Effect of Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Experiences on Self-Esteem of Handicapped and Nonhandicapped Students

Compared are the effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning experiences on the self-esteem and perceived personal acceptance by the teacher of nonhandicapped and severely handicapped students in a mainstream setting. Thirty students (18 nonhandicapped and 12 trainable retarded) were randomly assigned to conditions stratified on the basis of handicap and sex. They participated in a bowling class which met for one hour per week for eight weeks. The results indicate that those in the cooperative condition had higher self-esteem and perceived more personal acceptance from the teacher than did the students in the competitive and individualistic conditions. Handicapped students reported higher self-esteem than nonhandicapped students.