Abstract: The subjects of this experiment were 46 juveniles tested in a 400-meter race. They were equally divided into two groups without theirknowledge. Those in Group A would be spurred on with encouragingwords during the race whereas those in Group B would be criticized.They ran the race in pairs, with one drawn from each group. Theirprevious individual 400-meter records were kept for comparison with theresults of this test. The subjects were told that their performance wouldbe judged in terms of both speed and technique. At the 100m, 200mand 300m points, several people were posted to do. the prodding orblaming to the individuals as planned. The results showed that the great majority of Group A studentsreacted positively to the encouraging words with added vigor;only asmall minority reacted negatively. The reaction of students in Group Bwas the opposite. The great majority of them lost their spirit in therace. The experiment points to the positive effect of encouragement tothe students, and the negative effect of discouraging words. In commenting or criticizing juveniles, attention should be paid totheir age and gender.

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