Group Contingencies

Group contingencies make use of peer pressure. Ideally, a teacher should strive to prevent negative peer pressure and use positive peer pressure to encourage achievement of appropriate behavior.

Group contingencies can have individual goals for each person in a group, individual goals for some people and group goals for the rest of the group, a group goal for the entire group, or different group goals for different groups within a larger group.

Problems occur when a person or subgroup(s) want to ruin it for the rest of the group or an individual is unable to perform the goal.

Suggestions to try to guard against negative peer pressure:

Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes ©