Children's Social Desirability Ratings of Ingratiation Tactics

Fifty-eight children drawn from schools in Pennsylvania and Illinois were administered a questionnaire made up of scenarios depicting ingratiation tactics directed toward three types of targets (parents, teachers, or peers). The children, 22 of whom were diagnosed as learning disabled, were asked to rate the social desirability of each tactic. Learning disabled and nondisabled children judged the social desirability of the items similarly. The children's judgments were then compared with adult judgments of the social desirability of the same items obtained in a previous study. It was found that children and adults both judged tactics in the context of target or setting, and that they appeared to agree about the desirability of particular tactics directed toward particular targets.