David W Johnson

University of Minnesota Twin Cities | UMN · Department of Educational Psychology

This tribute to Morton Deutsch celebrates his unique contributions to social psychological theory, research, cross-cultural applications to business and organizational settings, and cross-species applications. Mort's theorizing progressed from cooperation and competition to trust to conflict resolution to distributive justice, and finally to oppres...

Two aspects of teacher education for cooperative learning are the content taught and the processes used to teach the content. Of the two, the processes used may have the most powerful influences on the desired outcomes. One important theory related to the processes of learning is social interdependence theory. It posits that there are three ways to...

In order to ensure future generations of citizens in a democracy understand their rights and are committed to their responsibilities, schools must involve them in the processes of democracy on a day-to-day basis. The two steps for doing so are using cooperative learning the majority of the school day to engage students in the basic processes of dem...

The effect of goal versus goal and task interdependence was compared on achievement, cooperative attitudes, and personal and academic support among cooperative learning groups. Eighty-seven third, fourth and fifth grade Italian elementary school students were involved in a one year cooperative learning program. At the end of the year students were...

If organizations are to flourish, their members must (a) create new ideas that suggest productive and profitable new directions and procedures and (b) innovate by implementing those ideas and procedures. Creativity and innovation are often derived from the clash of different perspectives and positions. Structuring conflict among ideas, conclusions,...

Why do people make decisions based on their own perspective without considering alternative points of view? Do differences of opinion enhance or obstruct critical thinking? Is it wise to seek out people who disagree with you and listen to their objections to your conclusions? Focusing on the theory, research, and application of constructive controv...

The four major theoretical orientations to cooperation and competition are cognitive development, behavioral learning, social cognitive, and social interdependence. Of the four, social interdependence theory has generated the most research and applications. The basic premise of social interdependence theory is that the type of interdependence struc...

Intergroup cooperation and intergroup competition were compared to determine if they promoted systematic differences in interaction between majority and minority students. Fifty-one fourth-grade students were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for minority status and sex. They participated in a study for 55 minutes a da...

Cooperative learning is an example of how theory validated by research may be applied to instructional practice. The major theoretical base for cooperative learning is social interdependence theory. It provides clear definitions of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. Hundreds of research studies have validated its basic proposit...

Four of the major theoretical orientations to cooperation and competition are cognitive-development, social-cognitive, behavioural-learning, and social interdependence theories. Of the four, social interdependence theory has generated the most research and applications. The basic premise of social interdependence theory is that the type of interdep...

Why do people make decisions based on their own perspective without considering alternative points of view? Do differences of opinion enhance or obstruct critical thinking? Is it wise to seek out people who disagree with you and listen to their objections to your conclusions? Focusing on the theory, research, and application of constructive controv...

NATURE OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING Cooperative learning is an application of social interdependence theory (Deutsch, 1949, 1962; Johnson and Johnson, 1989, 2005, 2009). Social interdependence the-ory posits that there are two types of social interdependence, positive (cooper-ative) and negative (competitive). Positive interdependence (i.e., cooperation...

The 21st century brings four important challenges in which cooperation plays a central role: (1) a rapidly increasing global interdependence that will result in increasing local diversity as well as more frequent and intense conflicts, (2) the increasing number of democracies throughout the world, (3) the need for creative entrepreneurs, and (4) th...

This meta-analysis investigates the degree to which achievement is positively associated with motivation within situations characterized by positive, negative, and no interdependence. First, the relative effects of positive, negative, and no interdependence on motivation and achievement were determined. Then the amount of variance in achievement ex...

Positive political discourse is the heart of democracy. The purposes of political discourse include making an effective decision about the course the society should take and building a moral bond among all members of the society. A responsibility of social sciences within a democratic society is to provide the theory, research, and normative proced...

Positive political discourse is the heart of democracy. The purposes of political discourse include making an effective decision about the course the society should take and building a moral bond among all members of the society. A responsibility of social sciences within a democratic society is to provide the theory, research, and normative proced...

The purpose of this article is to present the evidence concerning the impact of cooperative and competitive learning as well as constructive controversy on the development of professional ethics by law students. In addition, cooperative learning and constructive controversy increase student achievement, build better relationships among students, an...

