FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCURACY OF ADULT LEADERS' JUDGMENTS OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE IN COMMUNITY YOUTH GROUPS

Abstract

Since 1950, investigators have sought reasons for the extreme variation found among school teachers in their ability to predict social acceptance within their classroom groups (I, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). It still can only be hypothesized that factors affecting this variation in accuracy will be of three general types: (a) characteristics of individual children, (b) characteristics of groups of children, and (c) characteristics of the adult judges. This study investigated the relationship of factors of these three types to the accuracy of adult judgments of children's social acceptance. The judgments of social acceptance were made by volunteer adult leaders for members of community youth groups. Predictions of children's social acceptance are judgments about real life events: children's demonstrated preferences of friends or companions in a particular group. Calvin (2) has attempted to shape hypotheses about the judgment process that can be tested experimentally and lead to development of theory in this area. As he points out, judgments utilize signs that indicate with varying degrees of likelihood the presence of whatever is being judged. Calvin suggests that the judge must manipulate and combine many cues to arrive at a judgment. Possibly only a few of the many cues available or used by the judge will affect the accuracy of the judgment. The effect of only one of the many characteristics of children that might furnish cues for judgments of social acceptance has been investigated. Teachers' judgments have been reported (4, 5) to be less accurate for the six children they most and least prefer than for the class as a whole. In Calvin's wording, the teachers used their preferences as cues in the judgment process, but their preferences were not relevant to peer social acceptance of the children. The present study investigated the hypothesis that two other characteristics of the judged children, sociometric status and deviation in age from the median age of the club, relate to the accuracy of adult judgments of club members' social acceptance.