a ________ design.
a. chronological c. longitudinal
b. cross-section d. sequential
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 6 MSC: Understanding

38. A measure of temperament yields different results across different ages, observers, and situations. The
measure is said to have low:
a. accuracy c. reliability
b. longitudinality d. validity
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 6 MSC: Understanding

39. Dr. Buss is a researcher who focuses on the early emergence of temperament and its high heritability,
which leads to stability over time. His approach to studying temperament can be described as a(n)
________ approach.
a. emotive c. structural
b. functional d. trait
ANS: D DIF: Medium
REF: Temperament-Based Components of Personality and Early Development
TOP: Learning Objective 6 MSC: Applying

40. A researcher is interested in whether his measure of temperament predicts the more naturalistic and
intuitively compelling behaviors that are thought to underlie the temperamental measure. He is
interested in the measure’s:
a. feasibility c. reliability
b. generalizability d. validity
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 6 MSC: Applying

41. Trait approaches to temperament focus on three fundamental trait-like categories. Which of the
following is NOT one of these trait-like categories?
a. activity level c. emotionality
b. effortful control d. sociability
ANS: B DIF: Easy
REF: Temperament-Based Components of Personality and Early Development
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Remembering

42. All of the following are dimensions of temperament identified by Thomas and Chess EXCEPT:
a. activity level c. rhythmicity
b. mood d. soothability
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Remembering

43. All of the following are contributions of the New York Longitudinal Study EXCEPT:
a. it looked at infants’ behaviors in their own right rather than conceiving of them as infant
versions of adult behaviors and qualities
b. it identified two important dimensions of temperament with infants who appear inhibited
and those who seem uninhibited
c. it suggested that infants’ behaviors could be coded into temperament categories that might
have some degree of developmental continuity
d. it started to reveal how the specific circumstances of a child’s development could strongly
modify a child’s temperamental disposition
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Remembering

44. The Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised describes temperamental differences between infants on
all of the following dimensions EXCEPT:
a. negative affectivity c. rhythmicity
b. effortful control d. surgency/extroversion
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Remembering

45. All of the following statements are true of Jerome Kagan’s research findings EXCEPT:
a. infants’ inhibited behaviors have different biological bases than uninhibited behaviors
b. the tendency to be inhibited or uninhibited can affect other aspects of temperament
c. the tendency to be inhibited or uninhibited interacts with the degree to which certain kinds
of emotions are expressed
d. uninhibited infants are more likely to express negative emotions
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Understanding

46. Benicio usually responds to new environments in a negative fashion at first. However, he tends to
adapt after being in the new situation for some time. Benicio would be classified into the category of:
a. adjustable c. easy
b. difficult d. slow to warm up
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Applying

47. Marcela is considered an easy baby. Which of these characteristics is she UNLIKELY to demonstrate?
a. happy c. intense reactions
b. adaptable d. regular daily routines
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Applying

48. Jamal is a toddler who is able to effectively shift his attention and focus on tasks. Jamal would be
considered high on:
a. affect modification c. rhythmicity
b. effortful control d. surgency
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Applying

49. Rocky is a toddler who is tentative when in new surroundings. He does not like meeting new people
and seems extremely timid. Rocky demonstrates:
a. inhibited behavior c. slow to warm affectivity
b. negative affectivity d. uninhibited behavior
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Applying

50. Gene’s dog is very timid. He is afraid of dogs that are smaller than him. How would you describe the
dog’s temperament?
a. easy c. inhibited
b. difficult d. uninhibited
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Applying

51. Doreen is an uninhibited child, whereas Dawn is an inhibited child. Which of the following is most
likely?
a. Doreen will tend to display more positive emotions than Dawn.
b. Doreen will tend display more negative emotions than Dawn.
c. Doreen will display less exploratory behavior in new situations than Dawn.
d. Doreen and Dawn will display different levels of exploratory behaviors but will not differ
in their display of emotion.
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Analyzing

52. The temperamental aspects of inhibition and negative affect are often associated with which
personality trait?
a. conscientiousness c. neuroticism
b. extroversion d. openness to experience
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 8 MSC: Remembering

53. All of the following statements about temperament are true EXCEPT:
a. an individual’s temperament emerges early in life
b. there is a high degree of heritability in many temperamental attributes
c. temperament is not very stable over time
d. temperament can involve individual differences in self-regulation
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Temperament and the Origins of Personality
TOP: Learning Objective 8 MSC: Understanding

54. Which statement about conscientiousness is true?


a. Conscientiousness is present in infancy.
b. Conscientiousness develops out of the interaction of specific components of early
temperament.
c. Most conscientious people are at the extreme ends of the temperamental dimensions of
vigilance and activity.
d. A highly conscientious person demonstrates low levels of attentional monitoring.
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 8 MSC: Understanding

55. Macie is an extremely inhibited child at age 2. How will Macie likely behave in elementary school if
her parents fail to encourage social exploration?
a. She will show high levels of inhibition and shyness.
b. She will be a little shy.
c. She will be extremely outgoing.
d. It is impossible to know as inhibition is not a stable trait.
ANS: A DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 8 MSC: Applying

56. Stephan demonstrates persistence as an infant. This aspect of temperament is associated with all of the
following personality traits EXCEPT:
a. agreeableness c. extroversion
b. conscientiousness d. openness to experience
ANS: C DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament
TOP: Learning Objective 8 MSC: Applying

57. Researchers studied abused children and a control group and presented participants a digitally altered
series of images of the same face, with the images gradually transforming from a face with a neutral
expression to a face with a strong emotion. They found that children of abusive parents:
a. identified anger at an earlier point than control children
b. identified anger at a later point than control children
c. identified sadness at an earlier point than control children
d. identified sadness at a later point than control children
ANS: A DIF: Medium
REF: The Effect of Parenting on Emotion Processing in Children
TOP: Learning Objective 9 MSC: Remembering

