Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

4-29-1970

Abstract

Seventy-two is (half males, half females) from each of four lower-class cultural groups, i.e., Anglo, Black, Spanish-American, and Navaho, were randomly assig ed to four reward conditions: money, candy, personal-praise, and performance-directed-praise. Each S was given a 10-minute marble dropping task, in which the third minute was designated as the baseline. D ring minutes four through ten, two response measures were derived for each S: rate of response, and a reinforcer effectiveness score. Data on both of these measures were subjected to an analysis of variance. One female graduate student in psychology tested all of the Ss. The following hypothesis was examined: There would be significant differences between the reinforcer effectiveness of money, candy, personal praise, and praise that is directed to the i's performance for lower-class pre-school Anglo, Navaho, Spanish-American, and Black children. Reinforcers would be effective for Anglo and Spanish-American children in the following order: money, candy, with no difference between the two praise conditions. Reinforcers would be effective for Black and Navaho children in the following order: personal and performance praise: would be equally effective, followed by candy, then money. Data on the Navaho population were excluded because it was deemed invalid; most of the Ss could not follow the directions.

The predicted Culture x Reward interaction was not statistically significant. It appeared, therefore, that lower-class membership rather than, cultural or racial factors influenced the unanimous response to1 the material reward conditions. The Reward condition on both response measures was significant (Rate of Response < .01, Reinforcer Effectiveness Score< .05). The Duncan Multiple Range Test for significance of difference between means indicated that candy differed significantly from the other three reward conditions at the .01 level. At the .05 level, the greatest difference was between candy and performance praise. A Reward Condition x Sex interaction also obtained (< .05) with the interesting phenomena of male Ss responding more to the two praise conditions than did the female Ss.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

John Thomas Zepper

Second Committee Member

Louis Elliot Price

Third Committee Member

James Clark Moore

Fourth Committee Member

James Gordon Cooper

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