The development of procedures for identifying competitive behavior in children

This study identified events in the competitive process that could be employed to discriminate between competition and individual, non-social behaviors. When children competed they overtly sought out information on how they were doing vis-à-vis their fellow competitor. In addition, their performance was a function of some competitive contingency: a reward for surpassing another. The procedures developed in this study were designed to manipulate competitive contingencies while observing their effects on task performance and social comparisons. The investigator could thus infer that competition was present when (1) subjects sought out information on how they were doing, as well as how another was doing on comparable tasks during competitive contingencies, and (2) their task performance was a function of the competitive contingency.