Competitive behaviours of American and Chinese children working individually and working together: A comparative study
- Autores: Irma Galejs, Victoria Huang
- Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 4, Nº. 5, 1983, págs. 339-348
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
The study compared American (N=50) and Chinese (N= 84) school‐age children's co‐operative‐competitive behaviours using a puzzle completion task. The differences in performance of boys and girls when working alone and when working together with the same sex partner as well as among grades were investigated. For the American sample there were 16 kindergartners, 14 first‐, and 20 second‐graders, resulting in 15 boy‐ and 10 girl‐pairs. The Chinese sample consisted of 28 children from each grade with a total of 21 boy‐ and 21 girl‐pairs. For both samples the children were matched within grade on sex and age.
The behaviours were measured by using three puzzles arranged in three orders. Each child participated in a puzzle completion task 3 times: alone, with the same sex partner as a leader, and as a helper. For the pairs, only the leader's completion time was recorded.
There were no significant cultural differences between the American and the Chinese children's co‐operative and competitive behaviours on a puzzle completion task. Analyses of variance indicated that the children in the higher grades displayed more co‐operative responses than the children in lower grades and also that the second grade children performed more co‐operatively than children in the lower grades.
