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Interpersonal tactics and communicative strategies of Anglo-American and Mexican-American mildly mentally retarded and nonretarded students
0270-3092/83 $3.00 ~- .00 Copyright © 1983 Pergamon Press Ltd
Applied Research in MentalRetardation, Vol. 4, pp. 153-161, 1983 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
Interpersonal Tactics and Communicative Strategies of Anglo-American and Mexican-American Mildly Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded Students Robert Rueda
Doug C. Smith
and
Arizona State University
University of Illinois, Chicago
In this investigation, we compared the preferred interpersonal tactics o f mildly mentally retarded Mexican-American and Anglo-American children in an experimental social problem-solving situation. Sixty subjects were divided into four equal groups based upon ethnicity (Mexican-American or Anglo-American) and educational status (mildly mentally retarded or nonretarded). Results indicated that although there were no ethnic group differences, differences in preferred problem solving strategies were demonstrated by mentally retarded and nonretarded children. Overall, nonretarded children tended to utilize strategies such as cooperation and temporary withdrawal more often than mentally retarded children.
INTRODUCTION Although there is little consensus on the exact parameters of social competence, a recent m a j o r review of social intelligence identified social problemsolving as a primary component (Greenspan, 1979). This construct, which entails both persuasiveness and conflict resolution skills, has been related to a number of aspects of behavioral adjustment in child, adolescent, and adult populations (Shure, Spivack, & Jaeger, 1971; Platt, Altman, & Altman, Note 1, Platt & Spivack, Note 2). There have been relatively few studies of social problem-solving a m o n g
Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Robert Rueda, Collegeof Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85721. 153
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Robert Rueda and Doug C. Smith
mentally retarded or nonretarded children (see Greenspan, 1979 and Simeonsson, 1978 for recent reviews). In general, findings suggest that older children are significantly better able than younger children to use persuasive strategies which show sensitivity to the perspectives and needs of the persons being persuaded (Clark & Delia, 1976) and that as children mature cognitively, they are able to produce a wider variety of effective problem-solving strategies (Piche, Rubin, & Michlin, 1978). Research with mildly mentally retarded youngsters has demonstrated that they produce fewer alternative strategies and utilize different, and perhaps more primitive, strategies than their nonretarded peers (Chan, Smith, & Reid, Note 3; Weiss & Weinstein, 1967). Careful review of the social problem-solving literature, particularly that dealing with mentally retarded subjects, reveals a notable lack of cross-cultural investigations. Based on cross-cultural studies of normally achieving children, however it might be expected that there would be differences in social problem-solving among mentally retarded children of different cultrual/linguistic backgrounds. Recent reviews by Kagan (1977; 1981) provide a summary o f research findings related to differences in social orientation among Mexican, MexicanAmerican and Anglo-American children. The literature reviews suggest that there are broad but reliable cultural differences among these groups in terms of competitive vs. cooperative social styles. In particular, the evidence indicates that Mexican and Mexican-American children tend to exhibit more cooperative behavior than Anglo-American children. This evidence is fairly consistent across studies utilizing a variety of sample populations and measurement techniques (Avellar & Kagan, 1976; Kagan, 1977; Kagan & Madsen, 1971; Kagan, Zahn & Gealy, 1977; Knight & Kagan, 1977; Madsen & Shapira, 1970; McClintock, 1974). Although some evidence indicates that second- and third-generation Mexican-American children living in urban settings tend to accultrate to a more competitive orientation, there remains some similarity in their behavior to that of rural Mexican children who exhibit a cooperative social style (Kagan, 1981). The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the preferred interpersonal tactics used in an experimental social problem-solving situation by nonretarded and mildly mentally retarded Mexican-American and AngloAmerican children. The following hypotheses were derived from the existing literature on social problem-solving. First, it was predicted that nonretarded children of both ethnic groups would produce a higher frequency of tactics that might be regarded as reflective of understanding the needs of the other party involved in the interaction. Secondly, it wa predicted that nonretarded children, irrespective of ethnicity, would produce a greater number of unique alternative solutions than mentally retarded youngsters. Finally, it was predicted that Mexican-American chil-