Murayama and Elliot (2012) made a significant contribution to the literature on competition by presenting the results of 2 meta-analyses and 3 primary studies on the relation between competition and performance. Murayama and Elliot established that in general, there is no relationship between competition and performance. They then made the case tha...

This chapter integrates theory, research, and practice on constructive controversy and its role in conflict in interpersonal, intergroup, organizational, and international contexts and in constructive conflict management. In well-structured controversies, participants make an initial judgment, present their conclusions to other group members, are c...

Applies M. Deutsch's theory of cooperation and competition, particularly in terms of understanding conditions and dynamics through which conflict becomes constructive, to the collectivist culture of China. This chapter first outlines the North American research base for research in China and summarizes arguments against generalizing Deutsch's theor...

Sixty-one elementary school students who had never participated in cooperative learning lessons before were included in this study. Students were randomly assigned to the conditions of cooperative learning with and without group processing and participated to 5 instructional sessions during a period of approximately 15 instructional days. Results o...

To sustain peace, cooperation needs to be institutionalized in the political, economic, and educational institutions of the society. Institutionalizing peace in political institutions primarily mean that countries become democracies and that relations among countries are managed in democratic ways. The institutionalization of consensual peace in ed...

To ensure that restorative justice is effective, a cooperative context must be developed, future conflicts must be managed constructively, and relevant parties need to adopt civic values. The theory underlying the creation of a cooperative context is social interdependence theory. Goal interdependence may be positive (i.e., cooperative) or negative...

To establish and maintain peace, individuals need to engage in collective decision-making about complex and critical problems. Such collective decision-making is known as political discourse (Johnson & Johnson, 2000). Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the other founders of the American Republic considered political discourse to be the heart of d...

The authors examined the nature of dominant students in Grades 3–5 in a midwestern school system in the United States. Previous research has indicated 2 ways a student may gain dominance—through bullying and prosocial behaviors. A cluster analysis for dominant children was conducted using social interdependence attitude scores, children's self-repo...

Perhaps Morton Deutsch’s greatest legacy is his theory of social interdependence. Based on the previous theorizing of Kurt Koffka and Kurt Lewin, Deutsch’s formulation of the theory of cooperation and competition brought conceptual clarity to an area full of confusion and contradictions. It is well-formulated, summarizing complex observations in ab...

The relative efficacy of positive task interdependence, positive resource interdependence, and individualistic learning were compared with achievement and academic and personal social support. The authors randomly assigned to conditions 66 7th-grade Italian students with no previous experience in cooperative learning. They participated in 6 90-min...

This study examined the relationships among cooperative experiences, social interdependence predispositions, harm-intended aggression, victimization, and prosocial behaviors with 217 elementary school children from 3rd to 5th grade. Path analysis using LISREL indicates that cooperative experiences predicted cooperative predispositions, the absence...

The effect of cooperative learning in pairs and groups of 4 and in individualistic learning were compared on achievement, social support, and self-esteem. Sixty-two Italian 7th-grade students with no previous experience with cooperative learning were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for ability, gender, and self-estee...

We examined the effects of a constructive controversy compared with individualistic learning on 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade students' (N = 56) moral development, ethical skills, academic achievement, and attitudes toward social interdependence. The results indicated that participating in constructive controversy (compared with individualistic learning)...

This chapter argues that inculcating the values that students require in order to function as productive citizens of a democracy is most effectively achieved by ensuring that instruction and schooling are structured to create processes of promotive interaction among students and between students and faculty. The way that goals are structured in ins...

High-quality relationships are important for all aspects of the development and well-being of children and adolescents. Traditionally, the relationships between children and adults have been viewed as the most important vehicle for ensuring effective socialization and development. Child–child relationships are assumed to be, at best, relatively uni...

In common usage, individualism is defined as leading one's life in one's own way without regard for others. Individualism involves giving one's own interests precedence over the interests of the state or social group (i.e., egoism or selfishness). It is based on the belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-relia...

This study examined the relationships among cooperative experiences, social interdependence predispositions, harm-intended aggression, victimization, and prosocial behaviors with 217 elementary school children from the 3rd to 5th grades. Path analysis using LISREL indicate that cooperative experiences predicted cooperative predispositions, the abse...

