Efficacy of positive reinforcement and self control in the management of aggression behaviour among pupils

Abstract

The study investigated the efficacy of positive reinforcement (PR) and self-control (SC) in the management of aggression among pupils. The treatment is a quasi-experimental type that adopted a pretest, post test treatment control group using a 3 x 2 factorial matrix, with the treatment conditions in the rows and gender in the columns. There were three experimental groups comprising of two treatment groups and a no treatment control group. The participants compromised of 30 pupils who were randomly selected from a purposively choosen: school in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State and randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. Different types of researchers developed and validated test instruments were used at the pretest, post test and follow-up periods for identifying the aggressors and testing the effectiveness of the treatments. Two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. Data collected were analyzed with ANCOVA and Scheffe test. The results revealed among others, that positive reinforcement (PR) and self control (SC) were effective and superior to the control condition in reducing aggression. It also shows that positive reinforcement (PR) was more effective than self control (SC) both at post test and follow-up-periods in reducing aggression.