Interpersonal Tactics
155
dren would produce a higher frequency of strategies than could be viewed as " c o o p e r a t i v e " in these situations. METHOD
Subjects Sixty subjects were divided into four equal groups based upon ethnicity (Mexican-American or Anglo-American) and educational status (mildly mentally retarded or nonretarded.) Ethnicity was determined by school records and verified through interviews with teachers or phone contact with each child's parents. All Mexican-American subjects were either second or thirdgeneration Americans. Educational status was determined through school records. All mentally retarded subjects were in special class placements at the time of the study. All subjects were selected from two public schools located within the same urban district, both having similar demographic characteristics. The subjects within each group were matched as closely as possible according to age and, in the case of mentally retarded subjects, according to IQ. Although IQ scores were not available for the nonretarded sample, these subjects were randomly selected from a pool of subjects from three regular classrooms. Teachers indicated that none of the subjects selected were experiencing academic difficulty at the time of the study. In order to take into account differences in socio-economic status between ethnic groups, family income for each subject was classified into categories based on incremental levels of three-thousand dollars, e.g., $10,000-$12,000; $13,000-$15,000; etc. Results of a chi-square analysis indicated that there were no significant differences between family income levels o f the MexicanAmerican and Anglo-American groups. Mean chronological ages (CA) (in months) and standard deviations (SD) for each of the four groups were as follows: 1) Mexican-American mentally retarded CA = 132.1, SD = 7.1; 2) Mexican-American nonretarded CA = 131.5, SD = 7.5; 3) Anglo-American mentally retarded CA = 132.6, SD = 7.1; 4) Anglo-American nonretarded C A = 125.6, S D = 3 . 5 . Mean Wisc-R IQ scores for mentally retarded children was 61.7 (SD = 8.1) for the MexicanAmerican sample and 65.3 (SD = 6.8) for the Anglo-American sample.
Task The task used in this investigation was the Test of Social Problem-Solving (Chan, Note 4). This instrument overcomes problems associated with earlier measures of social problem-solving; namely complete reliance upon a verbal format and reliance only upon a child's first response.
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The test includes two sets of five drawings, both a male and female set, and a practice picture for each set. The five pictures depict specific interpersonal problems including a conflict of interest over a toy, desire to share food owned by another, need to persuade another to assist in completing a difficult task, desire to share an object, and wish to convince another to participate in a game. Each picture is accompanied by a story describing the action and social problem illustrated. These stories are read to each child by the examiner. Subjects are then prompted to produce as many unique tactics as possible up to a total of five strategies. In terms of concurrent discriminant validity, a marginally significant difference was found between number of alternative strategies produced by socially competent and incompetent children as determined by teacher ratings (Smith, 1982).
Procedure Subjects were individually interviewed by a trained graduate student blind to the purposes of the study. Both the order of presentation of the five problems of the Test of Social Problem Solving as well as the order of subjects tested was predetermined using a table of random numbers. All responses were tape recorded and later transcribed for coding and analysis.
Scoring Social problem-solving strategies were coded into one of seven mutually exclusive categories by one of the authors. In addition, the first strategy of all subjects on all five problems solving situations (300 total strategies) was rated by a doctoral student naive to the purpose of the study. Kappa was calculated as a measure of inter-rater reliability because in addition to providing a measure of reliability it provides a correction of chance-expected agreement (Cohen, 1960; Light, 1971). Calculation of this measure of inter-rater reliability yielded a coefficient of .84. The seven response categories and an example of each is as follows: I. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Asking--"I would say can I ride the hike." Positive sanction--'Td give her a dollar if she would help me." Negative sanction--"l'd just take the hag of pretzels away from him." Appeal to external sources--"I'd tell the teacher it's my turn to ride." Cooperative solution--"We could both put our coats on the same hanger." Temporary withdrawal--"I'd just go do something else." No tactic--"l don't know" or no response.
