Expectations concerning Children's Obtaining Contact Comfort following Parents' Interpersonal Behaviors

Abstract

College students' responses to incomplete paragraphs indicated that they expected parents' positive and neutral interpersonal behaviors, e.g., smiling, looking, talking in a pleasant tone of voice, talking in a normal tone of voice, are more likely to be S+s for the child's obtaining contact comfort with parents than are parents' negative interpersonal behaviors, e.g., grimacing, talking in a harsh tone of voice. Many if not all of the parents' behaviors expected to be S+s for the child's obtaining contact comfort are positive social reinforcers. Since S+s for primary reinforcement are conditioned reinforcers, the results suggest that social reinforcers acquire reinforcing strength partly because they are S+s for contact comfort. A previous study suggested that social behaviors also acquire reinforcing strength through classically conditioned associations with contact comfort.