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Early%20friendships

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Early friendships Mildred Parten (1932) one of the first researchers to study peer sociability among 2-5 year-olds Social development occurs in a 3-step process ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Early%20friendships


1
Early friendships
  • Mildred Parten (1932)one of the first
    researchers to study peer sociability among 2-5
    year-olds
  • Social development occurs in a 3-step process
    (Parten)
  • Nonsocial activity
  • Parallel play
  • True social interaction (associative and
    cooperative play)

2
Nonsocial activity
  • Unoccupied, onlooker behavior
  • Solitary play
  • Basically, children dont interact with each
    other at this stage.
  • Declines with age, but its still the most
    frequent form of activity among 3-4 years olds
    and accounts for 1/3 of kindergarteners free
    play time.

3
Parallel play
  • A child plays near other children with similar
    materials but does not try to influence their
    behavior.
  • Often found among 3-6-year-olds.

4
True social interaction
  • Associative playchildren engage in separate
    activities but exchange toys and comment on one
    anothers behavior.
  • Cooperative playmore advanced type of
    interaction in which children orient toward a
    common goal, such as playing make-believe.

5
Longitudinal data on play styles
  • A longitudinal study by Howes Matheson, 1992,
    followed up on Partens research.
  • Later-appearing play styles dont replace the
    earlier ones all types coexist in early
    childhood.
  • The type, not the amount of solitary and parallel
    play changes in early childhood.
  • Within each play type, older children display
    more cognitively mature behavior than younger
    children.

6
Are loners abnormal?
  • Preschoolers who watch peers without playing are
    usually temperamentally inhibited, or high in
    social fearfulness.
  • Preschoolers who engage in solitary, repetitive
    behavior (banging blocks, making a doll jump up
    and down) tend to be immature, impulsive kids who
    have a hard time controlling anger and
    aggression.
  • Most preschoolers with low rates of peer
    interaction are NOT socially anxious they simply
    like to play by themselves.

7
Gender differences
  • Boys who like to play quietly by themselves are
    generally rebuffed by peers and get negative
    reactions from parents.
  • They are at risk for adjustment problems.
  • Negative reactions probably stem from
    inconsistent gender-role expectations

8
First friendships
  • Ages 4-7 children regard friendship as
    pleasurable play and sharing of toys, but
    friendship doesnt yet have a long-term, enduring
    quality based on mutual trust.
  • Preschoolers give a lot more praise,
    encouragement, and greetings to children they
    identify as friends than they do to other
    children also receive more from them.

9
More traits of early friendships
  • Friends are also more emotionally expressive and
    laugh and talk more than nonfriends.
  • Early childhood friendships offer social support.
  • Children who begin kindergarten with friends in
    their class or the ability to make friends
    readily adjust to school better.

10
How do parents influence early friendships?
  • Direct influence parents arrange play dates and
    guide behavior (help manage conflicts).
    Associated with more socially skilled behavior
    and peer acceptance in children.
  • Indirect influence Secure attachments to parents
    are linked to more peaceful peer interaction,
    larger peer networks, and warmer more
    supportive friendships during the preschool and
    school years.
  • Mothers play is strongly linked to daughters
    social competence fathers play linked to sons.

11
Peer acceptance
  • How well a child is liked, or how he or she is
    viewed by a group of agemates.
  • Researchers assess this using sociometric
    techniques such as asking children to name their
    best friends and who they especially like or
    dislike.
  • These studies showed that there are 5 categories
    of peer acceptance, known as peer status.

12
Peer statuses
  • Popular childrenfrequently nominated as best
    friend rarely disliked by peers
  • Average childrenaverage number of both positive
    and negative nominations from peers
  • Neglected childreninfrequently nominated as best
    friend but rarely disliked by peers
  • Rejected childreninfrequently nominated as best
    friend actively disliked by peers
  • Controversial childrenfrequently nominated both
    as someones best friend and as being disliked

13
Popular children
  • Good social skills
  • Give out praise and reinforcement to other
    children and listen carefully to others
  • Happy, enthusiastic, self-confident without being
    arrogant
  • Control their negative emotions well
  • Act like themselves

14
Neglected children
  • Low rates of interactions with peers
  • Often described as shy
  • Not nearly as bad as being rejected

15
Rejected children
  • Often have serious adjustment problems
  • Less likely to engage in classroom participation,
    more likely to want to avoid school, and more
    likely to report being lonely.

16
Rejection and aggression
  • An especially bad mix
  • 7-year longitudinal study of 5th grade boys
    showed that the best predictor of whether boys
    would drop out of school or become delinquent was
    amount of aggression showed toward peers in
    elementary school.
  • Aggression underlies rejection about half the
    time another 10-20, rejected kids are just shy.
  • Social skills training can help a lot.

17
Gender and Peer Relations
  • Children prefer to spend time with members of
    their own sex by age 3.
  • Preference for same-sex play increases from ages
    4-12.
  • From about 5 years on, boys tend to associate in
    larger cluster than girls do. Girls play in
    groups of 2-3.
  • Boys are more likely to participated in organized
    group games and rough-and-tumble games.
  • The more time girls spend playing with other
    girls, the lower their aggression activity
    level opposite for boys.

18
Importance of similarity
  • People are attracted to others who are similar to
    them. True for both friendships and romantic
    relationship.
  • Similarity is important in friendship development
    in childhood similarity in age, sex, race,
    educational aspirations, attitudes toward school,
    interests.

19
Peer Groups
  • A group of people who generate unique values and
    standards of behavior and a social structure oe
    leaders and followers
  • Organize on the basis of proximity (nearness) and
    similarity.
  • Leads to a peer culture that consists of a
    special vocabulary, dress code, and place to
    hang out.
  • Children who are cast out of the peer group
    suffer in self-esteem.

20
How peer groups and friendships differ
  • Friendships are more exclusive and limited than
    peer groups.
  • Friendships contribute to the development of
    trust and sensitivity.
  • Preschoolers say they have lots of friends, but
    by age 8 or 9, children say they have only a
    handful of good friends.
  • Girls demand greater closeness than boys and are
    more exclusive in their friendships.
  • Friendships remain fairly stable over middle
    childhood, lasting at least several years.

21
Friendship during Adolescence
  • Need for intimacy intensifies during early
    adolescence friendships become crucial.
  • Teens with superficial friendships or none at all
    report feeling lonelier, more depressed, and have
    lower self-esteem.
  • Intimacy is the most important feature of
    adolescent friendships, especially for girls.
  • Boys friendships are less intimate and more
    geared toward power or excitement.
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