Frequency of strategies was computed by summing the number of strategies produced in each category across the five story situations. Number of
Interpersonal Tactics
157
unique alternatives was defined as the number of different solution categories produced for each story situation and summed across the five stories. Thus, number of unique alternatives could range f r o m 5-25 for each subject. RESULTS Our initial interest was the types of persuasive tactics used by mentally retarded and nonretarded children of the two ethnic groups. Table 1 displays the total frequencies and corresponding percentages of tactic usage according to category for each of the four groups. Examination of Table 1 reveals that of the six types of strategies thought to be useful in resolving interpersonal problems, asking is easily the most preferred by all groups (although " n o tactic" may indeed be an important indicator of problem-solving competence, it can hardly be considered an effective strategy in this regard). T e m p o r a r y withdrawal and cooperation are the next most preferred strategies of nonretarded children. For mentally retarded children of both ethnic groups, a somewhat different pattern emerges. Aside from asking, the responses of mentally retarded children are fairly evenly distributed across the remaining five response categories. It is also interesting to note the relatively greater likelihood of mentally retarded youngsters to fail to produce a problem-solving response, as reflected in the no tactic category. No ethnic group differences are readily apparent from examination of Table 1. A 2(ethnicity) x 2(group: retarded vs. nonretarded) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed including six of the seven tactic categories as dependent variables (appeal to external sources was excluded f r o m this analysis since it occurred in less than 10% of responses of all groups). Neither the interaction nor main effect due to ethnicity was significant but the analysis did yield a significant main effect due to group ( F = 6.32, 6/51 df,
TABLE 1. Frequencies/Percentages of Tactic Usage by Ethnicity and Educational Status*
Category Asking Cooperation Positive Sanction External Appeal Withdrawal Negative Sanction No Tactic
Anglo
Retarded Mexican
93 (25°70) 23 (06070) 41 (11%) 20 (05070) 32 (09070) 39 (10070) 127 (34070)
99 (26070) 26 (07070) 29 (08070) 24 (06070) 34 (0907o) 35 (0907o) 128 (34070)
abased on a total of 375 responses per group
Nonretarded Anglo Mexican 90 (24%) 59 (16%) 21 (06070) 16 (04070) 79 (21070) 26 (070/0) 84 (22%)
85 (23070) 58 (15070) 26 (07%) 15 (04°70) 63 (17070) 22 (06070) 106 (28%)
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Robert Rueda and Doug C. Smith
p < .001). Further analysis of group differences through a series of one-way analysis of variance on each of the six dependent variables (i.e., univariate A N O V A ) resulted in two significant findings. First, nonretarded children produced a greater number of cooperative strategies across all five problem situations than did mentally retarded children ( F = 30.97, 1/56 df, p < .001). In addition, nonretarded children engage in the strategy of temporary withdrawal significantly more often than mentally retarded children ( F = 15.49, 1/5 df, p < .001). Secondly we were interested in the number of unique alternative problemsolving strategies produced by each group in response to the five situations. A 2(ethnicity) x 2(group: retarded vs. nonretarded) unvariate analysis of variance run on total number of unique solutions summed across the five problem situations yielded no significant interaction or main effects attributable to either independent variable. Number of unique alternatives ranged, in fact, only from 11.59 to 13.04 for the four groups. DISCUSSION The most salient findings of the study were the differences in problemsolving strategies of mentally retarded and nonretarded children of both ethnic groups. Overall, the findings suggest that nonretarded children utilize strategies such as cooperation and temporary withdrawal more often than retarded children. If we assume that socialization practices have some impact on the development of strategy choice in problem-solving situations, this raises the possibility that experiences associated with the nature of mental retardation may have a more pervasive influence on one's social development than ethnic group membership. This is interesting in light of the large literature reporting ethnic group differences in social orientation. Along with experimental factors, specific social-cognitive skills may also contribute to differences in problem-solving between mentally retarded and nonretarded persons. One such skill is role-taking, or the ability to put oneself in the shoes of others, and to understand how others are experiencing the world (Greenspan, 1979). Previous research with mentally retarded children has found a positive relationship between role-taking ability and interpersonal tactics on problem-solving tasks (Affleck, 1975a; 1975b; 1976). Further, there is evidence that there are differences in role-taking ability between mentally retarded and nonretarded subjects of the same chronological age (as was the case in this study) (see Greenspan, 1979 for a review of the area). Such an interpretation is supported by the informal questions which we were able to ask some of the subjects after they had completed the interpersonal tactics task. For example, several of the nonretarded subjects, when questioned about the effectiveness of their use of temporary withdrawal as a strategy, responded that if the other party refused to give up a toy or food
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159
