The Effects of Sex, Socioeconomic Class, Experimenter Race, and Kind of Verbal Reinforcement on the Performance of Black Children

Abstract

Evidence has been presented which indicates that verbal reinforcers classified as emphasizing praise have a differential effect from those which emphasize correctness (Zigler and Kanzer, 1962; Rosehan and Greenwald, 1965). The results of Zigler and Kanzer, and Rosehan and Greenwald are at variance in regard to how their reinforcers, praise and correctness are affected by the sex and socioeconomic class of the subject. Zigler and Kanzer's results indicated a significant interaction (p < .02) between kind of reinforcer and socioeconomic class with praise reinforcers more effective for lowerthan for middle-class children, and correctness reinforcers more effective for middlethan for lower-class children. Neither the main effect of socioeconomic class nor the main effect of class of verbal reinforcer was significant. Zigler and Kanzer suggest that: . . .the lower class seven-year-old child is developmentally lower than the seven-year-old middle-class child in that he has not made a transition in which reinforcers signifying correctness replace praise reinforcers in the reinforcer hierarchy. (p. 161) The results of Rosenhan and Greenwald do not support the Zigler-Kanzer findings of interaction between kind of reinforcer and socioeconomic class, nor did they find main effects with the variables of sex, socioeconomic class or kind of reinforcement. However, Rosenhan and Greenwald did obtain a significant interaction (p < .02) between sex of S and socioeconomic class with middle-class girls and lower-class boys being more responsive to both kinds of verbal reinforcers than were middle-class boys and