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)

Three adults with developmental disabilities in supported-employment settings were successfully taught self-management strategies for addressing hygiene issues. The intervention included: a checklist with steps necessary to address particular hygiene issues, modeling the steps to each participant, providing praise and feedback, and teaching the…

Study measured the extent to which parents perceive their ill child as providing assistance and support--practical and emotional--and perceive their own caregiving as emotionally and mentally rewarding. All parents reported receiving help and support, but perceived the satisfaction gained from fulfilling their parental duties and from learning…

These facilitator's skill packets contain seven individual packets on skills for dealing with feelings: (1) knowing one's feelings; (2) expressing one's feelings; (3) understanding the feelings of others; (4) dealing with someone else's anger; (5) expressing affection; (6) dealing with fear; and (7) rewarding oneself. Each unit contains the…

Although a copious body of research literature concerning the practice of adult self-directed learning exists, the theoretical dimension remains undernourished and poorly developed. If a theory for self-directed learning is to be developed, educators have to decide what is the critical element among the three words in the term self-directed…

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…

One of the differences in child development caused by the mother-dominant, father-absent structure of disadvantaged Negro families might be the differential development of resistance to temptation in male and female children. It would be expected that girls would be more resistant than boys, that girls would show no difference whether their father…

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.…

Suggests the use of self-management techniques to improve student performance. Discusses three areas of student involvement: selecting goals or standards, assessing and recording performance, and rewarding oneself when performance reaches specified goal. Sees academic benefits of this method as greater student responsibility, success, and…

Explores the generalization of changes in children's preferences for easy or difficult goals, when their preferences are induced by exposure to peer models playing a novel athletic game. Subjects played the same game immediately after exposure, participated in a "spelling bee" three weeks later, and chose puzzles of differing levels of…

Six boys, aged 9 to 12, attended a tutoring class focusing on reading for 30 minutes each morning. Six, 10-day treatment periods were imposed that used various combinations of drug placebo, noncontingent reinforcers, 0.3 mg/kg methylphenidate, 0.7 mg/kg methylphenidate, and self-reinforcement. The combined effects of methylphenidate and…

Emphasizes the need for coherence between the reward structure and the organizational culture of effective schools. Presents a typology of rewards, including pecuniary, nonpecuniary extrinsic, and intrinsic rewards. Analyzes several pay-for-performance strategies and explores the perceived advantages and disadvantages of various merit and…

The present study was conducted to determine if overt self-verbalization by the child during the waiting period would influence his delay maintenance behavior when the delayed reward was present. Subjects were 60 preschool girls in the age range of 33-72 months. Fifteen subjects were randomly assigned to each of four experimental conditions: (1)…

An examination was begun of the development of an individual's ability to adhere to standards and to reward himself for only those performances above criterion. Also to be determined were what social variables affect this ability. Two experiments were run that placed 8- to 10-year-olds in a situation with a miniature bowling game (secretly…