58. Rachel, a 10-month-old, sees a new toy. She turns to her mother to see her reaction to this new object.
This is an example of:
a. display cues c. situation selection
b. emotional contagion d. social referencing
ANS: D DIF: Medium REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions
TOP: Learning Objective 9 MSC: Applying
59. Hillary gets socks and a pencil as a present from one of her friends at her birthday party. She responds
politely and smiles, though she wished she received a toy. Her parents have taught her to respond
positively to gifts no matter their content. This illustrates use of:
a. attentional deployment c. response guidelines
b. display rules d. situation cues
ANS: B DIF: Medium REF: Emotional Regulation in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 9 MSC: Applying

60. Sachi is a child being raised in Japan, and Susan is a child being raised in the United States. Which of
the following is most likely?
a. Sachi may be more likely to react to certain experiences by feeling guilt when Susan reacts
by feeling shame.
b. Susan may be more likely to react to certain experiences by feeling guilt when Sachi reacts
by feeling shame.
c. Susan’s mother probably socializes her primarily through feelings of shame.
d. Sachi’s mother probably socializes her primarily through feelings of guilt.
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy
TOP: Learning Objective 9 MSC: Analyzing

61. Maysa is an infant whose mother is clinically depressed. Marsha is an infant whose mother is not
depressed. Both girls are tested in the still face paradigm. Which outcome is most likely?
a. Both girls will respond similarly.
b. Maysa will be more likely than Marsha to soothe herself through means such as
thumb-sucking.
c. Maysa will be more likely than Marsha to use attentional deployment strategies such as
looking away.
d. Marsha will be more likely than Maysa to soothe herself through means such as
thumb-sucking.
ANS: B DIF: Difficult
REF: The Causes and Consequences of Problems in Emotional Regulation
TOP: Learning Objective 9 MSC: Analyzing

62. The concept of ________ suggests that the same environment is not optimal for all children.
a. environmental bias c. personality matching
b. goodness of fit d. situation selection
ANS: B DIF: Easy
REF: Child-Environment Interactions and Goodness of Fit TOP: Learning Objective 10
MSC: Remembering

63. All of the following statements about goodness of fit are true EXCEPT:
a. the concept of goodness of fit helped launch a major shift in how we view infants and
children
b. the same environment is optimal for all children
c. children can actively seek the best-fitting environment
d. parents and teachers can alter the environment to better fit the child
ANS: B DIF: Medium
REF: Child-Environment Interactions and Goodness of Fit TOP: Learning Objective 10
MSC: Understanding

64. In which of the following environments would an easy infant fare better than a difficult infant?
a. a drought area in East Africa
b. a day care center where there are many children and few teachers
c. a large, poor family where there is much competition among children
d. a small family which is not under stress
ANS: D DIF: Medium
REF: Child-Environment Interactions and Goodness of Fit TOP: Learning Objective 10
MSC: Understanding

65. Colby is a challenging child. However, his mother is able to guide him well and they have a strong
relationship. This represents:
a. environmental selectivity c. parental matching
b. goodness of fit d. situation selection
ANS: B DIF: Medium
REF: Child-Environment Interactions and Goodness of Fit TOP: Learning Objective 10
MSC: Applying

66. Sibyl is a difficult baby who cries often and is rarely content. Her mother finds this behavior difficult
to handle and becomes less patient, leading to even more difficult behavior from the infant. This
illustrates a(n):
a. coercive cycle c. feedback loop
b. emotional contagion d. response modification
ANS: C DIF: Medium
REF: Child-Environment Interactions and Goodness of Fit TOP: Learning Objective 10
MSC: Applying

SHORT ANSWER

1. What methods do researchers use to study infants’ facial expressions?

ANS:
Because infants cannot verbally convey what they are experiencing, researchers have used infants’
facial expressions to infer their emotional states. Darwin pioneered this method and assumed that
facial expressions were good indicators of underlying emotional states and that when combined with
contextual cues and other infant behaviors, facial expressions could be used to identify several distinct
emotions from the beginning of life. Modern researchers have developed coding systems for scoring
the different expressions and assigning them to categories of emotion. By using such coding systems,
which are based on analyzing the muscular and anatomical components that vary across facial
expressions, researchers are able to achieve high levels of reliability for identifying expressions.

DIF: Easy REF: Approaches to Emotional Development


TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Remembering

2. What is the functionalist approach to emotion?

ANS:
The functionalist approach to emotions stresses the function of emotional responses. According to this
approach, each emotion serves clear functions, both for our own internal regulation and for regulating
and managing social situations. For example, sadness conserves energy and encourages nurturance
from others.

DIF: Easy REF: Approaches to Emotional Development


TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Remembering

3. What are phobias and how are they explained by the preparedness model?

ANS:
Phobias are extreme, often irrational fears of specific things or situations. Phobias seem evolutionarily
prepared to be associated with certain stimuli. Fear of snakes is one such prepared association. Infants
may have an early-emerging bias to track potential threats like snakes.

DIF: Easy REF: Evolutionary Preparedness and Emotional Development


TOP: Learning Objective 1 MSC: Understanding

4. What are complex emotions? Describe why shame is considered a complex emotion.

ANS:
Emotions that build on and occur developmentally later than the basic emotions are known as complex
emotions. They emerge from various combinations of basic emotions and through the introduction of
more complex supporting cognitions about a situation. Shame is a complex emotion that involves
sadness at losing the respect of another, combined with anger at oneself for doing so and some degree
of fear about the consequences.

DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy


TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Remembering

5. What are the two reasons that some emotions are considered “basic”?

ANS:
Basic emotions include joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, anger, and fear. These emotions are considered
basic for two main reasons: (1) they appear very early in development, and (2) they are considered
human universals, in part because people in an extraordinary range of cultures are able to infer these
emotions consistently from facial expressions.

DIF: Medium REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy


TOP: Learning Objective 2 MSC: Understanding

6. Describe how the developmental progression of emotions corresponds to the evolution of emotions
and offer an explanation for this finding.

