THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVE REWARD INTERDEPENDENCY IN SUCCESS AND FAILURE

The self-worth-related consequences of success and failure for low and high performers under two reward structures (cooperative and competit ive) and two reward standards (achievement and improvement) were compa red. Participants were 282 middle school children who solved puzzles i ndependently, but side-by-side in same-sex, same-grade pairs. Performa nce was experimentally manipulated to produce high and low performers in each pair and successful and unsuccessful pairs. Students worked un der competitive or cooperative reward conditions. Results indicated th at (a) regardless of reward contingencies, success or failure played a critical role in perceptions of individual differences: Failure depre ssed perceptions of the other student's ability in each pair and decre ased reward allocations for both low and high performers, and (b) coop erative reward interdependency accentuated perceptions of ability diff erences.