Classroom teaching has many challenges, and these are compounded when you're also preparing students to navigate the world in a way that is healthy and forward-looking. But what if you could take a few minutes every day to not only help your students develop social-emotional skills, but also take stock, recenter, and reset yourself? This engaging…

Study results indicate that overly powerful extrinsic rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation and suggest that there is a need to control unnecessarily powerful reward systems. (Author/DW)

Discusses meaningful rewards for positive behavior and meaningful punishments for negative behavior. (GB)

Two studies involving college students examined mechanisms responsible for observed self-reinforcement effects. Results seemed to support the view that self-reinforcement procedures work by setting a socially available standard against which performance can be evaluated. (CL)

This manual is designed to introduce college and secondary students to individualized instruction. It includes an overview of the advantages of individualized instruction, a step-by-step description of how to go through an individualized course, and instruction in the self-management of study behavior. (Author/JY)

Research partially supported by grant MH-13470-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Two studies were conducted to clarify the role of different minimum performance standards for contingent tangible reinforcement or self-dispensed evaluative reinforcement (in the absence of tangible rewards) in determining the rate and accuracy of learning. Preschool children were presented with a discrimination learning task. Their performance…

The rate of achievement and enjoyment of 12 learning disabled pupils (ages 8-12 years) in a token economy was demonstrated to be higher when they were permitted to select their own reinforcers than when the teacher selected the reinforcers. (MH)

Assesses a self-reward contracting procedure intended to facilitate completion of self-administered desensitization. Self-referred snake phobics received either (a) self-administered desensitization; (b) self-administered desensitization with self-reward contracting; or (c) a self-administered placebo with self-reward contracting. Results show the…

A significant increase in correctly completed steps of the targeted behavior was noted for the independence-training group. (Author/DLS)

Three teenagers with autism, who relied on verbal prompts from the teacher to switch activities, were trained to independently identify transition times and to contingently self-reinforce the verbal identification of transition times. Accurate identification of transition time and self-reinforcement were maintained at one-month follow-up.…

A study assessed the relationship of the independent variables of interpersonal attraction to the dependent variables of feeling good, relational safety, and uncertainty level. Subjects were 75 elementary and secondary school teachers, 61 communication students, 18 child development professionals, and 8 service club members. Each subject completed…

Fifth-grade students classified as high or low in self-concept were paired in an achievement-related task in which one succeeded and one failed. High self-concept children attributed success more to their high ability and engaged in more positive self-reinforcement than did low self-concept children. Results were discussed within an attribution…

The study found that concordance between a rule and a recent model's behavior was most effective in leading to acceptance of the rule, despite a tendency for the subject's to adopt lenient self-reinforcement criteria when given an opportunity to do so. (JB)