item (particularly after one or more requests had been made) then that item was probably very important to them. It seems that, at least for some of the subjects, the use o f temporary withdrawal was based on the needs and feelings of the other person in a conflict situation. Mentally retarded children's infrequent use of cooperative strategies in this study conflicts somewhat with the findings of Madsen and Connor (1973) who found mentally retarded subjects to be more cooperative on the Madsen marble-pull apparatus than nonretarded age-matched peers. One possibility to account for this discrepancy is the very real difference in demands presented by the two tasks. The Madsen task was essentially a closed two-choice format requiring the child to either pull (competitive) or acquiese (cooperative) in the context of obtaining marble. Although pairs of mentally retarded children accumulated significantly more marbles via cooperative strategies than did nonretarded subjects, Madsen did not discuss how the marbles were distributed among the pairs. It may be that one mentally retarded child in the pair simply acquiesed to the wishes of the other over most trials. In this sense, the Madsen task may not be measuring cooperation per se, but rather passivity exhibited by some mentally retarded children. In the present study, children were required to draw on their knowledge of social situations, as well as previous experience, in arriving at effective solutions. Cooperation, in this sense, may be regarded as a rather high level cognitive strategy since it requires coordinating the needs of both parties involved in the conflict. On the other hand, it may be that cooperative strategies are used infrequently by mentally retarded children in interpersonal situations simply because they rarely produce desired results. Previous cooperative overtures may have been interpreted as a sign of acquiesence by nonretarded peers. One problem with the task used in this study was that it did not include the rationales used by the subjects in selecting a particular strategy. It may be possible for two subjects to select the same strategy being coded differently than would otherwise have been the case. Future studies using this type of methodology would benefit from modifying the task to include systematic collection of this additional data. An even more important question, on which little or no data exists, regards the type of strategies which mentally retarded and nonretarded children use in everyday settings. It may be that certain strategies are differentially effective for these two groups of children. That is, for the mentally retarded child who occupies a low sociometric status in a social setting (e.g., the classroom), positive sanction may be the most effective way to obtain something from another. Further understanding of the use and significance of interpersonal tactics in problem-solving situations will likely need to incorporate naturalistic, as well as experimental, procedures in the research design.
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Acknowledgements--Support for this research was provided through a College of Education Research grant to the first author at Arizona State University. In addition, portions of this manuscript were completed while the first author was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. Support during that period was provided through the following: ADAMHA N1MH-MH 15972-03, Ford Foundation 780-0638A, and Carnegie Grant DC 15 Department 0684. The authors especially wish to thank the children and schools who participated in ths study but who must remain anonymous. REFERENCE
NOTES
l. Platt, J., Altman, N., & Altman, D. Dimensions of real lifeproblem-solving in adolescent psychiatric patients. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., 1973. 2. Platt, J., & Spivack, G. Studies in problem-solving thinking of psychiatric patients: Patient control differences andfact orialstructure of problem solving thinking. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, 1973. 3. Chan, K. S., Smith, D., & Reid, H. Interpersonal tactics of mentally retarded and normally achieving children. Paper presented at Annual meeting of t he Western Psychological Association, Seattle, 1977. 4. Chan, K. Test of social problem solving. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Los Angeles, 1979.
REFERENCES Affleck, G. G. Role-taking ability and interpersonal conflict resolution among retarded young adults. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1975, 80, 223-236. (a) Affleck, G. G. Role-taking ability and the interpersonal competencies for retarded children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1975, 80, 312-316. (b) Affleck, G. G. Role-taking and the interpersonal tactics of retarded children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1976, 80, 667-670. Alvellar, J., & Kagan, S. Development of competitive behaviors in Anglo-American and Mexican-American children. Psychological Reports, 1976, 39, 191-198. Cohen, J. A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological measurement, 1960, 20, 37-47. Clark, R., & Delia, J. The development of functional persuasive skills in childhood and early adolescence. Child Development, 1976, 47, 1008-1014. Greenspan, S. Social intelligence in the retarded. In N. R. Ellis (Ed.), Handbook of mental deficiency: Psychological theory and research (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1979. Kagan, S. Social motives and behaviors of Mexican-American and Anglo-American children. In J. L. Martinez (Ed.), Chicano psychology. New York: Academic Press, 1977. Kagan, S. Ecology and the acculturation of cognitive and social styles among Mexican-American children. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 1981, 3(2), 111-144. Kagan, S., & Madsen, M. Cooperation and competition of Mexican, Mexican-American children of two ages under four instructional sets. Developmental Psychology, 1971, 5, 32-39. Kagan, S., Zahn, G., & Gealy, J. Competition and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1977, 69, 432-441. Knight, G., & Kagan, S. Development of prosocial and competitive behaviors in Anglo-American and Mexican-American children. Child Development, 1977, 48, 1385-1394. (a) Light, R. J. Measures of response agreement for qualitative data: Some generalizations and alternatives. Psychological Bulletin, 1971, 76(5), 365-377.