ANS:
The developmental sequence in which the basic emotions appear in infancy roughly correspond to the
order in which these emotions are thought to have evolved. Early in infancy there is a split between
positive arousal (excitement) and negative arousal (apprehension). From this point, positive emotions
differentiate into narrower categories as do negative emotions. The emotions that appeared first may
have been those that were functionally the most important in evolution and therefore the most
conserved across species. Even the simplest organisms need to know when to seek out opportunities
through positive, exploratory behavior and when to avoid threats through more wary, guarded
behavior.

DIF: Difficult REF: Differentiation of Emotions in Infancy


TOP: Learning Objective 3 MSC: Analyzing

7. What is negativity bias and why might infants demonstrate this response?

ANS:
Infants use their parents’ reactions as cues to interpret ambiguous situations. In these circumstances,
infants show a strong tendency to respond more powerfully and consistently to negative emotions than
to positive ones, a phenomenon called the negativity bias. The negativity bias may occur because there
is a larger cost to ignoring or misinterpreting negative emotions than positive ones.

DIF: Medium REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions


TOP: Learning Objective 4 MSC: Understanding

8. Describe two strategies/therapeutic approaches for helping children with emotional regulation
problems.

ANS:
Some children face difficulties with emotion regulation. One common therapeutic approach is to focus
on specific behaviors, such as tantrums associated with excessive anger. In this case, a therapist might
work with a child and his parents to develop strategies for modifying the child’s tendency to throw
tantrums. A different approach attempts to expand the child’s ability to understand his own emotional
states and those of others, assuming that such an increased awareness will lead to enhanced abilities to
stop an emotional surge before it gets out of control.

DIF: Medium REF: The Causes and Consequences of Problems in Emotional Regulation
TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Applying

9. Differentiate between situation modification and situation selection.

ANS:
Situation modification and situation selection are both means used to regulate emotions. One way of
regulating emotions is to change the situation in which one is immersed, a method called situation
modification. Early on, infants are usually better able to modify the situation they find themselves in
than to select the situation they prefer. Once they can crawl, infants may be able to select a situation
for themselves. Over the course of development, the situation selection method of regulating emotions
becomes increasingly important as the infant becomes able to take actions that enable her to approach
pleasant situations and avoid unpleasant situations.

DIF: Difficult REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions


TOP: Learning Objective 5 MSC: Analyzing

10. Define inhibition and provide some evolutionary arguments for inhibited behaviors across species.

ANS:
Inhibited infants are more likely to be fearful and tentative in novel surroundings. Children throughout
the world show increasingly inhibited behaviors in response to unexpected or unfamiliar events during
the first two years of life. Kagan has argued that these kinds of inhibitions were important adaptive
behaviors that promoted safety and survival by inducing the child to pay attention to stimulus
discrepancies and not to approach or get involved in unfamiliar events. For young children, the best
strategy might be to prefer what has been safe in the past and be wary of novelty. Infants’ tendency
toward inhibition may also trigger distress sounds (for example, cries) that attract caregivers.

DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament


TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Understanding

11. Differentiate between difficult babies and “slow to warm up” babies.

ANS:
Difficult babies are often unhappy, do not adjust well to new situations, and have irregular biological
rhythms. Slow to warm children also start out expressing negativity but react with low intensity and
adjust slowly to new situations.

DIF: Difficult REF: Determining Differences in Temperament


TOP: Learning Objective 7 MSC: Analyzing

12. Differentiate between temperament and personality.

ANS:
An infant’s tendency toward particular emotional and behavioral responses to specific situations is
known as temperament. An individual’s temperament emerges early in life and remains relatively
stable over time. Most researchers use the term temperament when describing an infant’s disposition,
because behavioral differences among infants are not the same as those that distinguish older children
or adults. Infants do not show the complexity of personality that older children and adults do.
Personality includes many other aspects of human variation, such as intelligence, creativity, and
self-monitoring ability that cannot be assessed in infants.

DIF: Easy REF: Temperament and the Origins of Personality


TOP: Learning Objective 8 MSC: Understanding

13. What are display rules and how do they differ across cultures?

ANS:
Adults socialize children not to display certain emotions even when they are feeling them strongly.
The display rules governing what kinds of emotional expressions a particular group considers
appropriate can vary across cultures. For instance, Iranian children are socialized to suppress their
emotions more than Dutch children are.

DIF: Medium REF: Perceiving and Thinking about Emotions


TOP: Learning Objective 9 MSC: Remembering

14. Describe conditions under which a difficult temperament may be advantageous.

ANS:
Sometimes those who complain the loudest fare better than others. Difficult babies may show better
developmental outcomes than easy babies in impoverished environments. A study of infants born in
parts of East Africa during a drought found that difficult infants had better health outcomes than easy
infants. Caregivers under extreme stress may simply respond first to children who seem the most
distressed.

DIF: Medium REF: Determining Differences in Temperament


TOP: Learning Objective 10 MSC: Understanding

15. Describe the concept of goodness of fit. Provide an example of a parent-child relationship where
goodness of fit may be poor.

ANS:
Different kinds of parents may “fit” better with some infants than with others. This idea stresses that
children are active agents who help shape their own development. An example of poor fit may be a
mother who is always active and prefers a noisy environment raising a child with a low activity level
who prefers a calm environment.

DIF: Medium REF: Child-Environment Interactions and Goodness of Fit


TOP: Learning Objective 10 MSC: Applying
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
deserving for themselves and for their enterprise the hearty support
and encouragement of every lover of his country, of every
philanthropic citizen. We shall always rejoice to hear of their
success.
(Signed by)

Samuel Lawrence,
John Clarke,
Benj. F. French,
Homer Bartlett,
J. W. Warren,
William Schouler,
William Butterfield,
Jacob Robbins,
John Avery,
George Motley,
Alexander Wright,
William Spencer,
John Wright.

