Children's Perceptions of Hypothetical Peers With Undesirable Characteristics: Role of the Peers’ Desire to Change, Source of Effort to Change, and Outcome

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The present study, involving sixth- to eighth-grade students, is an extension of a prior investigation (Barnett, Livengood, Sonnentag, Barlett, & Witham, 2010) that examined children's perceptions of hypothetical peers with various undesirable characteristics. Results indicate that children's perceptions of hypothetical peers with an undesirable characteristic are influenced by the peers’ desire to change, the source of effort to change, and the peers’ success or failure in changing the characteristic. The children anticipated responding more favorably to peers who were successful in overcoming an undesirable characteristic than peers who were unsuccessful. Regardless of the peers’ outcome, the children anticipated responding more favorably to peers who tried to change than peers who relied on the effort of adult authorities to motivate change. The children perceived successful peers as experiencing more positive affect than their unsuccessful counterparts, especially if the success was presented as a fulfillment of the peers’ desire to change their undesirable characteristic. Finally, the children's ratings reflected the belief that, among peers who failed to change their undesirable characteristic, lacking the desire to change increases the relative likelihood that the characteristic will be permanent.

Keywords:

• responses to peers
• perceptions of peers
• social cognition

Notes

¹As in the prior study (Barnett et al., 2010), two other possible interview patterns (i.e., no desire/self-effort/success and no desire/self-effort/failure) were not included in the present study because it seemed unreasonable for a male peer to express no interest in changing a characteristic and, then, to describe the behaviors he engaged in to change that characteristic.

²Because of the size of the present sample, it was unfeasible to analyze the impact of the various desire/source of effort/outcome interview patterns on the children's perceptions of a peer with a specific undesirable characteristic. It should be noted that a similar data analysis constraint occurred in the Barnett et al. (2010) study.