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Madsen, M. C., & Connor, C. Cooperative and competitive behavior of retarded and nonretarded children at two ages. Child Development, 1973, 44, 175-178. Madsen, M. C., & Shapira, A. Cooperative and competitive behavior of urban Afro-American, Anglo-American, Mexican-Amcrican, and Mexican village children. Developmental Psychology, 1970, 3, 16--20. McClintock, C. Development of social motives in Anglo-Americanand Mexican-Americanchildren. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 29, 348-354. Piche, G. L., Rubin, D. L., & Michlin, M. L. Age and social class in children's useofpersuasive communicative appeals. Child Development, 1978, 49, 773-780. Shure, M. B., Spivack, G., & Jaeger, M. A. Problem-solving thinking and adjustment among disadvantaged preschool children. Child Development, 1971, 42, 1791-1803. Simeonsson, R. J. Social competence: Dimensions and directions. In J. R. Wortis (F__,d.),Annual review of mental retardation and developmental disabilities (Vol. X). New York: Brunner/ Mazel, 1978. Smith, D. C. Social problem-solving skills of socially competent and incompetent children. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981). Dissertation Abstracts International, 1982, 42, 3519 A. (University Microfilms No. 8201156) Weiss, D., & Weinstein, E. Interpersonal tactics among mental retardates. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1967, 72, 653-661.
Applied Research in MentalRetardation, Vol. 4, pp. 153-161, 1983 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
Interpersonal Tactics and Communicative Strategies of Anglo-American and Mexican-American Mildly Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded Students Robert Rueda
Doug C. Smith
and
Arizona State University
University of Illinois, Chicago
In this investigation, we compared the preferred interpersonal tactics o f mildly mentally retarded Mexican-American and Anglo-American children in an experimental social problem-solving situation. Sixty subjects were divided into four equal groups based upon ethnicity (Mexican-American or Anglo-American) and educational status (mildly mentally retarded or nonretarded). Results indicated that although there were no ethnic group differences, differences in preferred problem solving strategies were demonstrated by mentally retarded and nonretarded children. Overall, nonretarded children tended to utilize strategies such as cooperation and temporary withdrawal more often than mentally retarded children.
INTRODUCTION Although there is little consensus on the exact parameters of social competence, a recent m a j o r review of social intelligence identified social problemsolving as a primary component (Greenspan, 1979). This construct, which entails both persuasiveness and conflict resolution skills, has been related to a number of aspects of behavioral adjustment in child, adolescent, and adult populations (Shure, Spivack, & Jaeger, 1971; Platt, Altman, & Altman, Note 1, Platt & Spivack, Note 2). There have been relatively few studies of social problem-solving a m o n g
Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Robert Rueda, Collegeof Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85721. 153
154
Robert Rueda and Doug C. Smith
mentally retarded or nonretarded children (see Greenspan, 1979 and Simeonsson, 1978 for recent reviews). In general, findings suggest that older children are significantly better able than younger children to use persuasive strategies which show sensitivity to the perspectives and needs of the persons being persuaded (Clark & Delia, 1976) and that as children mature cognitively, they are able to produce a wider variety of effective problem-solving strategies (Piche, Rubin, & Michlin, 1978). Research with mildly mentally retarded youngsters has demonstrated that they produce fewer alternative strategies and utilize different, and perhaps more primitive, strategies than their nonretarded peers (Chan, Smith, & Reid, Note 3; Weiss & Weinstein, 1967). Careful review of the social problem-solving literature, particularly that dealing with mentally retarded subjects, reveals a notable lack of cross-cultural investigations. Based on cross-cultural studies of normally achieving children, however it might be expected that there would be differences in social problem-solving among mentally retarded children of different cultrual/linguistic backgrounds. Recent reviews by Kagan (1977; 1981) provide a summary o f research findings related to differences in social orientation among Mexican, MexicanAmerican and Anglo-American children. The literature reviews suggest that there are broad but reliable cultural differences among these groups in terms of competitive vs. cooperative social styles. In particular, the evidence indicates that Mexican and Mexican-American children tend to exhibit more cooperative behavior than Anglo-American children. This evidence is fairly consistent across studies utilizing a variety of sample populations and measurement techniques (Avellar & Kagan, 1976; Kagan, 1977; Kagan & Madsen, 1971; Kagan, Zahn & Gealy, 1977; Knight & Kagan, 1977; Madsen & Shapira, 1970; McClintock, 1974). Although some evidence indicates that second- and third-generation Mexican-American children living in urban settings tend to accultrate to a more competitive orientation, there remains some similarity in their behavior to that of rural Mexican children who exhibit a cooperative social style (Kagan, 1981). The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the preferred interpersonal tactics used in an experimental social problem-solving situation by nonretarded and mildly mentally retarded Mexican-American and AngloAmerican children. The following hypotheses were derived from the existing literature on social problem-solving. First, it was predicted that nonretarded children of both ethnic groups would produce a higher frequency of tactics that might be regarded as reflective of understanding the needs of the other party involved in the interaction. Secondly, it wa predicted that nonretarded children, irrespective of ethnicity, would produce a greater number of unique alternative solutions than mentally retarded youngsters. Finally, it was predicted that Mexican-American chil-
