The study assessed whether 4 students (ages 9-13) with severe autistic disabilities could learn to use a self-management treatment package to reduce stereotypic behavior. Use of the procedures greatly reduced levels of stereotypic behavior. Improvement also occurred for extended periods of time in new settings without the presence of a treatment…

This literature review evaluates studies of self-management procedures (including self-evaluation, self-instruction, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement) used with behaviorally disordered students in school settings. The analysis found general support for the techniques, but many procedural concerns need to be addressed in future research.…

Analyzes the nature of future-oriented self-control and the psychological processes underlying it. Reports that the self-control in four-year-old children reveals differences in delay behavior. (YP)

Attribution theorists have argued that if an intrinsically motivated activity is extrinsically reinforced, the activity will be devalued and extinguished when the reward is removed. Hypothesizing that activities performed for their instrumental outcome are valued less than activities not so externally oriented, and that activities performed for…

First- and fourth-grade children who were given the opportunity to compare performances with a similarly performing peer (a) chose to compare more often, (b) persisted at the task for more trials, and (c) self-rewarded on a smaller proportion of the trials, than did children offered comparison with a consistently superior or inferior peer.…

Although the behavioral element of the Type A pattern has been identified, the cognitive component of the complex is less well understood. To examine the relationships of self-focused attention, standards for performance, and performance evaluation to Type A behavior, 72 undergraduates were studied. Subjects were classified as Type A (N=36) or…

Confirmed the hypothesis that happiness leads to self-indulgence when children have no reason to believe that excessive self-gratification is morally wrong but that happiness promotes self-denial when children fear that excessive self-gratification violates a moral rule. Results with 112 White, middle-class, Australian children ages four to five…

This study compared self-recording and self-recording plus self-reinforcmeent treatments with no self-recording treatment on the spelling achievement and on-task behavior of 38 children (ages 10 to 13) with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. In the self-recording groups, subjects corrected, recorded, and graphed their daily spelling tests.…