Effects of coping and mastery modeling on experienced and inexperienced pedodontic patients' disruptiveness

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted on the effects of coping and mastery modeling on 106 pedodontic patients with and 30 patients without a prior filling or extraction. Before undergoing a filling, subjects viewed a videotape depicting (a) a coping model receiving a filling, (b) a mastery model undergoing identical treatment, or (c) a child playing with an adult. A standardized interview indicated that subjects appropriately perceived the differences between coping and mastery models. Inexperienced patients who viewed either model were significantly less disruptive on the Behavior Profile Scale than inexperienced control subjects. Modeling did not affect experienced patients, who were significantly more cooperative than inexperienced patients. The results are promising for preventing disruptiveness among naive pedodontic patients.