An Analysis of Group-Oriented Contingencies and Associated Side Effects in Preschool Children

Group-oriented contingencies are arranged to target the behavior of a group of people simultaneously. Overall, group-oriented contingencies have been shown to be effective in both decreasing problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior. However, results are mixed regarding which type(s) of group-oriented contingency is most effective for changing behavior. In addition, although there are anecdotal reports of positive and negative side effects when using group-oriented contingencies, little research has involved direct measurement of these potential side effects. The purposes of the current study were to (a) compare the effects of three types of group-oriented contingencies for increasing on-task behavior and decreasing problem behavior, (b) determine whether implementing a group-oriented contingency for one behavior resulted in changes in a non-targeted behavior, and (c) determine how often and under what conditions side effects occurred within group-oriented contingencies conditions for two groups of preschool children. The results of the study were mixed. The results suggested that group-oriented contingencies were effective in decreasing problem behavior and increasing on-task behavior, but varied across groups as to which contingencies were the most effective at changing both behaviors. Secondary data suggested that side effects were associated with group-oriented contingencies, as well as the occurrence of problem behavior and reinforcer delivery.     

Cooperative Learning Contingencies: Unrelated versus Related Individual and Group Contingencies

College students operating under related cooperative contingencies (students had to earn individual credit before being considered for group credit) showed more consistent individual and group improvement on exam performance than students operating under unrelated contingencies (individual credit and group credit were independently determined). A balanced ratio between individual and group credit proved to be the most productive ratio under the related contingency, whereas a ratio favoring group credit over individual credit proved most productive under the unrelated contingency. In general, a ratio favoring individual credit over group credit was the least productive in promoting both individual and group improvement under both unrelated and related contingencies. The findings showed less difference in improvement of exam scores for students of different performance levels than had been evident in previous research.     

Contingencies of Self-Worth

Abstract— We argue that the importance of self-esteem lies in what people believe they need to be or do to have worth as a person. These contingencies of self-worth are both sources of motivation and areas of psychological vulnerability. In domains of contingent self-worth, people pursue self-esteem by attempting to validate their abilities and qualities. This pursuit of self-esteem, we argue, has costs to learning, relationships, autonomy, self-regulation, and mental and physical health. We suggest alternatives to this costly pursuit of self-esteem.     

Contingencies of self-worth

Research on self-esteem has focused almost exclusively on level of trait self-esteem to the neglect of other potentially more important aspects such as the contingencies on which self-esteem is based. Over a century ago, W. James (1890) argued that self-esteem rises and falls around its typical level in response to successes and failures in domains on which one has staked self-worth. We present a model of global self-esteem that builds on James' insights and emphasizes contingencies of self-worth. This model can help to (a) point the way to understanding how self-esteem is implicated in affect, cognition, and self-regulation of behavior; (b) suggest how and when self-esteem is implicated in social problems; (c) resolve debates about the nature and functioning of self-esteem; (d) resolve paradoxes in related literatures, such as why people who are stigmatized do not necessarily have low self-esteem and why self-esteem does not decline with age; and (e) suggest how self-esteem is causally related to depression. In addition, this perspective raises questions about how contingencies of self-worth are acquired and how they change, whether they are primarily a resource or a vulnerability, and whether some people have noncontingent self-esteem.     

Contingencies of self-worth: Progress and prospects

Over a century ago, William James (1890) proposed that the impact of success and failure on self-esteem depends on the domains in which self-esteem is invested. In this chapter, we review a relatively new programme of research that aims to (a) develop and validate a measure of this construct, (b) develop the implications of James's idea for psychological vulnerability and self-regulation, and (c) examine the consequences of investing self-esteem in particular domains for goal pursuit, and the costs and benefits of goal pursuit that is driven by contingencies of self-worth.     

Contingencies promote delay tolerance

The effectiveness of functional communication training as treatment for problem behavior depends on the extent to which treatment can be extended to typical environments that include unavoidable and unpredictable reinforcement delays. Time‐based progressive delay (TBPD) often results in the loss of acquired communication responses and the resurgence of problem behavior, whereas contingency‐based progressive delay (CBPD) appears to be effective for increasing tolerance for delayed reinforcement. No direct comparison of TBPD and CBPD has, however, been conducted. We used single‐subject designs to compare the relative efficacy of TBPD and CBPD. Four individuals who engaged in problem behavior (e.g., aggression, vocal and motor disruptions, self‐injury) participated. Results were consistent across all participants, and showed lower rates of problem behavior and collateral responses during CBPD than during TBPD. The generality of CBPD treatment effects, including optimal rates of communication and compliance with demands, was demonstrated across a small but heterogeneous group of participants, reinforcement contingencies, and contexts.     

