To compare disciplinary techniques within families spanning three generations, 24 maternal grandmothers and 24 mothers independently selected rewarding and punishing consequences for their children's correct and incorrect responses on an age-appropriate learning task. The children's behaviors were experimentally controlled so that performances always appeared to worsen. As children's performance ostensibly declined from 80 to 50 percent "success," mothers and grandmothers increased both rewarding and punitive intensities. When success subequently decreased to 20 percent, mothers continued increasing rewards and punishments, but grandmothers' behaviors leveled off. Results extend earlier findings with mothers and their sons to mother/daughter and grandmother/grandchild disciplinary interactions. Overall, grandmothers' and mothers' discipline was more similar than different; however, despite the preponderance of similarities, differences that were found tended to favor the stereotype that grandmothers are more giving, less punitive, and more forgiving than are mothers. The intensities of both reward and punishment by grandmothers were related to their levels of involvement with their grandchildren. (Author/RH)