Interpersonal Tactics
155
dren would produce a higher frequency of strategies than could be viewed as " c o o p e r a t i v e " in these situations. METHOD
Subjects Sixty subjects were divided into four equal groups based upon ethnicity (Mexican-American or Anglo-American) and educational status (mildly mentally retarded or nonretarded.) Ethnicity was determined by school records and verified through interviews with teachers or phone contact with each child's parents. All Mexican-American subjects were either second or thirdgeneration Americans. Educational status was determined through school records. All mentally retarded subjects were in special class placements at the time of the study. All subjects were selected from two public schools located within the same urban district, both having similar demographic characteristics. The subjects within each group were matched as closely as possible according to age and, in the case of mentally retarded subjects, according to IQ. Although IQ scores were not available for the nonretarded sample, these subjects were randomly selected from a pool of subjects from three regular classrooms. Teachers indicated that none of the subjects selected were experiencing academic difficulty at the time of the study. In order to take into account differences in socio-economic status between ethnic groups, family income for each subject was classified into categories based on incremental levels of three-thousand dollars, e.g., $10,000-$12,000; $13,000-$15,000; etc. Results of a chi-square analysis indicated that there were no significant differences between family income levels o f the MexicanAmerican and Anglo-American groups. Mean chronological ages (CA) (in months) and standard deviations (SD) for each of the four groups were as follows: 1) Mexican-American mentally retarded CA = 132.1, SD = 7.1; 2) Mexican-American nonretarded CA = 131.5, SD = 7.5; 3) Anglo-American mentally retarded CA = 132.6, SD = 7.1; 4) Anglo-American nonretarded C A = 125.6, S D = 3 . 5 . Mean Wisc-R IQ scores for mentally retarded children was 61.7 (SD = 8.1) for the MexicanAmerican sample and 65.3 (SD = 6.8) for the Anglo-American sample.
Task The task used in this investigation was the Test of Social Problem-Solving (Chan, Note 4). This instrument overcomes problems associated with earlier measures of social problem-solving; namely complete reliance upon a verbal format and reliance only upon a child's first response.
156
Robert Rueda and Doug C. Smith
The test includes two sets of five drawings, both a male and female set, and a practice picture for each set. The five pictures depict specific interpersonal problems including a conflict of interest over a toy, desire to share food owned by another, need to persuade another to assist in completing a difficult task, desire to share an object, and wish to convince another to participate in a game. Each picture is accompanied by a story describing the action and social problem illustrated. These stories are read to each child by the examiner. Subjects are then prompted to produce as many unique tactics as possible up to a total of five strategies. In terms of concurrent discriminant validity, a marginally significant difference was found between number of alternative strategies produced by socially competent and incompetent children as determined by teacher ratings (Smith, 1982).
Procedure Subjects were individually interviewed by a trained graduate student blind to the purposes of the study. Both the order of presentation of the five problems of the Test of Social Problem Solving as well as the order of subjects tested was predetermined using a table of random numbers. All responses were tape recorded and later transcribed for coding and analysis.
Scoring Social problem-solving strategies were coded into one of seven mutually exclusive categories by one of the authors. In addition, the first strategy of all subjects on all five problems solving situations (300 total strategies) was rated by a doctoral student naive to the purpose of the study. Kappa was calculated as a measure of inter-rater reliability because in addition to providing a measure of reliability it provides a correction of chance-expected agreement (Cohen, 1960; Light, 1971). Calculation of this measure of inter-rater reliability yielded a coefficient of .84. The seven response categories and an example of each is as follows: I. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Asking--"I would say can I ride the hike." Positive sanction--'Td give her a dollar if she would help me." Negative sanction--"l'd just take the hag of pretzels away from him." Appeal to external sources--"I'd tell the teacher it's my turn to ride." Cooperative solution--"We could both put our coats on the same hanger." Temporary withdrawal--"I'd just go do something else." No tactic--"l don't know" or no response.
