Examined the relation between 72 mothers' attitudes and practices regarding the use of rewards and their second- through fifth-grade children's susceptibility to the undermining effects of rewards. It was suggested that children's responses to rewards depend in part on their experiences with rewards. (RJC)

Tests the hypothesis that strong approval motivation is developmentally lower than weaker approval motivation, since the high-approval-motivated individual is more dependent on the external world than on internal cues and norms. (Author/ED)

Social learning theory assertions of a relationship between self-esteem status and rates of self-reinforcement were examined under differing conditions of task ambiguity in a sample of seventh-grade males and females (N=90). (Editor)

Results reflect primarily a higher number of instructional contacts to girls rather than a tendency of teachers to be more reinforcing to them. (Authors)

Reinforcement conditions of approval, disapproval, or silence were used during a discrimination task assigned to 96 boys and 96 girls. Children receiving criticism responded at slower rates and made more errors than children receiving praise or silence. Retention was measured after 8 days. Results suggest that disapproval negatively affects both…

Studied the attraction responses of child athletes to coaches who differed in their behavior patterns during the season. Children with low self-esteem responded positively to coaches with high self-esteem and negatively to coaches with low self-esteem on the instructiveness and supportiveness dimensions. Moderate- and high-self-esteem children…

Examined sex differences in the play preferences of 2-year-old nursery school children and determined whether teachers of this age group reinforce female sex-typed behaviors as do teachers of older preschoolers. (SDH)

This paper (a) describes the rationale and development of the Stephens-Delys Reinforcement Contingency Interview method for assessing locus of control expectancies in children as young as preschool age and (b) summarizes results of subsequent studies bearing on reliability, validity, and problems of the method. (Author/RK)

A four choice discrimination problem was used to examine imitative behavior in children matched in mental age but differing in chronological age. The finding that older children imitated less than younger children is discussed in terms of socialization. (DP)

Major findings of this study are that (a) there is an increasing tendency, with increasing age, to make differential use of different communication channels according to the aspect of meaning considered, and (b) the relative importance of intonation to perceptions of affective meaning increases with age. (Authors)

The effects of rate of stimulus presentation and reinforcement conditions on the two-choice discrimination learning performance of MA matched normal and familial retarded children were examined. (Authors)

The hypothesis tested was that the evaluations and affective responses which accompany ongoing behavior may operate as reinforcers and punishers, thus exercising control over the persistence of those behaviors. Results indicate potent systematic effects due to the differing content of such evaluations and the associated affect or affective tone.…

The comparative effectiveness of an aversive stimulus, withholding of resources, withdrawal of love, and reasoning, when used alone and when combined with praise, was assessed in a standard laboratory punishment paradigm with first and second grade children. (CS)