Cultural Differences in Targets of Stigmatization Between Individual- and Group-Oriented Cultures

This research investigated cultural differences in stigmatization of out-groups representing Goffman's distinction between “tribal stigma” and “blemishes of character.” We hypothesized that “group-oriented” (vs. individual-oriented) cultures would be more likely to stigmatize nonnormative groups, including tribal out-groups (people of a different race, immigrants/foreign workers) and out-groups with blemishes of character (homosexuals, heavy drinkers, drug addicts), because of higher value of behavioral conformity and/or lower value of uniqueness. Country-level analyses with nine individual-oriented and four group-oriented countries supported our hypotheses and revealed that the cultural value of uniqueness played a more influential role than behavioral conformity. We discuss implications and directions for future research.     

Independent and Interdependent Group Contingencies

Abstract

Independent and interdependent group contingencies have many applied advantages for influencing behaviors in school settings, However, there are negative side effects associated with these group oriented contingencies. A scenario is presented that illustrates some negative side effects of independent and interdependent group oriented contingencies. Specific recommendations for altering group oriented contingencies to reduce these negative side effects and increase the probability that teachers will use these contingencies to increase students' academic performance and prosocial behaviors follows the scenario.     

Contingencies, logic, and learning

A logical analysis of operant learning is presented. In total, the analysis makes a number of predictions that are different from the predictions of any other theory. Individual predictions can be explained by other theories, but the pattern of predictions is unique. Some tests of the predictions of the analysis with human newborns are described. The analysis predicts increased variance in sucking with the introduction of continuous reinforcement. This does occur. The analysis predicts a decreased rate of sucking with a shift from continuous to partial reinforcement. This does occur. The analysis predicts an increased rate of sucking with a shift from continuous reinforcement to continuous plus noncontingent reinforcement. Due to methodological deficiencies, we have been unable to test this prediction. However, it has been confirmed by others. The most exciting prediction of the analysis is a rapid way of producing extinction. That has not been tested with newborns; however, there is confirmatory evidence in the literature.     

Human Performance Under Progressive Ratio Contingencies

The Psychological Record - Ten human subjects experienced a progressive ratio schedule under three different reinforcement conditions; (a) 20-point increments on a computer screen for each ratio...     

Contingencies of self-worth and social-networking-site behavior

Social-networking sites like Facebook enable people to share a range of personal information with expansive groups of "friends." With the growing popularity of media sharing online, many questions remain regarding antecedent conditions for this behavior. Contingencies of self-worth afford a more nuanced approach to variable traits that affect self-esteem, and may help explain online behavior. A total of 311 participants completed an online survey measuring such contingencies and typical behaviors on Facebook. First, exploratory factor analyses revealed an underlying structure to the seven dimensions of self-worth. Public-based contingencies explained online photo sharing (β?=?0.158, p?相似文献   

Contingencies of self-worth in college students: theory and measurement

The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale assesses 7 sources of self-esteem in college students: academics, appearance, approval from others, competition, family support, God's love, and virtue. In confirmatory factor analyses on data from 1,418 college students, a 7-factor model fit to the data acceptably well and significantly better than several plausible alternative models. The subscales all have high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, are distinct from other personality measures, and have a simplex structure arrayed on a continuum from external to internal sources of self-esteem. Contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college predicted how students spent their time during their 1st year of college.     

Contingencies of Superstition: Self-Generated Rules and Responding During Second-Order Response-Independent Schedules

The Psychological Record - Experimental conditions explored the development of fallacious rules and assessed the rates and durations of superstitious responding by children under the influence of...     

Self-esteem and the Dual Processing of Interpersonal Contingencies

Social cognitive research has shown that individuals with low self-esteem exhibit contingency expectations involving interpersonal acceptance and rejection (e.g., If I fail, then I will be rejected). We examined whether the processing differences between low and high self-esteem individuals would be evident in their most spontaneous reactions, or only in relatively deliberate responses. A lexical decision task measured people's reaction times to positive or negative interpersonal words, following success or failure primes. The stimulus onset asynchrony was manipulated to allow spontaneous or deliberate processing. Individuals with low self-esteem exhibited contingencies at the spontaneous level. These contingencies were not evident in individuals with high self-esteem. The findings support interpersonal models of self-esteem, and confirm that controlled, deliberate thought is not required for the activation of relational expectations.     

