The Effect of Praise and Critical Feedback on the Task Performance of Young Males of Varying Levels of Adaptive Behavior

• Main Author: Reed, Michael
• Format: Others
• Published: TopSCHOLAR® 1981
• Subjects: Western Kentucky University; Psychology; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1992; http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2990&context=theses

The effect of evaluative feedback on the simple motor performance of young males of varying levels of adaptive behavior was examined. Subjects were 50 male Caucasians (6.0 to 8.5 years of age) randomly assigned to either a praise, criticism, or control condition. Subjects participated in a motor task twice (pretest, posttest). After the first trial of the task (pretest), subjects received either positive evaluative feedback (praise), negative evaluative feedback (criticism), or were asked for biographical information (neutral). The second trial of the task immediately followed feedback. The adaptive behavior level of each subject was determined in a subsequent interview with the mother using the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children (ABIC). Multiple regression analysis was performed on the data with pretest score as the covariate. Only one significant effect emerged, a positive relationship between adaptive behavior and posttest performance under praise.