Frequency of strategies was computed by summing the number of strategies produced in each category across the five story situations. Number of
Interpersonal Tactics
157
unique alternatives was defined as the number of different solution categories produced for each story situation and summed across the five stories. Thus, number of unique alternatives could range f r o m 5-25 for each subject. RESULTS Our initial interest was the types of persuasive tactics used by mentally retarded and nonretarded children of the two ethnic groups. Table 1 displays the total frequencies and corresponding percentages of tactic usage according to category for each of the four groups. Examination of Table 1 reveals that of the six types of strategies thought to be useful in resolving interpersonal problems, asking is easily the most preferred by all groups (although " n o tactic" may indeed be an important indicator of problem-solving competence, it can hardly be considered an effective strategy in this regard). T e m p o r a r y withdrawal and cooperation are the next most preferred strategies of nonretarded children. For mentally retarded children of both ethnic groups, a somewhat different pattern emerges. Aside from asking, the responses of mentally retarded children are fairly evenly distributed across the remaining five response categories. It is also interesting to note the relatively greater likelihood of mentally retarded youngsters to fail to produce a problem-solving response, as reflected in the no tactic category. No ethnic group differences are readily apparent from examination of Table 1. A 2(ethnicity) x 2(group: retarded vs. nonretarded) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed including six of the seven tactic categories as dependent variables (appeal to external sources was excluded f r o m this analysis since it occurred in less than 10% of responses of all groups). Neither the interaction nor main effect due to ethnicity was significant but the analysis did yield a significant main effect due to group ( F = 6.32, 6/51 df,
TABLE 1. Frequencies/Percentages of Tactic Usage by Ethnicity and Educational Status*
Category Asking Cooperation Positive Sanction External Appeal Withdrawal Negative Sanction No Tactic
Anglo
Retarded Mexican
93 (25°70) 23 (06070) 41 (11%) 20 (05070) 32 (09070) 39 (10070) 127 (34070)
99 (26070) 26 (07070) 29 (08070) 24 (06070) 34 (0907o) 35 (0907o) 128 (34070)
abased on a total of 375 responses per group
Nonretarded Anglo Mexican 90 (24%) 59 (16%) 21 (06070) 16 (04070) 79 (21070) 26 (070/0) 84 (22%)
85 (23070) 58 (15070) 26 (07%) 15 (04°70) 63 (17070) 22 (06070) 106 (28%)
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p < .001). Further analysis of group differences through a series of one-way analysis of variance on each of the six dependent variables (i.e., univariate A N O V A ) resulted in two significant findings. First, nonretarded children produced a greater number of cooperative strategies across all five problem situations than did mentally retarded children ( F = 30.97, 1/56 df, p < .001). In addition, nonretarded children engage in the strategy of temporary withdrawal significantly more often than mentally retarded children ( F = 15.49, 1/5 df, p < .001). Secondly we were interested in the number of unique alternative problemsolving strategies produced by each group in response to the five situations. A 2(ethnicity) x 2(group: retarded vs. nonretarded) unvariate analysis of variance run on total number of unique solutions summed across the five problem situations yielded no significant interaction or main effects attributable to either independent variable. Number of unique alternatives ranged, in fact, only from 11.59 to 13.04 for the four groups. DISCUSSION The most salient findings of the study were the differences in problemsolving strategies of mentally retarded and nonretarded children of both ethnic groups. Overall, the findings suggest that nonretarded children utilize strategies such as cooperation and temporary withdrawal more often than retarded children. If we assume that socialization practices have some impact on the development of strategy choice in problem-solving situations, this raises the possibility that experiences associated with the nature of mental retardation may have a more pervasive influence on one's social development than ethnic group membership. This is interesting in light of the large literature reporting ethnic group differences in social orientation. Along with experimental factors, specific social-cognitive skills may also contribute to differences in problem-solving between mentally retarded and nonretarded persons. One such skill is role-taking, or the ability to put oneself in the shoes of others, and to understand how others are experiencing the world (Greenspan, 1979). Previous research with mentally retarded children has found a positive relationship between role-taking ability and interpersonal tactics on problem-solving tasks (Affleck, 1975a; 1975b; 1976). Further, there is evidence that there are differences in role-taking ability between mentally retarded and nonretarded subjects of the same chronological age (as was the case in this study) (see Greenspan, 1979 for a review of the area). Such an interpretation is supported by the informal questions which we were able to ask some of the subjects after they had completed the interpersonal tactics task. For example, several of the nonretarded subjects, when questioned about the effectiveness of their use of temporary withdrawal as a strategy, responded that if the other party refused to give up a toy or food