Contingencies of reinforcement in a five-person prisoner's dilemma

As in studies of self-control, a tit-for-tat contingency in an iterated prisoner's dilemma game creates a conflict between maximization of local and global reinforcement. The present experiments examine this conflict in a multiplayer prisoner's dilemma game. Versus tit for tat, cooperation corresponds to self-control; defection, always immediately reinforced, corresponds to impulsiveness. Three experiments examined sensitivity of behavior to the global reinforcement contingency imposed by tit for tat. Undergraduates played a five-player prisoner's dilemma game against four dummy players programmed to play tit for tat or randomly. With tit for tat, a player's cooperation (or defection) increased dummy players' cooperation (or defection) on subsequent trials-reinforcing cooperation and punishing defection in the long run. Participants cooperated at a higher rate when the dummy players played tit for tat than when the dummy players played randomly. These results are consistent with findings in corresponding studies of self-control. Some participants, caught in a trap of mutual defection with the tit-for-tat playing dummy players, came to cooperate when the tit-for-tat contingency was reset ("forgiving" participants' previous defections) during a pause in the game. This increase was a result of the combined effects of a pause and reset; neither pausing nor resetting independently resulted in an increase in cooperation.     

Dimensions of Perfectionism and Self-worth Contingencies in Depression

The current study investigated the role of contingent self-worth in perfectionism and depression. It was hypothesized that perfectionism is associated with depression because perfectionists base their self-worth on being successful and on the need to be actively working toward their goals. A sample of 170 female university students completed measures of conditional self-worth, perfectionism traits, perfectionism cognitions, and depressive symptoms. Structural equation modeling revealed that a factor interpreted as Evaluative Concerns Perfectionism was associated strongly with contingent self-worth, which was, in turn, related to depressive symptomatology. In addition, contingent self-worth mediated the association between perfectionism cognitions and depression. Other analyses revealed that measures of self-oriented perfectionism that are often viewed as highly similar actually differed in terms of their associations with contingent self-worth. The theoretical and practical implications of the associations between perfectionism and contingent self-worth are discussed.     

Human Eyeblink Classical Conditioning: Effects of Manipulating Awareness of the Stimulus Contingencies

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an intrusive and debilitating condition in which the individual experiences uncontrollable thoughts, compulsions, and urges. Successful treatments for OCD are based on Mowrer's theory of fear and avoidance behavior, which predicts that OCD subjects should show accelerated associative conditioning. This prediction was tested in two experiments that com-pared the classical eyeblink conditioning of OCD-like and control college students. OCD and control subjects learned normally and similarly when the conditioning procedure was accompanied by an active visual search background task (Experiment 1). However, when the background task was changed so that subjects passively viewed neutral pictures, OCD subjects conditioned significantly faster than control subjects (Experiment 2). Overall, the performance of all subjects in Experiment 1 was superior to the performance of subjects in Experiemnt 2.     

Contingencies and metacontingencies: Toward a synthesis of behavior analysis and cultural materialism

A synthesis of cultural materialism and behavior analysis might increase the scientific and technological value of both fields. Conceptual and substantive relations between the two fields show important similarities, particularly with regard to the causal role of the environment in behavioral and cultural evolution. Key concepts in Marvin Harris's cultural materialist theories are outlined. A distinction is made between contingencies at the behavioral level of analysis (contingencies of reinforcement) and contingencies at the cultural level of analysis (metacontingencies). Relations between the two kinds of contingencies are explored in cultural practices from paleolithic to industrial sociocultural systems. A synthesis of these two fields may offer the opportunity to resolve serious problems currently facing modern cultures.     

大学生自我价值感领域权变性量表的编制

编制大学生自我价值感领域权变性量表,用3个分量表分别测量基于人际接纳、道德原则或个人目标的自我价值感权变性。对心理测量学特征的分析表明,量表具有较好的信度和结构效度,适合施测于中国的大学生并用来进行不同群体间的比较。同时,对一些在使用量表时应注意的问题提出了建议。