Lowell, Nov. 25, 1843”

It may be well to record the fact, that at this date, according to the
Lowell Journal, there were only three women editors in this country
besides Miss Curtis and Miss Farley. These were Cornelia W. Walter
of the Boston Transcript, Mrs. Green of the Fall River Wampanoag,
and Lydia Maria Child of The Anti-Slavery Standard.
In an editorial notice of all these women editors, the Journal says,
“The Anti-Slavery Standard, edited by Lydia Maria Child, is one of
the best papers in the country.... We do not doubt that the women
will have a good influence in this new sphere, as they do in
everything else;” and continuing, “The Lowell Offering must be made
the instrument of great good. In glancing at its contents and
reflecting upon the origin of its articles, our respect for woman and
her saving and regenerating power is increased a thousand fold.”
In order to keep the continuity of the literary history of the early
working-girls, it is well to speak of a contemporary publication called
The Operatives’ Magazine, published in Lowell by “an association of
females,” and edited by Lydia S. Hall and Abby A. Goddard, both
factory-girls. The leading editorial stated that “The magazine will
contain original articles on religious and literary subjects,” and added
that “those which inculcate the doctrines of the Bible as understood
by evangelical Christians, without their peculiarities, will be
admitted.” Contributions were solicited from “operatives of both
sexes.”
This magazine was published in 1841-1842, when it was merged
in The Lowell Offering. Lucy Larcom and her sister Emmeline were
contributors, during its existence, to The Operatives’ Magazine,
which may account for the fact that Lucy Larcom did not write for
The Lowell Offering (with the exception of some verses in the first
series) while it was under the control of Mr. Thomas; but she became
a constant contributor after that date, both to The Lowell Offering
and to The New England Offering.
CHAPTER VII.

THE LOWELL OFFERING (CONTINUED).

The Lowell Offering was a small, thin magazine of about thirty


pages, with one column to the page. The price of the first number
was six and a quarter cents. Its title-page was plain, with a motto
from Gray; the verse beginning:—

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene.”

This motto was used for two years, when another was adopted:—

“Is Saul also among the prophets?”

In January, 1845, the magazine had on its outside cover a vignette, a


young girl simply dressed, with feet visible and sleeves rolled up.
She had a book in one hand, and her shawl and bonnet were thrown
over her arm. She was represented as standing in a very sentimental
attitude, contemplating a beehive at her right hand. This vignette was
adopted, as the editor said, “To represent the New England
schoolgirl, of which our factories are made up, standing near a
beehive, emblem of industry and intelligence, and in the background
the Yankee schoolhouse, church, and factory.” The motto was:—

“The worm on the earth


May look up to the star.”
This rather abject sentiment was not suited to the independent
spirit of most of the contributors, who did not feel a bit like worms;
and in the February number it was changed to one from Bunyan:—

“And do you think the words of your book are certainly true?
“Yea, verily.”

The magazine finally died, however, under its favorite motto:—

“Is Saul also among the prophets?”

The title-page, or outside cover, was copyrighted in 1845.


The Lowell Offering was welcomed with pleased surprise. It found
subscribers all over the country. The North American Review, whose
literary dictum was more autocratic than it is to-day, indorsed it, and
expressed a fair opinion of its literary merit.
The editor, John G. Palfrey, said:—

“Many of the articles are such as to satisfy the reader at once,


that if he has only taken up The Offering as a phenomenon, and not
as what may bear criticism and reward perusal, he has but to own
his error, and dismiss his condescension as soon as may be.”

Charles Dickens, in his “American Notes,” says:—

“They have got up among themselves a periodical, called The


Lowell Offering, whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred
good solid pages, which I have read from beginning to end. Of the
merits of The Lowell Offering, as a literary production, I will only
observe—putting out of sight the fact of the articles having been
written by these girls after the arduous hours of the day—that it will
compare advantageously with a great many English annuals.”
Harriet Martineau prompted a fine review of it in the London
Athenæum, and a selection from Volumes I. and II. was published
under her direction, called “Mind Among the Spindles.”
This book was issued first in London, in 1844, and republished in
Boston in 1845, with an introduction by the English editor, Mr. Knight.
In a letter to this gentleman, Miss Martineau said, “I had the
opportunity of observing the invigorating effect of ‘Mind among the
Spindles,’ in a life of labor. Twice the wages and half the toil would
not have made the girls I saw happy and healthy, without that
cultivation of mind which afforded them perpetual support,
entertainment, and motive for activity. They were not highly
educated; but they had pleasure in books and lectures, in
correspondence with home, and had their minds so open to fresh
ideas as to be drawn off from thoughts of themselves and their own
concerns.”
English friends were particularly kind in their expressions of
approval. One said, “The Lowell Offering is probably exciting more
attention in England than any other American publication. It is talked
of in the political, as well as in the literary world.... It has given rise to
a new idea, that there may be mind among the spindles.... The book
is a stubborn fact.”
President Felton of Harvard University, while in Paris attending a
course of lectures on English Literature by Philarète Chastles, heard
an entire lecture on the history and literary merits of The Lowell
Offering.
Thiers, the French historian, carried a volume into the Chamber of
Deputies, to show what working-women in a republic could do.
George Sand (Madame Dudevant) thought it a great and
wonderful thing that the American mill-girls should write and edit a
magazine of their own.
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal gave The Offering a rather back-
handed compliment, which is quoted to show the old-time prejudice
against female writers. It said,—
“Constrained to speak candidly, we have found amongst the
pieces few which would have any chance of admission into a British
periodical above the humblest class; yet it must also be admitted,
that even where there is no positive attraction, there is nothing
irreconcilable with good taste; and some of the articles, the verse as
well as the prose, would appear as respectable efforts for females of
any rank in life.”

