Browsing by Author "Kuenstler, William Hutchinson"
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Item Differential effects of positive and negative social reinforcement on juvenile delinquents and Sunday School students(1970) Kuenstler, William HutchinsonTwo experiments were conducted to investigate the hypothesis that, as a result of different histories of social reinforcement, juvenile delinquents respond differently to such reinforcement than do Sunday School students. In an early review of the learning theory literature, Young (1936) reported studies which showed that a combination of positive and negative reinforcement (PR and NR) produced more learning than PR or NR alone, with the former producing better results than the latter, and with all three conditions leading to more improvement than a no-reinforcement (NoR) condition. In a recent pilot study, however, Martinez (1967) found that institutionalized delinquent girls did not conform to this pattern when reaction time (RT) responses were verbally reinforced by the statements 'Good' following fast RTs and 'That's bad' following slow RTs. (In an earlier (1966) study, he had found RT to be modifiable by verbal reinforcement). For these delinquent Ss, NoR was found to produce more learning than NR, with the PR condition producing more learning than the combination contingency. On the basis of these findings, it was hypothesized that juvenile delinquents, because of their histories of experience with social reinforcement, have become oversensitized to NR so that it is detrimental to learning. In the first experiment, then, a sample of 72 delinquent Ss and one of 60 Sunday School students were each equally divided into four groups. All Ss received 40 RT trials using the classic RT apparatus and procedure, excluding speed instructions, and the same verbal reinforcements employed by Martinez (1967). One group in each sample received no reinforcement after any of the trials, one group was positively reinforced for fast responses, one was negatively reinforced for slow responses, and one received both PR and NR for appropriate responses. The results of this experiment were in accordance with previous reports in the literature of the relative effectiveness of the four reinforcement contingencies for the normal Se. For the delinquents, however, while the NoR condition produced the least improvement and the combination contingency produced the greatest, the curves for the PR and NR groups were almost identical. Because of the significantly greater degree of improvement produced in these S-s by the combination condition, it was decided that the number of trials should be extended to 60 in Experiment II to investigate the hypothesis that, under this contingency, the performance of the delinquents is more closely equal that of the normals. Each reinforcement group in Experiment II was composed of 10 delinquent Ss who received 60 RT trials under the same conditions as in Experiment I. While the results duplicated those of the first experiment with regard to the NOR, PR, and NR groups, the combination group failed to show any improvement over these latter two groups; all three produced almost identical curves. The overall results were interpreted as indicating that, while delinquents have some tendency to perceive PR and NR as cues for directing their behavior, in the manner of the normals, they apparently also react to reinforcement on the basis of some need not present in normals to such a degree. It was suggested that possible needs include attention (love), the production of an influence on the environment (self-assertion), and the solicitation of external controls upon their behavior. It was further suggested that a psychotherapeutic approach with these Se, while focusing on the development of feelings of worth, 'positive' self- assertiveness, and internalized controls, should also include a learning experience as to the nature of and intent behind PR and NR.Item Factors associated with a verbal-performance IQ score discrepancy in emotionally disturbed children(1968) Kuenstler, William HutchinsonThe following general hypothesis was investigated: There are three distinct groups among emotionally disturbed children-- those who score significantly higher on Verbal subtests than on Performance tasks, those who score higher on the Performance subtests, and those who do equally well on both; these groups differ reliably in terms of certain demographic, case history, behavioral, and symptomatic factors. In a pilot study the case files of 45 children in psychiatric treatment, ages 5 to 15, were divided into three groups, formed on the basis of a minimum 20-point discrepancy on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WTSC) in favor of either the Verbal or Performance section, for each of two groups, and a maximum 5-point discrepancy for the third group. These groups were compared with regard to a large number of interview and case history variables. While it was originally planned to match subjects for sex and age, it soon became apparent that these variables were not randomly distributed among the three groups. They were therefore included among the factors to be compared across the groups. Specific hypotheses were formed from the results of this study and tested in a cross-validation study of three equivalent groups of 30 subjects each. Results support the general hypothesis; the following specific findings lead to this contention. The high-Verbal group consisted of older children who achieved higher intelligence test scores, and whose records reflected advanced speech development in infancy, higher value placed on education in the family, more highly educated mothers, more Jewish families, a stronger likelihood that the subject is an older child in the family, more first- or second-generation- American parents, more advanced readers, less willingness of the parents to divulge information about themselves or their family, and fewer histories of allergies. The records of the high-Performance group were characterized by relatively early motor development as measured by onset of sitting and walking, a larger proportion of females, larger families, more reading difficulties, and the least amount of emphasis placed on education in the family scheme. The 'Equal' group was found to be the least fortunate of the three. They were the youngest and least intelligent group, and their records reflected greater frequency of occurrence of the following symptoms: temper tantrums, dawdling and inattentiveness, allergies, and sleeping with one or both parents. All groups were found to do best on WISC subtests involving integrated learning, concept formation, visual organization, and planning ability; they did least well on tasks primarily requiring attention and concentration. Results were discussed with a view toward treatment implications. The finding that the Equal group was apparently the most severely impaired led to a 'Jack-of-all-trades' interpretation, in which this group was seen as not having a well-developed area of interest or competency that would facilitate the occurrence of healthy, adaptive experiences. The results support the view that a Verbal-Performance IQ score discrepancy is a reflection of a basic personality adaptation rooted in highly developed skills in the area of the higher score, rather than being indicative of some relatively transient pathology which creates a depression in the area of the lower.