Abstract
Eight fifth- and sixth-grade black males engaged in a set of single-subject, multiple-baseline studies to determine the relative effects of self-observation and self-reinforcement. A black male college student employed the children as research assistants who would study their own behavior. The employer negotiated a series of individualized contracts with each boy. The contracts specified what self-regulation procedures the subject would perform. Overall, the children were more consistent in carrying out their contracts when they were on self-reinforcement than when they were on self-observation. Second, the children were more effective in increasing behavioral deficits than they were in decreasing excesses. Third, self-reinforcement was clearly a superior means of improving their own behavior than was self-observation.
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This research was supported in part by grant number MH 14395 from the National Institute of Mental Health. We wish to acknowledge the extensive assistance of O'Neal Varner and many other persons who serve the children of the Pasadena Unified School District.
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Clement, P.W., Anderson, E., Arnold, J. et al. Self-observation and self-reinforcement as sources of self-control in children. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation 3, 247–267 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00999294
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00999294