10.22.06

Stapel, D.A. and Koomen, W. (2005) Competition, cooperation, and the effects of others on me. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 88(6), p. 1029-38.

Posted in cooperative context, cooperative orientation, competitive, Annotated References - RDP readings at 6:01 pm by youngsah

Stapel, D.A. and Koomen, W. (2005) Competition, cooperation, and the effects of others on me.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 88(6), p. 1029-38.

This study talks about several studies comparing competitive and cooperative strategies.  The authors focused on social comparison effects hypothesizing that cooperation would make people compare themselves more with peers and their self-view while competition would lead them to compare themselves less using their self-view to others.  The authors also hypothesized that this effect may occur outside of actual competition when merely the concept of competition is activated.  In study 1 they treated cooperation/competition as an individual difference variable.  They measured the cooperation or competition orientation of the subjects.  In study 2 they measured the cooperativeness or competitiveness of the context.  Study 3, looked at whether the competitive frame of mind could be primed from words when a person the subject was competing with wasn’t present.  Study 4 compared competitive v. cooperative contexts with competitive v. cooperative people.  In general, they found that people did more differential thinking when either primed with a competitive context or when they had a competitive mindset.  People did more integrative thinking and assimilation when they were exposed to cooperative contexts or when they had a cooperative mindset.

In general interesting.  Not specifically cooperative learning but a bit outside the field.  So even thinking in a competitive way or being in a competitive context (like many schools) can lead to people distancing themselves from others in their thinking processes.  This certainly wouldn’t be the way to create a community of learners.  It’s interesting that the subject can show this effect if he or she is merely primed for this context and that they can have a general mindset of cooperation and competition.  Different methods certainly work for different people.  I liked that the researchers explored these problems separately then brought them together in later studies.