A game measuring cooperation and competition was played with pairs of 4-5-year-old Anglo-and Mexican-Americans and with 7-9-year-old Anglo-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Mexicans. Cooperative play allowed both pair members to receive rewards; competitive play was irrational, allowing no subject to reach his goal. The number of moves pairs took to reach a goal indicated that 4-5-year-olds were more cooperative than the older subjects (p < .001). Among the 7-9-year-old children, Mexicans were most cooperative, Mexican-Americans next most, and Anglo-Americans least cooperative (p < .001). Among the older children, instructional sets designed to create an "I" orientation increased competition, whereas sets stressing a "we" orientation increased cooperation (p < .001). Qualitative differences between patterns of play were noted for the cultural and age groups. Sex differences were not found.This study represents an attempt to assess the degree to which children of two ages and three subcultures differ in the amount of cooperative and competitive behavior they exhibit at a choice point at which both kinds of behavior are possible. A second purpose was to determine the extent to which cooperative or competitive behavior would be elicited by instructional sets, and the extent to which the effects of such sets interacted with age and subculture. A third purpose was the development of a simple, yet sensitive, technique by which the cooperative and competitive behavior of children can be assessed in different cultural settings.That cultures differ in tendencies toward cooperative and competitive behavior is well
An experimental task with accompanying apparatus was developed for use in the study of developmental and cultural differences in the cooperative-competitive behavior of children in a small Mexican town and in California. Two groups of 20 Mexican children (aged 7-8 and 10-11) , from an elementary school in a town in Baja, California, Mexico, were used; the Anglo American sample included 3 groups of 24 children (aged 4-5, 7-8, and 10-11) from day-care centers in Los Angeles. The children were tested using a 2-person cooperation-competition marble-gull game designed for the study-A pair of children of the same sex and culture was seated, 1 child at each end of the game table; the children then played for a marble placed in a holder. In the "tug-of-war situation," cooperative behavior resulted in 1 child getting a marble while competitive behavior resulted in neither child getting a marble. At the conclusion of 10 trials for each pair of children, informal interviews were held to determine, for children who competed maladaptively (competitively), the extent to which they were aware of possible interacting methods. Two instructional trials followed the interview, and subjects completed a second series of 10 trials. Results indicated a higher level of cooperation among Mexican than among Anglo American children and an increase in nonadaptive competition with age among the Anglo American children. (NQ)
Large samples of children in southern Mexico representative of the urban middle class, urban poor, and a rural Indian village participated in four experiments. These were designed to assess cooperative and competitive motivation under the following conditions: (1) simple altruism, (2) work output, (3) solution of a problem in which competition minimized individual reward, and (4) solution of a problem in which competition maximized individual reward. Significant differences between groups were obtained in Exps. III and IV with the urban middle-class children proving to be much more competitive than their urban poor and rural counterparts.
Children of three ethnic groups in Los Angeles, California, ages 7-9, performed on the cooperation board developed by Madsen. In Experiment I, Mexican-American boys were less competitive than Mexican-American girls and Afro-and Anglo-Americans of both sexes. In Experiment II, all three ethnic groups behaved in a highly competitive manner. In Experiment III, the three ethnic groups in Los Angeles behaved in a nonadaptive competitive manner while a sample of village children in Mexico behaved cooperatively.
In a recent article, Coons and Miller (1960) raise the question as to whether previous studies which have purported to show that ECS induces a retrograde amnesia can be accounted for by ECS-induced fear of the goal. In the present study 5s were given a single ECS after making a response which was punished by shock to the feet. In a similar study, Pearlman, Sharpless, and Jarvik (1959) have shown that memory of the punishment is impaired by immediate anesthetization with ether or pentobarbital. If ECS affects performance by interfering with memory, then the effects of ECS in the present study should be similar to those obtained with ether and pentobarbital (i.e., rats should continue to make a response which was punished and followed by ECS). If, however, ECS affects performance by inducing fear, 5s given an ECS following a response punished by shock should tend not to make the punished response on a subsequent test. METHOD SubjectsOne hundred and twelve rats of the Tryon strains were used as 5s. These included 61 maze brights (Si; 33 males, 28 females) and 51 maze dulls (83; 25 males, 26 females). All 5s were between 90 and 110 days old and were satiated with food and water at the time of the experiment. ApparatusThe apparatus consisted of a box (22 in. by 12 in. by 10 in.) in the center of which was an adjustable platform (6 in. by 3J in.) which could be raised to a height of 7 in. and lowered to a position 1 in. above the floor of the box. The platform was manipulated by a lever operated from outside the box. The box floor and platform were covered with thin copper sheeting which had attached electrodes connecting to a Variac transformer, so that when the rat stepped off the platform, the circuit was completed, shocking the rat. The Variac was set at 50 v. throughout the experiment.
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