Factors infuencing the imitation of resistance to deviation

128 male 3rd-6th graders in a lower-class school were assigned to 16 cells in a 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 design involving (a) modeling of resistance to deviation, (b) modeling of an alternative activity incompatible with deviation, (c) availability of the alternative activity during test, and (d) attractiveness of the alternative activity Ss exposed to a peer model who resisted deviation exhibited greater response inhibition than those exposed to a model who neither conformed to nor deviated from a prohibition, but who otherwise behaved similarly to the resisting model. The hypothesis that children exposed to alternative response modeling would show greater resistance to deviation, particularly when the alternative activity was available to them during test, was confirmed, but only for the 5th and 6th graders. There was evidence for a positive association between the attractiveness of the alternative response and resistance to deviation. It is concluded that the modeling of behavioral inhibition and the modeling of incompatible responses make independent contributions to children's resistance to deviation. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).