The effects of peer tutoring on aggressive and prosocial behaviors in the mentally retarded

Richard Buckey Chesley, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

Some of the positive social benefits found to accrue among participants of peer tutoring programs were investigated in mentally retarded subjects who were characterized by aggressive behavior. Twenty-five institutionalized adults were randomly assigned to be tutors or nontutuors. All subjects were trained to play with an experimental apparatus that delivered pairs of edible rewards following its correct operation. Subjects were taught to share one of the edibles with the trainer. During the experimental treatment, nontutors were allowed to operate the apparatus and to share with the trainer as before. However, tutors were prompted to demonstrate their skill to a peer and then to share an edible with them. As expected, the scores on posttreatment experimental tests of both sharing and helping were significantly higher for tutors (p $<$.05). In addition, tutors were found to be significantly less aggressive than nontutors on one measure of aggression (p $<$.05). The results are congruent with previous research and suggest that the positive effects of tutoring may extend to the mentally retarded. Potential biases in the procedure, as well as a number of alternative explanations for the results are discussed.

Subject Area

Psychology|Educational psychology|Special education

Recommended Citation

Chesley, Richard Buckey, "The effects of peer tutoring on aggressive and prosocial behaviors in the mentally retarded" (1989). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8917335.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8917335

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