ABSTRACT
Research in children’s social behavior has placed great emphasis on the role of adult verbal consequences and, in particular, social reinforcement (Gewirtz & Baer, 1958a; Hartup, 1964). Recent work has focused on the effect of antecedent social stimuli, such as the instructions (Bufford, 1971; Martin, 1972; Steinman, 1970), stated preferences (Redd, 1974) and the presence or absence of an adult (Meddock, Parsons, & Hill, 1971; Peterson & Whitehurst, 1971). Within these three broad categories of events, consequences, antecedents, and prior interaction, there are innumerable variations of the specific verbal stimuli, nonverbal and contextual cues, and past schedules of reinforcement and punishment. The task of assessing and comparing these various social stimuli is a difficult one, involving a number of complex methodological issues. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss a method for studying a variety of social cues with children. Several detailed examples of the use of this methodology will also be presented.