The widespread and increasing use of cooperative learning is one of the great success stories of social and educational psychology. Its success largely rests on the relationships among theory, research, and practice. Social interdependence theory provides a foundation on which cooperative learning is built. More than 1,200 research studies have bee...

Although intellectual conflict may be an important instructional tool (because of its potential constructive outcomes), conflict is rarely structured in instructional situations (because of its potential destructive outcomes). Many educators may be apprehensive about instigating intellectual conflict among students because of the lack of operationa...

ABSTRACT This article describes the teacher's role in using cooperative learning groups to teach junior high school introductory French classes. It also describes the results of an evaluation of how cooperative learning experiences affect (1) the students' attitudes toward French, (2) their relationships with peers and the teacher, and (3) the perc...

Conflict is inherent in decision making and learning situations. It is a procedure for ensuring that effective decision in which all alternatives are given serious consideration and critically analyzed before deciding on which alternative to implement. It is also a procedure for maximizing learning in training and learning situations. In well struc...

The relation between predispositions for conflict resolution (i.e., controversy and conflicts of interests) and orientations toward life and work was investigated in this study. Questionnaires were administered to 135 Chinese employees from four finance, commercial service, and information and technology companies in Beijing. All materials were pre...

Emphasizing the developmental need for positive peer relationships, in this study the authors tested a social-contextual view of the mechanisms and processes by which early adolescents' achievement and peer relationships may be promoted simultaneously. Meta-analysis was used to review 148 independent studies comparing the relative effectiveness of...

The relationship between social interdependence and orientation toward life and work was investigated in this study. Participants were 135 dyads of Chinese employees from 4 companies. Cooperativeness was significantly related to positive indexes of orientation toward life and work, competitiveness was related to a positive orientation toward life,...

Cooperative learning is a classic example of the interaction among theory, research, and practice. It is based on social interdependence theory, whose basic premise is that the way in which goals are structured determines how individuals interact which, in turn, creates outcomes. Over 750 research studies have been conducted in the past eleven deca...

Teachers who wish to use cooperative learning effectively will wish to base their classroom practices on theory validated by research. To do so, they must first understand the nature of social interdependence (that is, cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts). Second, teachers need to understand that social interdependence theory is v...

Modern cooperative learning began in the mid- 1960s (D. W. Johnson & R. Johnson, 1999a). Its use, however, was resisted by advocates of social Darwinism (who believed that students must be taught to survive in a “dog-eat-dog” world) and individualism (who believed in the myth of the “rugged individualist”). Despite the resistance, cooperative learn...

The effectiveness of a conflict resolution and peer mediation program in a suburban Canadian secondary school was examined. Subjects were forty-two ninth-grade English students heterogeneous in academic achievement. A pretest-posttest control-group experimental design was employed. Students randomly assigned to the experimental condition spent ten...

A peer mediation training program was conducted in three classrooms in a midwestern, suburban, middle-class elementary school. Prior to the training program, frequent conflicts involving teasing, playground activities, academic work, and so on, were reported. Students seemed conditioned to look to the teacher for a solution to their conflicts becau...

This article examines the effectiveness of an inner-city peer mediation program in which third- and fourth-grade students were trained as conflict managers to mediate schoolmates' conflicts. The training consisted of one and one-half days of training in communication, assertiveness, and mediation skills. The majority of the conflicts brought to med...

Peace education is a key for establishing and maintaining a consensual peace. Creating an effective peace education program involves five steps. First, a public education system must be established with compulsory attendance; all children and youth should attend so that students from the previously conflicting groups interact and have the opportuni...

This study examined the impact of conflict-resolution training on students' use of distributive and integrative negotiating procedures. In a midwestern, suburban middle school, 176 students (grades 6 through 9) participated in the study. Students were placed in a negotiation situation involving the buying and selling of commodities in which they co...

This study examines the impact of motives and strategies on the constructiveness of competition. Sixty-four managers and 28 employees from Mainland China organizations described specific incidents of competition, from which indices of constructive competition were developed. They then rated motives and strategies that were hypothesized to affect co...

Social interdependence theory is a classic example of the interaction of theory, research, and practice. The premise of the theory is the way that goals are structured determines how individuals interact, which in turn creates outcomes. Since its formulation nearly 60 years ago, social interdependence theory has been modified, extended, and refined...

