"Controlling teaching strategies: Undermining children's self-determination and performance": Correction to Flink et al.

Reports an error in "Controlling teaching strategies: Undermining children's self-determination and performance" by Cheryl Flink, Ann K. Boggiano and Marty Barrett (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1990[Nov], Vol 59[5], 916-924). In the article, Figure 1 on page 922 is labeled incorrectly. The labels in both the left and right panels of the figure should be reversed so that No Pressure Condition is the label for the broken lines and Pressure Condition is the label for the solid lines. The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1991-13808-001.) Examined the hypothesis that students would show performance impairment when they were exposed to teachers who were pressured to maximize student performance level and who used controlling strategies. For this purpose, 4th-grade teachers and their students participated in a field experiment in which teachers either were pressured to maximize student performance or were told simply to help their students learn. In addition, the teaching sessions were videotaped to assess teachers' use of controlling strategies, as rated by blind coders. Following the teaching sessions, student performance on tasks initially taught by teachers as well as on a generalization task was assessed by blind experimenters. As predicted, the data indicated that students evidenced performance impairment during the subsequent testing session only when they were exposed to pressured teachers using controlling strategies. Results are discussed within the context of self-determination theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison between young children in achievement situations.

Examined the development of children's motivations to socially compare in a situation in which they were free to seek or not seek information about how another child was doing. 16 males and 16 females each at the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade levels were recruited through the newspaper and paid to participate. Pairs of Ss in the same grade worked on a speed task under high- and low-competition conditions. The frequency and duration with which Ss pushed a button to observe their partner's progress on a monitor was the index of the strength of motivation. Results show the expected developmental increase in comparison behavior. Only in 2nd graders did the expected positive relationship between level of competition and performance appear. At the kindergarten level, the means were in the opposite direction, while for the 1st-grade level the relation between competition and performance depended on sex. Results are discussed in terms of alternative predictions derived from theories by L. Festinger (1954) and J. Veroff (1969). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maladaptive achievement patterns: A test of a diathesis–stress analysis of helplessness.

The present study tested the assumptions, derived from a diathesis–stress model, that students' perceptions of autonomy–support in their classroom produce a relatively intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic motivational approach to academic tasks and that this approach, in turn, predicts qualitatively different responses to uncontrollable events. It was further assumed that students' motivational orientation would be more reliable than attributional style or perceptions of competence in predicting achievement patterns, including performance level after failure, use of adaptive attributions, and overall achievement scores. Results supported these predictions and further demonstrated, in longitudinal analyses, that motivational orientation may contribute to the formation of perceptions of competence and attributional style in students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competence and the overjustification effect: A developmental study.

Examined the conditions under which information regarding competence would mitigate the negative side effects of rewards on the intrinsic interest of preschool and middle elementary school children. 144 nursery school and 3rd–5th graders engaging in a task of high initial interest anticipated a reward made contingent either upon meeting a standard based on absolute performance level or upon task engagement alone, or they were not rewarded. In addition, Ss were provided with direct information concerning competence presented in terms of social comparison. Results indicate that the preschool children were primarily affected by information about meeting the absolute standard but not the social comparison information. That is, the overjustification effect did not occur when attaining a reward was made contingent on meeting an absolute standard of performance. Social comparison information superseded the effect of the contingency of the reward on subsequent interest in the target task for the older children. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of the maximal-operant principle to motivate children's intrinsic interest.

The present research examined the hypothesis that in contrast to theory and research indicating that tangible reward decreases subsequent interest in enjoyable academic activities, rewards are perceived by adults as effective techniques to maximize long- and short-term subsequent interest for academic tasks of both high and low initial interest level. The results of our first three studies demonstrated that college students and parents view tangible reward as more effective than other less controlling techniques to enhance intrinsic motivation and value rewards more for intrinsically interesting academic behaviors in comparison with others (e.g., prosocial behaviors). Our fourth study supported the hypothesis that adults do not subscribe to the minimal-sufficiency analysis of increasing intrinsic motivation but prefer a maximal-operant principle in which the likelihood of producing long-term interest in academic tasks is assumed to vary positively with the size of a reward. Our fifth and sixth studies investigated illusory correlation as one mechanism that may perpetuate beliefs about the assumed positive relation between tangible reward and intrinsic interest in academic tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maladaptive achievement patterns: a test of a diathesis-stress analysis of helplessness

The present study tested the assumptions, derived from a diathesis-stress model, that students' perceptions of autonomy-support in their classroom produce a relatively intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic motivational approach to academic tasks and that this approach, in turn, predicts qualitatively different responses to uncontrollable events. It was further assumed that students' motivational orientation would be more reliable than attributional style or perceptions of competence in predicting achievement patterns, including performance level after failure, use of adaptive attributions, and overall achievement scores. Results supported these predictions and further demonstrated, in longitudinal analyses, that motivational orientation may contribute to the formation of perceptions of competence and attributional style in students.     

Combined dieting and stress evoke exaggerated responses to opioids in binge-eating rats.

The authors developed an animal model of binge eating where history of caloric restriction with footshock stress (R + S) causes rats to consume twice the normal amount of palatable food. The authors tested the hypothesis that binge eating is mediated by changes in opioid control of feeding by comparing rats' anorectic and orexigenic responses to naloxone and butorphanol, respectively, and by testing the ability of butorphanol to elicit binge eating of chow when palatable food was absent. Mu/kappa opioid-receptor blockade and activation had exaggerated responses in the R + S rats with naloxone suppressing binge eating to control levels, and although butorphanol did not trigger chow binge eating, it enhanced binge eating of palatable food. These responses in sated normal-weight rats strengthen evidence that reward, over metabolic need, drives binge eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental analysis of the role of social comparison in self-evaluation.

The use of social comparison information for self-evaluation may be viewed as a major developmental step in children's growing understanding of their competencies and limitations. The 2 studies presented here suggested that children's achievement-related self-evaluations are little affected by relative comparisons until surprisingly late—that is, not earlier than 7–8 yrs of age. In Study 1, 104 1st and 2nd graders performed a task with 3 coacting peers; only the 2nd graders made any use at all of the social comparison information in their evaluative judgments. In Study 2 an attempt was made to maximize the potential for using comparative information by providing a strong incentive to engage in social comparsion of abilities in a situation in which objective information about a success/failure outcome was unavailable. The 90 kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th graders played a game with peers and made competence-related self-evaluations and decisions about future performance. Only the judgments of the 4th graders were consistently affected by the social comparison information. Previous research on the development of social comparison and possible explanations for the developmental trends observed are discussed. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations: Reward-induced changes in preference for complexity.

Intrinsic motivational orientations are characterized by preference for activities that are relatively complex, challenging, and entertaining. Extrinsic motivational orientations are characterized by preference for activities that are relatively simple, predictable, and easily completed. The introduction of task-contingent reward fosters an extrinsic motivational orientation, and this orientation may carry over into subsequent unrewarded interactions with the activity. To test this analysis, 30 2nd graders in Study 1 played with a novel game of intermediate complexity in 1 of 3 conditions: no reward, task-noncontingent reward, or task-contingent reward. In a subsequent free-choice period, simple, intermediate, and complex versions of the game, as well as several other activities, were available. As predicted, contingent-reward Ss showed the strongest preference for the simple versions of the game, while no-reward Ss tended to prefer the intermediate version. Task-noncontingent-reward Ss showed a strong preference for the most complex version of the game. In Study 2 with 54 4th graders, the effects of reward on simple and intermediate-complexity tasks were replicated. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)