This article presents some of the evidence indicating the importance of noncognitive variables in determining how well the socioculturally retarded child will achieve in structured testing and scholastic situations. Socioculturally retarded children come from intellectually and experientially restricted environments, and such environmental restrictions appear to influence the personality structures of these children. They approach formal testing and scholastic situations with poor achievement motivation, with little expectation for success and high expectation of failure, with heightened anxiety, with poor self concepts, and with a need for emotional nurturing. These noncognitive variables influence learning so that consideration must be given these factors along with the consideration given to cognitive variables in formal academic programs.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlpernG.The failure of a nursery school enrichment program for culturally disadvantaged children. Paper presented at the 1966 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, San Francisco, April, 1966.
2.
BallaD.The verbal action of the environment on institutionalized and noninstitutionalized retardates and normal children of two social classes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Yale University, 1967.
3.
BialerI., & CromwellR.Failure as motivation with mentally retarded children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1965, 69, 680–684.
4.
BlattB., & GarfunkelF.Education intelligence: Determinants of school behavior of disadvantaged children. Exceptional Children, 1967, 33, 601–608.
5.
ButterfieldE.The roles of motivation and personality in the development and expression of intelligent behavior. In HaywoodH. (Ed.), Psychometric intelligence. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, in press.
6.
CampeauP.Test anxiety and feedback in programmed instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1968, 59, 159–163.
7.
CastanedaA., McCandlessB., & PalermoD.The children's form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale. Child Development, 1956, 27, 317–526.
8.
CochranI., & ClelandC.Manifest anxiety of retardates and normal matched as to academic achievement. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1963, 67, 539–542.
9.
CorterH., & McKinneyI.Flexibility training with educable retarded and bright normal children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1968, 72, 603–609.
10.
CowenE., ZaxM., KleinR., IzzoL., & TrostM.The relation of anxiety in school children to school record, achievement, and behavioral measures. Child Development, 1965, 36, 685.
11.
DaveR.The identification and measurement of educational process variables that are related to educational achievement. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1963.
12.
DeutschM.The role of social class in language development and cognition. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 1965, 35, 78–88.
13.
DunnJ.The approach-avoidance paradigm as a model for the analyses of school anxiety. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1968, 59, 388–394.
14.
EisenthalS., & ShermanL.Psychological characteristics of neighborhood youth corps enrollees. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1969, 33, 420–425.
15.
EndoG.Social drive or arousal: A test of two theories of social isolation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1968, 6, 61–74.
16.
EndsleyR.Effects of differential prior exposure on preschool children's subsequent choice of novel stimuli. Psychonomic Science, 1967, 7, 411–412.
17.
FeldhusenJ., & KlausmeierH.Anxiety, intelligence, and achievement in children of low, average, and high intelligence. Child Development, 1962, 33, 403–409.
18.
GardnerW.Effects of failure on intellectually retarded and normal boys. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1966, 70, 899–902.
19.
GordonJ., & HaywoodH.Input deficit in cultural-familial retardates: Effect of stimulus enrichment. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 73, 604–610.
20.
GrayS., & KlausR.An experimental preschool program for culturally deprived children. Child Development, 1965, 36, 887–898.
21.
GrimesJ., & AllensmithW.Compulsivity, anxiety and school achievement. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. 1961, 7, 247–271.
22.
HaywoodH., & DobbsV.Motivation and anxiety in high school boys. Journal of Personality, 1964, 32, 371–379.
HaywoodH., & WachsT.Size-discrimination learning as a function of motivation-hygiene orientation in adolescents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1966, 57, 279–286.
25.
HaywoodH., & WeaverS.Differential effects of motivational orientations and incentive conditions on motor performance in institutionalized retardates. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1967, 72, 459–467.
26.
HaywoodH.Psychometric motivation and the efficiency of learning and performance in the mentally retarded. In RichardsB. (Ed.), Proceedings of the First Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency. Reigate, England: Michael Jackson Publishing Co., Ltd., 1968. (a)
27.
HaywoodH.Motivational orientation of over-achieving and underachieving elementary school children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1968, 72, 662–667. (b)
28.
HessR., & ShipmanV.Early experience and the socialization of cognitive modes in children. Child Development, 1965, 36, 869–886.
29.
HorowitzF.The relationship of anxiety, self-concept, and sociometric status among fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1962, 65, 212–214.
30.