It may be said that at one time the fame of The Lowell Offering
caused the mill-girls to be considered very desirable for wives; and
that young men came from near and far to pick and choose for
themselves, and generally with good success. No doubt these young
men thought that, if a young woman had the writing talent, rare in
those days, she naturally would have other rare talents towards the
making of a good wife; and I can say that my own knowledge, added
to recent inquiries, confirms this belief.
The fact was often disputed that a “factory-girl” could write for or
edit a magazine, since she had hitherto been considered little better
than the loom or frame she tended. Inquiries on the subject came to
the editors from different parts of the country, and questions like the
following were often put to them: “Do the factory-girls really write the
articles published in The Offering?” or, “Do you print them just as
they are sent?” or, “Do you revise or rewrite them?”
In the preface to the first volume, Mr. Thomas answered these
questions. He says, “The articles are all written by factory-girls, and
we do not revise or re-write them. We have taken less liberty with
them than editors usually take with other than the most
inexperienced writers.” He adds, “Communications much amended
in process of training the writers were rigidly excluded from print; and
such articles only were published as had been written by females
employed in the mills.” He continues, “and thus was published not
only the first work written by factory-girls, but also the first magazine
or journal written exclusively by women in all the world.”
The contributions to The Offering were on a great variety of
subjects. There were allegories, poems, conversations on
physiology, astronomy, and other scientific subjects, dissertations on
poetry, and on the beauties of nature, didactic pieces on highly moral
and religious subjects, translations from French and Latin, stories of
factory and other life, sketches of local New England history, and
sometimes the chapters of a novel. Miss Curtis, in 1840, wrote an
article on “Woman’s Rights,” in which were so many familiar
arguments in favor of the equality of the sexes, that it might have
been the production of the pen of almost any modern advocate of
woman’s rights; but there was this difference, that the writer, though
she felt sure of her ground, was too timid to maintain it against the
world, and towards the end throws out the query, “whether public life
is, after all, woman’s most appropriate and congenial sphere?” It is a
curious coincidence, that at this date the English and the American
Anti-Slavery Associations were at the point of division on this very
question.
There is a certain flavor in all The Lowell Offering writings, both in
prose and verse, which reminds one of the books read by the
authors, and the models they followed in their compositions. The
poetry savors of Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, Mrs.
Barbauld, Milton, Pope, Cowper, and Hannah More. Byron’s
sardonic vein is copied by one or two of the most independent minds
among them. The prose models of writing were The Spectator, the
English classics, “Miss Sedgwick’s Letters,” “The Vicar of Wakefield,”
and Lydia Maria Child’s writings.
Though the literary character of these writings may not rise to the
present standard of such productions, yet at that season of
intellectual dearth they must have had a certain influence on
contemporary literature; and viewed by the critical eye of a later
date, it is found that the selections from The Lowell Offering will
compare quite favorably with those in the “Ladies’ annuals” of the
same date, as, for instance, The Lady’s Repository, The Rose of
Sharon, The Lily of the Valley, Gems of Beauty, The Opal, and other
like literary curiosities, of which The Lowell Offering may well be
ranked as one, and with which, no doubt, it will hold its place in the
history of American publications.
These factory-girl writers did not confine their talents within the
pages of their own publication. Many of them wrote for the literary
newspapers and magazines. One sometimes filled the poet’s corner
in Zion’s Herald and in the Saturday Evening Gazette; another took
that envied place in The Ladies’ Casket; a third sent poetic effusions
to The Lowell Courier and Journal.
These authors represent what may be called the poetic element
of factory-life. They were the ideal mill-girls, full of hopes, desires,
aspirations; poets of the loom, spinners of verse, artists of factory-
life.
The Lowell Offering did a good work, not only among the
operatives themselves, but among the rural population from which
they had been drawn. It was almost the only magazine that reached
their secluded homes, where it was lent from house to house, read
and re-read, and thus set the women to thinking, and added its little
leaven of progressive thought to the times in which it lived. Its
influence or its memory is not by any means forgotten; and if a
newspaper or magazine which had so brief an existence is so well
remembered after at least fifty years, when the novelty of such a
publication is all worn away, it shows that it must have had some
vitality, something in it worthy of preservation.
It was considered good Sunday reading. A friend told me recently
that as a child she used to watch for its coming, and how much she
liked it, because her father, a clergyman, allowed her to read it on
Sunday; and on that day it was placed on the table with the Bible,
while other secular reading-matter was excluded. Another has said
that she used to get the themes for her “compositions” out of the
pages of The Lowell Offering.
The names of The Lowell Offering writers, so far as I have been
able to gather them, are as follows: Sarah G. Bagley, Josephine L.
Baker, Lucy Ann Baker, Caroline Bean, Adeline Bradley, Fidelia O.
Brown, M. Bryant, Alice Ann Carter, Joanna Carroll, Eliza J. Cate,
Betsey Chamberlain, L. A. Choate, Kate Clapp, Louisa Currier, Maria
Currier, Lura Currier, Harriot F. Curtis, Catherine Dodge, M. A.
Dodge, Harriet Farley, Margaret F. Foley, A. M. Fosdick, Abby A.
Goddard, M. R. Green, Lydia S. Hall, Jane B. Hamilton, Harriet Jane
Hanson, Eliza Rice Holbrook, Eliza W. Jennings, Hannah Johnson,
E. Kidder, Miss Lane, Emmeline Larcom, Lucy Larcom, L. E. Leavitt,
Harriet Lees, Mary A. Leonard, Sarah E. Martin, Mary J. McAffee, E.
D. Perver, E. S. Pope, Nancy R. Rainey, Sarah Shedd, Ellen L.
Smith, Ellen M. Smith, Laura Spaulding, Mary Ann Spaulding,
Emmeline Sprague, S. W. Stewart, Laura Tay, Rebecca C.
Thompson, Abby D. Turner, Elizabeth E. Turner, Jane S. Welch,
Caroline H. Whitney, A. E. Wilson, Adeline H. Winship, and Sabra
Wright, fifty-seven in all.
Most of the writers signed fictitious names, such as Ella,
Adelaide, Dorcas, Aramantha, Stella, Kate, Oriana, Ruth Rover,
Ione, Dolly Dindle, Grace Gayfeather, and many others.
In 1848 seven books had been published, written by contributors
to The Lowell Offering. These were “Lights and Shadows of Factory
Life,” and “Rural Scenes in New England,” by Eliza Jane Cate; “Kate
in Search of a Husband,” “Jessie’s Flirtations,” and “S. S.
Philosophy,” by Harriot F. Curtis; “Domestic Sketches” by Abby A.
Goddard, and “Shells from the Strand of the Sea of Genius” by
Harriet Farley.
Not many of the lesser lights continued to write after their
contributions were no longer in demand for The Offering. But there
were a few who had written for the pure love of it, and who, in spite
of their other duties, and a restricted life, still clung “to the dreams of
their youth,” and kept up the writing habit, even beyond the verge of
the allotted threescore years and ten.
There is hardly a complete set of The Lowell Offering in
existence. I have Miss Larcom’s copies, which, added to my own,
the result of many years of collecting, in the shape of gifts, make as
complete a set as I have been able to find. The 1847 copy I never
heard of outside my own collection. Mr. L. L. Libbie of Boston has
nearly a full set, with a rare collection of bibliology relating to the
magazine.
The volumes in the State Library are neither perfect nor
consecutively bound. A set of The Lowell Offering, complete to 1847,
was sent by the mayor of Lowell to the mayor of Paris, “all neatly
bound and lettered.”
There are odd volumes, no doubt, in libraries or in private
collections, but they are not complete enough to give an adequate
idea of the magazine; and unless such a book as this were written,
an historical record of what is now considered a most interesting
phase in the history of early factory labor would not be preserved. I
may add to this, that the Lowell Public Library contains the first five
volumes, which are The Lowell Offering proper. In closing this brief
sketch of The Lowell Offering, it may be well to quote Mr. Thomas’s
letter, written to the Vox Populi, Lowell, in answer to a request for
information with regard to his connection with the magazine.

