The Effect of Need for Approval and Incentives upon Children's Probability Learning Responses

Abstract

MoRRis, PATRICK, and COADY, HENRY. The Effect of Need for Approval and Incentives upon Children's Probability Learning Responses. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 862-865. The extent to which high and low need-for-social-approval (HSA and LSA) children (ages 8-0 through 9-11) would respond to social and material incentives on a 2-choice probability learning task was investigated. Crandall's Social Desirability (CSD) scale was used to measure need for social approval. From 91 Ss scoring below the median on the CSD scale, 10 males and 10 females were randomly assigned to each of 3 conditions: control, social, and material incentives. The same procedure was followed for those who scored above the median. The HSA Ss under the social-incentive condition showed a significantly greater tendency to maximize than those with LSA. No sex differences were found.