Institutionalized delinquents, institutionalized non-delinquents, and Boy Scouts were instructed to rank order 15 objects in terms of their value as gifts. Mean ranks assigned to each object by Ss in each group, as well as Spearman rank-difference correlation coefficients, suggested that the arbitrary selection of rewards to be used uniformly with all Ss may be an erroneous procedure. Prior to conducting an experiment involving rewards, it seems appropriate to establish first the incentive value of the particular motivator to be employed with a given group of Ss.
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