Peace education is a key for establishing a consensual peace and maintaining it overtime. There are five essential elements in building a lasting peace through education. First, a public education system must be established that has compulsory attendance for all children and youth, integrated so students fro previously conflicting groups interact w...

In past research on status and power, the two variables have often been confounded. Within an experimentally induced organization, status and power were separated and their effects on a series of dependent variables were examined. A three-factor design using high and low levels of power and status and norms prescribing defernce to high status or to...

IntroductionCooperative Group WorkOutcomes of Cooperative Group WorkEnsuring Group Work Is Cooperative: The Basic Elements of CooperationEnhancing Variables: Trust and ConflictConclusions References

Educators, researchers, and policy makers have advocated student involvement for some time as an essential aspect of meaningful learning. In the past twenty years engineering educators have implemented several means of better engaging their undergraduate students, including active and cooperative learning, learning communities, service learning, co...

Reviews a book "The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others," by Ervin Staub (see record 2003-88090-000). There is widespread belief in the existence of good and evil, but very little attempt to define these concepts conceptually and study them empirically. Author makes the following assumptions: good and...

The Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Program trains every student in a school in the competencies they need to (a) resolve conflicts constructively and (b) make their schools safe places in which to learn. The program is directly based on the theory and research on constructive conflict resolution. More than 16 studies in 2 different countries h...

The Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Program trains every student in a school in the competencies they need to (a) resolve conflicts constructively and (b) make their schools safe places in which to learn. The program is directly based on the theory and research on constructive conflict resolution. More than 16 studies in 2 different countries h...

Social interdependence theory is a classic example of the interaction among theory, research, and practice. The premise of the theory is that the way in which goals are structured determines how individuals interact, which in turn creates outcomes. Over 750 research studies have been conducted in the past 11 decades on the relative merits of cooper...

Of the numerous studies conducted on negotiations, almost all of them have focused on distributive negotiations. The study of integrative negotiations (compared with the study of distributive negotiations) has been relatively neglected due to the lack of (a) conceptual clarity about the nature of integrative negotiations, (b) a theoretical framewor...

An empirical analysis was conducted on the conditions under which competition can be constructive. The participants were 64 managers and 28 employees from organizations in mainland China. They were asked to describe specific incidents of competition between them and their fellow employees and rate on a 7-point Likert-type scale the conditions that...

Cooperative learning is commonly used to promote prosocial outcomes. It is often assumed that all types of cooperative learning are equal. One way in which cooperative learning procedures differ is in the role of conflict. This study compares the relative impact of two types of cooperative learning (concurrence-seeking which emphasizes harmony amon...

This chapter explores adversity, and methods of teaching students how to cope with stress and adversity. It discusses the independent-self and the interdependent-self, the ‘Three Cs’ programme, which emphasizes cooperative community (social interdependence, interpersonal relationships, group skills), constructive conflict (the benefits of controver...

University teaching has not changed significantly for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. The many attempts to reform university teaching have often demonstrated positive effects but have then been discontinued. One explanation for the resistance of teaching to change is that instructors fail to apply the same scientific rigor to their teachin...

Introduces this special issue of the Swiss Journal of Psychology. About ten years ago, interest in improving the level of teaching at the university level bubbled up to the surface again. Whether it came from increasing student dissatisfaction or from growing awareness by the colleges themselves, the need to teach more effectively became a goal wit...

The authors examined the effectiveness of conflict resolution and peer mediation training among California high school students. The authors randomly assigned 2 of 4 classes to receive 5 weeks of conflict resolution and peer mediation training integrated into the required social studies curriculum. The remaining 2 classes studied the same social st...

The authors examined the effects of positive interdependence vs. no interdependence on students' academic achievement. Participants included 151 U.S. college students who took weekly electronic quizzes on which they could interact with group mates in a chat room. In the positive interdependence condition, 1 member was chosen at random, and his or h...

The effectiveness of peer mediation was examined in an inner-city elementary school. Thirty-four third-grade and fourth-grade students in a prekindergarten to fourth-grade elementary school were trained as peer mediators to help resolve schoolmates’ conflicts. They mediated 206 conflicts during the academic year, 91% of which were relationship prob...