Dear Sir,—Your letter of December 9th, 1872, solicits me to


furnish, in some detail, the facts, as I now remember them,
respecting the origin and early history of The Lowell Offering, the
writers for it, etc.
It would seem, by your epistle, that you have seen, and perhaps
own, the second and later series of the unique publication, but that
you question whether a copy of the first four numbers is in existence
—indicating, I judge, that you have sought for them in vain.
I am happy to inform you that your apprehension of total loss is
“ruled out” by my possession of two complete sets of those first four
numbers, lacking only the printed cover of Number One. You will not
be surprised that my sons, to whom they belong, are unwilling to part
with these memorials of their father’s brief residence in Lowell; but I
hope that your earnest antiquarian call will awaken a response
among the hidden or forgotten things of some one of your many
readers.
Meanwhile I will endeavor to make a compact statement of what
you desire, with no more of personality than is necessary to an
intelligible narrative.
Number 1 of The Lowell Offering was published in October, 1840.
No. 2 was issued in December following. No. 3 appeared in
February, 1841, and No. 4 in March. Printed by A. Watson, 15
Central Street. Each number consisted of sixteen pages small
quarto, double columns, in small pica solid, and was sold at retail for
six and one-fourth cents. I have forgotten how many copies were
printed. The third and fourth pages of a plain cover were devoted to
advertisements of less than an average of one inch brevier, and in
this way we managed to ‘make both ends meet.’
In No. 2 appeared the following note, the words in brackets being
here inserted in the way of explanation.
“A social meeting, denominated Improvement Circle, was
established in this city about a twelve-month since [by the Rev. A. C.
Thomas, pastor of the Second Universalist Church]. At the sessions
of this Circle, which have been holden one evening in a fortnight,
communications (previously received by the gentleman in charge)
have been read, the names of the writers not being announced. The
largest range of subject has been allowed: fiction and fact, poetry
and prose, science and letters, religion and morals; and in
composition the style has been humorous or otherwise, according to
the various taste or talent of the writers. The reading of these articles
has constituted the sole entertainment of the meetings of the Circle.
The interest thus excited has given a remarkable impulse to the
intellectual energies of our population.
“At a social meeting for divine worship connected with one of our
societies (First Universalist Church, the Rev. T. B. Thayer, pastor),
communications, chiefly of a religious character, have been read,
during several years past. The alternate weekly session of this
Conference was appropriated mainly to communications, and
denominated Improvement Circle, soon after the institution of the
one above mentioned, and the interest has thereby been greatly
increased.
“A selection from the budgets of articles furnished to these
Circles, together with a few communications derived from other
sources, constitutes The Lowell Offering, whereof the two gentlemen
in charge of the meetings aforesaid are the editors.
“We have been thus particular, partly to gratify the curiosity of our
readers, and partly to call attention to the advantage of such social
institutions for improvement in knowledge, and in the art of
composition. The meetings being free to all who are disposed to
attend, they may be likened to so many intellectual banquets, the
writers furnishing the feast of reason, while all present participate in
the flow of soul.”
Confessedly there was little novelty in the organization and
conduct of these Circles, excepting perhaps that the leaders took
special pains in private interviews, and by informal hints and
criticisms at the gatherings, to awaken and foster a desire for
improvement. But the honorable presentation to the world, in print, of
a class of people usually considered ignorant and degraded, was
certainly a new thing under the sun.
In the number of The Offering for November, 1842, which was
after my removal from New England, Miss Harriet Farley, who was
then in editorial charge, published her personal knowledge of the
origin, etc., as follows:—
“The gentlemen were at liberty to contribute to the Circle, but they
were of no great assistance. Those who were not engaged in the
mills were also contributors, but it was soon found that the principal
interest of the meetings depended upon the factory-girls.
... “There were at length so many articles of a promiscuous
character, that it was thought they might form a pleasing variety in a
little book.... To tell the truth, we did not really believe that it would
ever come into being. We did not believe our articles would do to
print—that they were good enough to be put in a book. But there was
one who thought otherwise.... Then a periodical was spoken of, and
it was even suggested that we should edit it. We the editor! The idea
was very awful. We should as soon have thought of building a
meeting-house! We shrank so sensitively from the proposal that it
was not urged, and the projector of the work became its editor.
“We shall never forget our throb of pleasure when we first saw
The Lowell Offering in a tangible form, with its bright yellow cover,
nor our flutterings of delight as we perused its pages. True, we had
seen or heard the articles before, but they seemed so much better in
print! They appeared to be as good as anybody’s writings. They
sounded as if written by people who never worked at all.
“The Offering was well received by the public, or at least would
have been if people had not been so confused and perplexed and
mystified and unbelieving.
“The first number was an experiment, and a successful one. The
second, third, and fourth appeared at irregular intervals; and then it
was thought best that it should be permanently established. Hitherto
it had been sold singly, or given away, and there had been no
subscription list. With the fifth number commenced a new series,
different in form and materially improved in outward appearance.”
The new series was a monthly of thirty-two pages, large octavo, in
long primer, leaded, with embellishments of wood engravings, chiefly
of churches in Lowell, also pages of music, the whole put up in neat
printed covers.
Communications much amended in the process of training the
writers were rigidly excluded from print, and such articles only were
published as had been written by females employed in the mills. One
article only was afterwards challenged as a plagiarism. A few of the
contributions from the first needed only the usual corrections to fit
them for the press; the contributors, besides possessing rare native
talent, having had the advantages of a New England common-school
education.
Mostly the writers chose to appear anonymously, not subscribing
even their initials; and I am not at liberty to reveal their names, even
if I could remember and designate them all. I have, however, already
mentioned Miss Harriet Farley, and may add that she was a
daughter of the Rev. Stephen Farley, an aged Unitarian clergyman
residing in Amesbury, Mass., a man richer in faith and life than in
dimes and dollars. She left home, and worked steadily in the mills at
Lowell, that she might help a brother through college. I have no
hesitation in naming her as a sample of extraordinary genius. She
greatly enriched the Circle which was in my charge, and was
foremost in every issue of The Offering for several years.
Miss Lydia S. Hall was another contributor whose productions
aided largely in the celebrity of The Offering, especially in the line of
poetry. “The Tomb of Washington,” “Lowell, a parody on
Hohenlinden,” “No,” and a number of other poetical articles of
singular merit, stamped this “Adelaide” as a remarkable writer.
Mrs. Betsey Chamberlain, a widow who worked in the mills for the
support and education of her two children, was a constant Circle
helper, and vitalized many pages of The Offering by humorous
incidents and the wit of sound common sense.
Miss Harriot Curtis, who held a dashing pen, left the mills for a
season to attend to a sick friend in Troy. At the date of her return, the
contents of the second volume of The Offering had already been
made up, whereupon, by my encouragement (suggestion, I believe)
she wrote a novelette entitled “Kate in Search of a Husband,” the
manuscript of which I sold in her behalf to J. Winchester, a New York
publisher, who issued large editions of it. A year or two later she was
associated with Miss Farley as editor and proprietor of The Offering.
Several “Chapters on the National Sciences” were written by a
factory-girl (Eliza J. Cate) in Manchester, N. H. She afterwards wrote
“Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” also “Rural Life in New
England,” both of which I sold to Winchester in her behalf.
Miss Harriet Lees, S. G. B., E. E. T., H. J., A. B., and many others,
are pleasantly in my memory as cordial aids; these memoranda, as
you will perceive, reaching beyond the first four numbers, concerning
which you make special inquiry.
On the second page of the cover of Number 4, issued March 4,
1841, an endeavor to establish The Offering permanently was
announced. “Be the number large or small who are disposed to
patronize the undertaking, we have concluded to hazard the
experiment for one year,” the labor and responsibility being wholly
my own.
If my ecclesiastical connections had been of the popular order,
there could have been no doubt of success; but I was well known as
a Universalist. Sectarian hostility, in that day, was of a sort which
would not be tolerated now; and I had to combat the falsehood that
The Offering was a Universalist publication.
The Operatives’ Magazine was issued as a rival, or competitor;
and only the superior talent of the contributors to the original work
kept it in the ascendant of repute and circulation. I am happy, too, to
remember that the most influential laymen in the city indorsed my
enterprise, as will appear by the following card:—

