Relationship of Social Desirability, Age, and Sex with Task Persistence and Contingent Self-Reinforcement

Abstract

The bivariate and multviariate relationships between social desirability, age, and sex with persistence time, task accomplishment, and contingent self-reinforcement were investigated. Subjects were 45 middle-class preschool children, 46 to 77 mo. old. Their socially desirable response tendency was assessed, and measures of their task completion and self-reward were obtained. Social desirability, age, and sex of child were nonsignificantly related to persistence time. Further, no significant relationships were found between persistence time, social desirability, sex, and self-reward. However, age and self-reward were negatively related, while the amount of work completed by each child was positively related to self-reward. In our achievement-oriented society, preschool children may rapidly learn that task completion is more important than time spent working on the task.