Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Ellen A. Skinner
Term of Graduation
Summer 2025
Date of Publication
8-22-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Applied Psychology
Department
Psychology
Language
English
Subjects
Behavioral Learning, Classroom Observations, Naturalistic Observations, Peer Groups, Social Reinforcement, Socialization
Physical Description
1 online resource (viii, 209 pages)
Abstract
Students' active engagement in learning activities is presumed to be influenced by their interactions with social partners in the classroom setting, like teachers and peers. For instance, statements of support or affirmation from teachers or peer group members are assumed to encourage positive behaviors for struggling students, while statements of disapproval are assumed to discourage and undermine active classroom behaviors. Extant research examining these processes typically tries to demonstrate significant interaction patterns or show influence over time by way of indirect behavioral measures, such as survey-based assessments. It is an open question whether these processes of influence can be directly detected in continuous naturalistic observations of social interactions.
This dissertation had three goals. The first was conceptual. It aimed to present the argument that strategies researchers have used to detect social reinforcement processes in naturalistic settings to date are limited in their utility, because they do not capture processes that correspond to the theoretical definition of social reinforcement. The second goal was methodological. The dissertation introduced two analytic strategies designed to capture behavior change resulting from potentially reinforcing consequences of previous behaviors, observed in real-time during continuous classroom observations. These methods improve upon existing strategies by examining actual behavioral change resulting from prior consequences, rather than assuming reinforcing functions from overall behavior-consequence sequence patterns.
The third and primary goal of the dissertation was empirical and substantive. It applied these analytic strategies to a dataset of middle-school classroom observations previously used to assess statistically significant behavior-consequence contingency patterns. This dissertation reanalyzed this dataset to test observable reinforcement functions of statistically significant contingencies and compared the effects of consequences delivered by teachers, peer group members, and other classmates. Hence, it was one of the first studies to provide information about naturalistic processes of teacher and peer social reinforcement as they unfold in the classroom over time. In other words, the dissertation aimed to detect short-term influence processes that peer groups may exert on adolescents' engaged classroom behaviors. The study focused on possible short-term mechanisms that may help explain more general long-term peer influence effects.
Analyses revealed a multi-faceted and complex picture of social reinforcement processes in daily classroom interactions. Within student analyses of change found that direct Social Approval contingencies had a mix of unexpected punishing effects for Off-Task behaviors when delivered by peer group members and other classmates. There were no consistent effects of Social Approval contingencies directly related to intra-individual reinforcer effects for On-Task behaviors nor for Social Disapproval punisher effects for Off-Task behaviors, from peers, classmates or teachers. An observation level analysis looking at change across students revealed a different story. In this set of analyses, Social Approval had an unexpected punishing effect for On-Task behaviors when delivered by any social partner and non-peer group classmates. For Off-Task behaviors, across students, peer group partners showed consistent reinforcing effects, and this was most pronounced for students most likely to receive Approval contingencies. This pattern was not captured by a regression analysis of intra-individual change from a more traditional learning perspective. Finally, despite a low sample of interactions, Teacher Disapproval contingencies for Off-Task behaviors showed unexpected reinforcer effects across students, but also, punishing effects for students most likely to experience Disapproval contingencies for Off-Task behaviors. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of these analytic strategies, the overall contributions of the study, and the implications of the findings for future research and applications, including reassessing the analytic strategies we use to address social influence processes in real-world settings with naturalistic observations.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44113
Recommended Citation
DeLaney, James Lamar III, "Capturing Processes of Influence in Students' Social Interactions: Examining a Two-Part Strategy to Detect Patterns of Reinforcement in Continuous Real-time Observations in the Classroom" (2025). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6929.