Lowell, March 7, 1841.


The undersigned have seen the numbers of The Lowell Offering already issued.
Believing the work calculated to do good, and understanding that it is to be
permanently established by means of a subscription list, we take pleasure in
recommending it to the patronage of the public generally, and to persons
connected with the manufacturing establishment especially.

Elisha Huntington.
Samuel Lawrence.
Elisha Bartlett.
J. W. Warren.
Gilman Kimball.
Robert Means.
B. F. French.
J. C. Dalton.
John W. Graves.
Homer Bartlett.
Charles L. Tilden.
John Aiken.
Alexander Wright.
George Motley.
John Avery.
William Spencer.
William Livingston.
J. W. Scribner.
J. P. Jewett.
Samuel W. Stickney.
Daniel Mowe.
S. D. York.
William Grey.
Moody Currier.
C. Appleton.
John Nesmith.
George Mansfield.
George Brownell.
James G. Carney.
W. O. Bartlett.
A. D. Dearborne.
Hiram Parker.
Nathaniel Thurston.
Eliphalet Case.
J. G. Abbott.
John Clark.

Those of your readers who have memories of the Lowell of thirty


years ago, will observe that the names of all (or nearly all) the
superintendents of the corporations are in this list, and that it
includes a liberal representation of other dignitaries in the city,
excepting only the clergy. One of these is indeed in the record; but
he shortly afterward wished to have his signature cancelled, for the
reason that he had placed it there without due consideration!
Whereupon Mr. Case, who passed the paper around, gave indefinite
time for consideration to all of the rest of the clergy, each having the
benefit of a doubt to begin with. I must not, however, fail to mention
that the Rev. Henry A. Miles, of the Unitarian Church, was
steadfastly a friend of The Offering from first to last.
I have thus endeavored to answer your inquiries, and will add a
few incidents.
In January, 1842, Samuel Lawrence introduced me to Charles
Dickens, who was at that time on a tour of inspection in Lowell. In a
brief interview, I gave him assurance that all the articles in The
Offering were written by the class known as factory-girls. I afterward
sent him a bound copy of the first volume, new series, which he
noticed at some length in “American Notes for General Circulation,”
the following being an extract:—
“They have got up among themselves a periodical called The
Lowell Offering ... whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred
good solid pages, which I have read from beginning to end.... Of the
merits of The Lowell Offering as a literary production, I will only
observe, putting entirely out of sight the fact of the articles having
been written by these girls after the arduous labors of the day, that it
will compare advantageously with a great many English annuals.”
A volume entitled “Mind among the Spindles,” being a selection
from The Offering, was published in England under the auspices, I
believe, of Harriet Martineau. She, at all events, was the prompter of
a fine review in The London Athenæum. This was early in 1843. The
compliment was acknowledged by the present of an elegantly bound
copy of the first and second volumes of the new series, with the
inscription:—

“HARRIET MARTINEAU,
FROM

Harriet Farley, Harriot Curtis, and Harriet Lees.”