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item (particularly after one or more requests had been made) then that item was probably very important to them. It seems that, at least for some of the subjects, the use o f temporary withdrawal was based on the needs and feelings of the other person in a conflict situation. Mentally retarded children's infrequent use of cooperative strategies in this study conflicts somewhat with the findings of Madsen and Connor (1973) who found mentally retarded subjects to be more cooperative on the Madsen marble-pull apparatus than nonretarded age-matched peers. One possibility to account for this discrepancy is the very real difference in demands presented by the two tasks. The Madsen task was essentially a closed two-choice format requiring the child to either pull (competitive) or acquiese (cooperative) in the context of obtaining marble. Although pairs of mentally retarded children accumulated significantly more marbles via cooperative strategies than did nonretarded subjects, Madsen did not discuss how the marbles were distributed among the pairs. It may be that one mentally retarded child in the pair simply acquiesed to the wishes of the other over most trials. In this sense, the Madsen task may not be measuring cooperation per se, but rather passivity exhibited by some mentally retarded children. In the present study, children were required to draw on their knowledge of social situations, as well as previous experience, in arriving at effective solutions. Cooperation, in this sense, may be regarded as a rather high level cognitive strategy since it requires coordinating the needs of both parties involved in the conflict. On the other hand, it may be that cooperative strategies are used infrequently by mentally retarded children in interpersonal situations simply because they rarely produce desired results. Previous cooperative overtures may have been interpreted as a sign of acquiesence by nonretarded peers. One problem with the task used in this study was that it did not include the rationales used by the subjects in selecting a particular strategy. It may be possible for two subjects to select the same strategy being coded differently than would otherwise have been the case. Future studies using this type of methodology would benefit from modifying the task to include systematic collection of this additional data. An even more important question, on which little or no data exists, regards the type of strategies which mentally retarded and nonretarded children use in everyday settings. It may be that certain strategies are differentially effective for these two groups of children. That is, for the mentally retarded child who occupies a low sociometric status in a social setting (e.g., the classroom), positive sanction may be the most effective way to obtain something from another. Further understanding of the use and significance of interpersonal tactics in problem-solving situations will likely need to incorporate naturalistic, as well as experimental, procedures in the research design.
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Acknowledgements--Support for this research was provided through a College of Education Research grant to the first author at Arizona State University. In addition, portions of this manuscript were completed while the first author was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. Support during that period was provided through the following: ADAMHA N1MH-MH 15972-03, Ford Foundation 780-0638A, and Carnegie Grant DC 15 Department 0684. The authors especially wish to thank the children and schools who participated in ths study but who must remain anonymous. REFERENCE
NOTES
l. Platt, J., Altman, N., & Altman, D. Dimensions of real lifeproblem-solving in adolescent psychiatric patients. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., 1973. 2. Platt, J., & Spivack, G. Studies in problem-solving thinking of psychiatric patients: Patient control differences andfact orialstructure of problem solving thinking. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, 1973. 3. Chan, K. S., Smith, D., & Reid, H. Interpersonal tactics of mentally retarded and normally achieving children. Paper presented at Annual meeting of t he Western Psychological Association, Seattle, 1977. 4. Chan, K. Test of social problem solving. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Los Angeles, 1979.
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Madsen, M. C., & Connor, C. Cooperative and competitive behavior of retarded and nonretarded children at two ages. Child Development, 1973, 44, 175-178. Madsen, M. C., & Shapira, A. Cooperative and competitive behavior of urban Afro-American, Anglo-American, Mexican-Amcrican, and Mexican village children. Developmental Psychology, 1970, 3, 16--20. McClintock, C. Development of social motives in Anglo-Americanand Mexican-Americanchildren. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 29, 348-354. Piche, G. L., Rubin, D. L., & Michlin, M. L. Age and social class in children's useofpersuasive communicative appeals. Child Development, 1978, 49, 773-780. Shure, M. B., Spivack, G., & Jaeger, M. A. Problem-solving thinking and adjustment among disadvantaged preschool children. Child Development, 1971, 42, 1791-1803. Simeonsson, R. J. Social competence: Dimensions and directions. In J. R. Wortis (F__,d.),Annual review of mental retardation and developmental disabilities (Vol. X). New York: Brunner/ Mazel, 1978. Smith, D. C. Social problem-solving skills of socially competent and incompetent children. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981). Dissertation Abstracts International, 1982, 42, 3519 A. (University Microfilms No. 8201156) Weiss, D., & Weinstein, E. Interpersonal tactics among mental retardates. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1967, 72, 653-661.