The Interpretation of Approval and Disapproval by Delinquent and Non‐delinquent Adolescents¹

Abstract

VLTHOUGH SEVERAL EXPERIMENTERS (3,6,8,10,11,13) have demonstrated differences among individuals in responses to social approval and disapproval, none has dealt directly with the processes by which a given event may function at the same time as blame for one individual and as praise for another A relationship of this phenomenon to practical social problems has been suggested by others (4, 7) who maintain that effective utilization of social rewards and punishments as guideposts is essential to mature behavioral control and healthy culmination of the socialization process This study mvestigates the process of interpreting the occurrence of approval and disapproval events, as well as differences among individuals m the operation of this processThe experiments described here rest upon the assumption that individuals categorize or organize their expenences into relatively integrated systems This conceptualization process is conceived as a perceptual phenomenon which is analogous to ordinary psycho-' The research reported here was supported m part by the Rockefeller Foundation for research jn percepbon and social psychology, and in part by the United States Office of Naval Research under ccmtract Nonr-1858 (12) The authors express their gratitude to the staffs and adnunistrabons of the following institutions for their co-operation m supplying subjects The Hun School

Chapter VI: The Learner: Self and Perception

“…Two studies of adolescents revealed that delinquents perceived themselves in less positive ways than normals (7,48). Trent (81) explored New York Negro children's self-acceptance through a sentence-completion instrument and reported a positive relationship between acceptance of self and acceptance of others.…”

Immediate effects of group therapy upon response to social reinforcement among juvenile delinquents.

“…A paper-and-pencil group test has been designed to gauge the individual's assimilative recognition of events of interpersonal praise as rewarding (enhancing self-evaluation) or events of interpersonal criticism as punishing (decreasing self-evaluation). This instrument represents modification and extension of a similar device utilized in earlier research (Mc-David, 1959;McDavid & Schroder, 1957;Schroder & Hunt, 1957). An earlier investigation (McDavid & Schroder, 1957) demonstrated that delinquent adolescents score significantly lower on this measure than npndelinquent adolescents, and this finding has been replicated subsequently using the revised form of the test.…”

“…This instrument represents modification and extension of a similar device utilized in earlier research (Mc-David, 1959;McDavid & Schroder, 1957;Schroder & Hunt, 1957). An earlier investigation (McDavid & Schroder, 1957) demonstrated that delinquent adolescents score significantly lower on this measure than npndelinquent adolescents, and this finding has been replicated subsequently using the revised form of the test.…”

Lessons From Pair Counseling With Incarcerated Juvenile Delinquents

“…Although young offenders can be taught these skills and demonstrate them in a controlled environment (i.e., correctional institute, school), they often have difficulty generalizing these skills to their interactions in the community (De lange, Lanham, &Barton, 1981). Other research has indicated that delinquent youths possess problem-solving skills but are deficient in recognizing real-life situations in which the skills are required (Cunliffe, 1992;Hains, 1984;Hains 8z Ryan, 1983;McDavid & Schroder, 1956). …”