Socialization – Peers & Play

1. Socialization – Peers & Play • Who is a peer, and what functions do peers serve? • Same-age or equal status peers • Mixed-age interactions • Frequency of peer contacts • How important are peer influences? • The development of peer sociability • Infant beginnings • Sociability during preschool • Social interactions in middle childhood and adolescence • Parent effects on peer sociability • Promoting peer contacts • Monitoring and controlling play activities • Peer acceptance and popularity • Types of social acceptance • Causes of peer acceptance • Parenting style • Physical correlates • Cognitive skills • Ordinal position effects • Facial attractiveness • Behavioral contributors • How do peers exert their influence? • Peer reinforcement and modeling • The normative function of peer groups • Peer versus parental influences

2. Who Is A Peer; What Functions Do Peers Serve? • Definition of a peer: • Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary • A “peer” is one who is of equal standing with another • Peers as social equals, or individuals who are operating at the same level of behavioral complexity • What functions do peers serve? • Same age or equal status peers • Mixed age interactions • Importance of mixed age interactions • Differences between mixed age and same age interactions • Frequency of peer contacts • How important are peer contacts? • Harlow’s work with monkeys • A human parallel – research by Anna Freud

3. The Development of Peer Sociability • Infant beginnings: • Are infants’ socially blind? • Peer interactions in the 1st year • Infant smiling and babbling • Peer interactions between 12 and 18 months • Peer interactions between 18 and 24 months • Coordinated interactions that are social • Peer interactions after 24 months • Peer sociability during the preschool years: • The character of peer interactions • Parten’s (1932) social play characterizations • Non-social play – unoccupied onlooker, solitary play • Parallel play – child plays near other children • Cooperative play – children play with other children

4. Howes & Matheson (1992)Cognitive Complexity of Social Interactions

5. Cooperation and Competition in Children’s Play Competitive Partner’s Rules Cooperative Subjects: Grade 1 and 3 children

6. Parental Effects on Peer Sociability • Promoting peer contacts: • Parental influence on the amount of peer contacts • Choice of residence • Monitoring and controlling peer contacts: • Parents arranging play dates • How closely should parents monitor or intrude on children’s interactions?

7. Peer Acceptance • Categories of peer acceptance: • Popular: Liked by many, disliked by few • Rejected: Disliked by many, liked by few • Neglected: Few nominations of like or dislike; ignored by peers • Controversial: Liked by many, disliked by many • Average status children: Liked or disliked by moderate number of peers • Categories of rejected children: • Aggressive: Highly inappropriately aggressive • Non-aggressive: Anxious, display few social skills, actively avoid peer contacts

8. How Do Peers Exert Their Influence? • Peer reinforcement and modeling: • Peers as reinforcers • Gender appropriateness of behavior • Modelling influences • Moral judgments, achievement behaviors, sex-typed attitudes • Objects of social comparison • The peer group as the most logical place for social comparisons • Controversial: Liked by many, disliked by many • The normative function of peer groups: • Peer conformity

9. Peers and Conformity Adapted from Berndt (1979)

10. How Do Peers Exert Their Influence? • Peer reinforcement and modeling: • Peers as reinforcers • Gender appropriateness of behavior • Modelling influences • Moral judgments, achievement behaviors, sex-typed attitudes • Objects of social comparison • The peer group as the most logical place for social comparisons • Controversial: Liked by many, disliked by many • The normative function of peer groups: • Peer conformity • Peer versus adult influences: • The reality of “cross-pressures” • Peer versus adult domains of influence