KatzI.A new approach to the study of school motivation in minority group children. In AllenV. (Ed.), Psychological factors in poverty. Chicago: Markham, 1970.
31.
KellerE., & RowleyV.Junior high school and additional elementary school normative data for the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale. Child Development, 1962, 33, 675–681.
32.
KozmaA.The effects of anxiety, stimulation and isolation on social reinforcer effectiveness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1969, 8, 1–8.
33.
LipsittL.A self-concept scale for children and its relationship to the children's form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale. Child Development, 1958, 29, 463–472.
34.
LottB., & LottA.The relation of manifest anxiety in children to learning task performance and other variables. Child Development, 1968, 39, 207–220.
35.
LunneborgP.Relations among social disability, achievement, and anxiety measures in children. Child Development, 1964, 35, 169–182.
36.
MacMillanD.Motivational differences: Cultural-familial retardates vs. normal subjects on expectancy for failure. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 74, 254–258.
37.
MacMillanD.The problem of motivation in the education of the mentally retarded. Exceptional Children, 1971, 37, 579–586.
38.
MacMillanD., & KeoghB.Normal and retarded children's expectancy for failure. Developmental Psychology, 1971, 4, 343–348.
39.
MahoneC.Fear of failure and unrealistic vocational aspirations. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1960, 60, 253–261.
40.
MandlerG., & SarasonS.A study of anxiety and learning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1952, 47, 166–173.
41.
McManisD., & BellD.Retardate reward-seeking or punishment-avoiding under three types of incentive. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1968, 72, 844–850. (a)
42.
McManisD., & BellD.Risk-taking by reward-seeking. punishment-avoiding under three types of incentive. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1968, 73, 267–272. (b)
43.
McManisD., BellD., & PikeE.Performance of reward-seeking and punishment-avoiding retardates under reward and punishment. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 73, 906–911.
44.
MerbaumA.Need for achievement in Negro and White children. Dissertation Abstracts, 1962, 23, 693–694.
45.
PalmerF.Socioeconomic status and intellective performance among Negro preschool boys. Developmental Psychology, 1970, 3, 1–9.
46.
PhillipsB., HindsmanE., & JenningsE.Influence of intelligence on anxiety and perception of self and others. Child Development, 1960, 31, 41–46.
47.
RegerR.Reading ability and CMAS scores in educable mentally retarded boys. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1964, 68, 652–655.
48.
RosenB.The achievement syndrome. American Sociological Review, 1956, 21, 203–211.
49.
RosenB.Race, ethnicity and the achievement syndrome. American Sociological Review, 1959, 24, 47–60.
50.
SchoggenM., & SchoggenP.Environmental forces in the home lives of three-year-old children in three population subgroups. DARCEE Papers and Reports, 1971, 5 (2).
51.
SilversteinA.Anxiety and the quality of human-figure drawings. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1966, 70, 607–608.
52.
StanfordD., DemberW., & StanfordB.A children's form of the Alpert-Haber Achievement Anxiety Scale. Child Development, 1963, 34, 1027–1032.
53.
VeroffJ., AtkinsonJ., FeldS., & GurinG.The use of thematic apperception to assess motivation in a nation-wide interview study. Psychological Monographs, 1960, 74 (12. Whole No. 449).
54.
WeblinkG., & StedmanD.Unpublished manuscript, George Peabody College, 1966.
55.
WolfR.The identification and measurement of environmetal process variables related to intelligence. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1964.
56.
WrightsmanL.Jr., The effects of anxiety, achievement motivation, and importance upon performance on an intelligence test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1962, 53, 150–156.
57.
WuChing-Vi, J., & LipsittL.Effects of anxiety and stress on verbal mediation in children. Psychonomic Science, 1965, 2, 13–14.
58.
ZiglerE.The environmental mystique: Training the intellect versus development of the child. Childhood Education, 1970, 46, 402–412.
59.
ZiglerE., & KanzerP.The effectiveness of two classes of verbal reinforcers on the performance of middle-class and lower-class children. Journal of Personality, 1962, 30, 157–163.
60.
ZiglerE., & WilliamsJ.Institutionalization and the effectiveness of social reinforcement: A three-year follow-up study. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963, 66, 197–205.
61.
ZiglerE., & ButterfieldE.Motivational aspects of changes in IQ test performance of culturally deprived nursery school children. Child Development, 1968, 39, 1–14.