The distinguished authoress said in reply: “It is welcome as a


token of kindness and for its own value, and above all as a proof of
sympathy between you and me, in regard to that great subject, the
true honor and interests of our sex.” She might truly have claimed, in
addition, not only that The Offering was the first work written entirely
by factory-girls, but the first magazine or journal written exclusively
by women, in all the world.
My administration as editor and publisher ceased with the close of
the second volume, the numbers of which, as ‘copy’ was abundant,
having been pushed to completion in advance of regular monthly
issues.
And now, after the lapse of more than thirty years of varied
experience, I send salutations of grace, mercy, and peace to all,
being yet in the flesh, who wished well to that undertaking, and
helped it, while I here record happy memories of the friends who
have passed behind the veil.
Truly yours,
Abel C. Thomas.
Tacony, Philad., Dec. 29th, 1872.

Although the magazine under its women editors was a continued


success, still, to Mr. Thomas, as its projector and first editor, must be
given the credit of bringing before the public these productions; and
too much honor cannot be awarded to him for believing in the
capabilities of the young people under his charge, and for utilizing
the talent which he found. But for his Improvement Circle The Lowell
Offering might never have been heard of; and its writers, if this
impetus had not been given to their talents, would never have
thought themselves capable of any success in this direction. To
improve and cultivate the mind was the injunction urged by this good
man upon the working men and women of his time.
The fact that Mr. Thomas was the grandson of a noted Quaker
preacher (Abel Thomas) probably accounts for his inheritance of the
idea, first promulgated in this country by that sect, that women have
the right and the ability to express their thoughts, both in speaking
and in writing; and he found in Lowell a good field for the application
of this principle.
Although a Universalist minister, he was very fond of the Quaker
manner of speech, and used the “thee” and “thou” to the end of his
life. He was an eloquent and convincing preacher, and consecrated
his whole life to the work of disseminating the doctrines of his
denomination. He married the daughter of Judge Strange Palmer, of
Pottsville, Penn., and M. Louise Thomas is well known as taking a
prominent part in many social and philanthropic reforms; it is to her
that I am indebted for the privilege of quoting her husband’s letter.
Mr. Thomas died Sept. 28, 1880; but he had lived to rejoice in the
result of his enterprise, though he had little thought, perhaps, of what
would be the outcome of his efforts to encourage the young people
of his church and community. He was a model publisher, since, as
two at least of his writers testify, he shared the pecuniary profits of
his magazine with its contributors.
CHAPTER VIII.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF SOME OF THE


WRITERS FOR THE LOWELL OFFERING.

It remains for me to give, so far as I have been able to glean


them, the life-stories of a few of the most important of these mill-girl
writers, some of them brief indeed, others perhaps of wider
significance, but all telling a tale of honest toil and earnest aspiration.
I begin with Miss Curtis, as senior editor of the magazine.

HARRIOT F. CURTIS,

Editor of the Lowell Offering.

Among all the writers, Miss Curtis stands out as the pioneer and
reformatory spirit. She was fearless in her convictions; she wrote in
advocacy of the anti-slavery cause when the real agitation had
hardly begun, and in behalf of woman’s right to “equal pay for equal
labor,” five years before the first woman suffrage convention was
held in this country.
She organized the first known woman’s club, and was one of the
four women editors of her time. She was the novelist par excellence
of The Offering, and had a bold and dashing pen that would have
made her fortune in these days of women reporters and interviewers.
But she was so startlingly original in her speech and in her writings,
that it “made talk,” as Samantha Allen says, so different was she
from the established idea of what a “female” should be.
But she was self-centred, and bore with Christian philosophy as
well as with pagan silence and stoicism, “the slings and arrows” of
those who could not understand her brave and courageous nature.
Her mind was intensely masculine; but her life had all the
limitations by which the women of her time were bound, and these
prevented her from doing the work for which she was best fitted, and
from leading that life of freedom from care which is so necessary to
the best literary work.
Through her grandmother, Abigail Stratton (Curtis), Harriot could
claim direct descent from Miles Standish.
She was born Sept. 16, 1813, in Kellyvale (now Lowell), Vt., a
little post hamlet on the Missisquoi River, completely surrounded by
mountain peaks. The lonely and isolated life she was obliged to lead
was very distasteful to her, and she early made up her mind to leave
her home and seek more congenial surroundings elsewhere. Her
father’s means were limited; and after exhausting what education
could be obtained in the narrow circle in which she lived, she
determined to go to Lowell to work in the factory, and thus earn the
money necessary for a year’s study at some private school or
academy.
Previous to her connection with The Offering, Miss Curtis wrote
many tales and sketches, and also “Kate in Search of a Husband,”
one of the first of the “popular novels” in this country. Her novel, “The
Smugglers,” was begun in The Offering of November, 1843.
Her connection with The Offering lasted three years; and during
the last two, besides contributing and editing, she also assumed that
part of the business management which necessitated her travelling
and canvassing for subscribers; in fact, as she said, she was “the
travelling-agent for the firm, and went roaming about the country in
search of patrons.”
By this means, she not only helped to place the magazine on a
paying basis, but made the acquaintance of many distinguished

You might also like