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Discussion: Cooperation-Competition and Self-Esteem: A Case of Cultural Relativism
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shegstrom |
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shegstrom |
1. RE: Cooperation-Competition and Self-Esteem: Post 1
Apr 20 2008, 10:23 PM EDT
Recent and past studies have shown that among black and white children, high self esteem is associated with competitiveness.There also appears to be a correlation of self esteem and cooperation in 2nd generation Mexican American children, a cultural norm while in turn a cultural norm of competitiveness in the United States is associated with high self esteem. The relationship of cooperation-competition to self esteem was examined among two generations of Mexican American children and an Anglo Saxon American comparison group. To show that this correlation/conclusion was culturally within the context of the cultural group, or was what the group as a whole valued. The results showed that the modal response of Americans was adversary/superiority. For the 2nd generation Mexican Americans the modal response was equality followed closely by altruism/group enhancement. 3rd generation Mexican American children did not have modal response showing that 2nd generation Mexican American and Anglo Saxon American children tend to have higher self esteem than 3rd generation Mexican Americans. To verify these results could be replicated, high low median splits were calculated and differences in cooperation-competition for the groups were analyzed. The results indicted the relationship of self esteem to cooperation-competition was indeed culturally based. This study has shown that individuals learn to feel good about themselves in part by living up to their cultural norms. Do you find this valuable? |
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shegstrom |
2. RE: Cooperation-Competition and Self-Esteem: post 2
Apr 20 2008, 10:30 PM EDT
These findings show a need for previous researchers to change their theories that high self esteem students are likely to seek out competition as present results indicate the opposite, not only as being true, but culturally based. Assumptions by psychologists must also change. That is of minority groups in the U.S. having lower self esteem then Anglo Saxon Americans. The present study shows minority students to be more cooperative, proving again that this is a culturally based definition.To date, a wide range of methods have revealed a positive relationship in high self esteem and competitiveness in Black and White children in all communities within the United States. It is only among the recently immigrated Mexican American children that the relationship does not hold. Questions: 1. Do you think self esteem effects whether a student competes in athletics? 2. Do you think Mexican Americans place any merit in competition? 3. Why is it that that the competition-self esteem theory does not hold for recently immigrated Mexican American children? Do you find this valuable? |
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3. RE: Cooperation-Competition and Self-Esteem: A Case of Cultural Relati
Apr 22 2008, 12:39 AM EDT
The analysis consisted of combining the results from two former studies on generational differences for Mexican-American children in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade in predominantly Mexican-American schools to the one by Kagen and Knight. The communities involved in the studies were very stable, with similar income level. The mix of students for the Kagen and Knight investigation included "forty-one second-generation Mexican-American children, 50 third-generation Mexican-American children and forty-five Anglo-American children" (Peplau and Taylor, p. 332). The cooperation-competition measure used was a Social Behavior Scale, "which assesses total amount of rewards given to a peer as well as the frequency of alturism,/group enhancement, equality, superiority, and rivalry/superiority" (Peplau and Taylor, p. 332). Self-Esteem was measured using the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. The findings of Kagen and Knight suggest that children tend to have higher self-esteem when we adhere to the values of our cultural affiliation. Specifically addressed where the areas of cooperation-competition. For the Anglo-Americans, being very competitive resulted in high self-esteem. In sharp contrast, for Mexican-American children, cooperation leads to high self-esteem. Interestingly, "second-generation Mexican-American children make significantly more alturism/group enhancement responses than third-generation Mexican-American children , who make more Anglo-American children" (Peplau and Taylor, p. 333). In other words, from one generation to another for Mexican-American children, there tends to be less affiliation with the norms of their heritage and more of an affiliation with their current cultural influences. Discussion Questions: 1. Do you feel that the results may have been different if the study involved older children? Why or Why not? 2. If you were to conduct the study, what mix of students would you include? Why? Do you find this valuable? |
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shegstrom |
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Apr 22 2008, 7:03 PM EDT
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