Mother-child pairs in a small Mexican town and in Los Angeles, California, were observed in two experimental situations in which the mother either controlled the rewards given to the child for success or failure, or selected achievement goals for the child. The children from Mexico were found much less competitive, less rivalrous, and more…

The results of four experiments comparing the behavior of children from two settings are reported in this article. (Authors)

An experimental task with accompanying apparatus was developed for use in the study of developmental and cultural differences in the cooperative-competitive behavior of children in a small Mexican town and in California. Two groups of 20 Mexican children (aged 7-8 and 10-11), from an elementary school in a town in Baja, California, Mexico, were…

In this experiment designed to trace the development of rivalry in Anglo American and rural Mexican children, rivalry (behavior intended to lower the outcomes of a peer) was measured by 4 choice conditions wherein the rivalrous alternative in all conditions was the choice that left fewer rewards (marbles) to the chooser's peer. After all choices…

Four experiments comparing behavior of children from Los Angeles, California, and Nuevo San Vicente, Baja California, Mexico, were conducted to analyze cooperative and competitive behavior of Anglo American city and Mexican rural children. Eighty children from each setting, 40 of age 7-9 and 40 of age 10-11, equally divided by sex, served as…

The degree to which children of 2 age groups and different subcultures differ in the amount of cooperative and competitive behavior they exhibit is explored. A game measuring cooperation and competition was played with pairs of Anglo Americans and Mexican Americans who were 4-5 years of age and with Anglo Americans, Mexican Americans, and Mexicans…