Social and Emotional Development

Baby’s choice of friends is not often those of her own age. When in school though, she manages to find people who she can get along with. These people however, are not often

All children and young people develop at different rates, but the order which they advance in differs very little. Children’s development tends to progress from head to toe, inner to outer, from simple to complex and from general to specific.

Many of my friendships have changed between Elementary school and Middle school. In elementary school, pretty much everyone was your friend. As kids you accepted everyone much more openly and paid no attention to your differences. Then, as you get to Middle school everyone begins to try and find their place. Cliques began to develop and everyone had a group they belonged to. More drama and arguments began to arise as we transitioned into

By age 2-3 years children enjoy playing with older people who provide them with attention and begin to enjoy time with children their own age. Over the next few years the child becomes more independent and coopertative and likes to help. They develop social skills and play with others is more comfortable as they begin to consider the feelings of others and make friends, although resolving disputes can still be an issue. Rules and routine are required to help the child feel secure and safe.

Social Psychology also focuses on social behaviour, people’s thoughts, feelings friendship and how we interact with other people. A prime example of this is in a study carried out by Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa [1975] when they carried out a study on children’s friendship. Bigelow and La Gaipa wanted to explore what understanding children had on friendship and how it changed with the children’s age group and of the same sex. Bigelow and La Gaipa began their research by asking a group of children to write an essay in regards to their best friend who had to be of the same sex the children was asked to write what their expectations were from their friend. To enable this research to be conducted Bigelow and La Gaipa completed a list of Twenty

When it comes to investigating friendship, one question that has been raised is ‘what is the role of friendship in the life of a 13 year old?’’. Several sources of data include ethnographic notes taken whilst spending time with a group of friends during school lunch breaks and diary/blog entries etc. Firstly, in this case the researcher would need to carefully consider the strengths and weaknesses of each type of data, for example, when looking at a blog the information/data available is likely to be information that the author wants to share with a wider audience whereas a diary entry is more private. In this case, both documents

Brain Bigelow, John La Gaipa and William Corsaro have both made important contributions into understanding how children interpret “friendship”. Bigelow and La Gaipa carried out one of the first studies from what was a very under researched area. Bill Corsaro, a key figure in childhood studies, was particularly successful in gaining access into young children's worlds which has helped shape a further picture of this somewhat intriguing definition. Brace and Byford (2012)

Compare and Contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study with that taken by William Corsaro.

In order for a child to develop productive social skills, it is important to choose toys to enhance active, imaginative play, and discourage time at the computer or television. A game in which a child is encouraged to think for themselves rather than sit motionless staring at an electronic screen, is better for the development of the child’s social skills (Moore, 2). Time spent with other children, rather the child’s own age or older, will help develop necessary social skills that will stick with the child through adulthood (Roode, 1). From the day they are born, infants and children begin to form relationships, these relationships eventually deepen and enable them to handle future relationships with others outside their initial circle (Roode, 1). The ability for a person to build and further relationships, make moral judgments, etc. can be enhanced with games played with a group of children, stuffed animals, puppets or instruments (Roode, 1).

Compare and contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1974) study with that taken by William Corsaro.

Females also favour their same sex friend more than opposite sex friends in kinder garden.(Lundy, Field et al. 1998) People also enjoy more about the interaction with same sex friends in preadolescence.(Strough and Covatto 2002) The situation changes as they grow older, OSFs are found more intimate than in younger age.(Sharabany, Gershoni et al. 1981) Adolescents over 16 are more probable to have a OSF who is very close to them.(Kuttler, La Greca et al. 1999) Older adolescents are also expected to enjoy more when interacting with OSF.(Strough and Covatto 2002) Another interesting research by Hartup and Stevens found that having SSFs in childhood will forecast the romantic relationship later during adolescence.(Hartup and Stevens 1997) Above all, SSF plays a important role in early life span of individuals, but OSF gradually become more frequent as the person grows older. There is an implication that OSF is taking the role of SSF in the childhood period. SSF is also a preparation for the relationship growth of OSF. Regarding that OSF is a potential beneficial component of mating process and therefore reproductive success. It seems that SSF relates to evolutional success of individual through the function of OSF

William Damon is an educator/researcher on psychology and education. In William Damon’s work, he has proposed that children’s friendships are developed in three specific stages. In Level 1, children are about 4-7 years old. During this level children see each other as momentary playmates. During this stage children are all about having fun, with limited perspectives. Children want things their way and do not wish to hear different opinions other than their own. As the child gets older, at the age of 8-10 years old a more profound friendship is formed, this is called Level 2. During this time a child start to build trust and start to think of other rather than just themselves. Children learn the value of sharing and learn how to compromise. Lastly, Level 3 is during the approximate age of 11- 15 years old. During this time, friends are valued the most to a child. This is a more mature stage where children build trustful relationships and a high level of emotional closeness is built. Regardless of age cliques and crowds always develop among children and adults. A clique is a group of member that share common interests, often are of the same gender. The members of the group are often labeled or stereotyped. Crowds are very similar to cliques, both shape the minds of children on how they should act or how they should be. Both add pressure to adolescents under peer pressure such as drinking, smoking, skipping school, or sex in order to fit it. Cliques and crowds develop as a way

Differences in childhoods can impact individual’s communication with each other in relationships. At a young age, children tend to play with other children that seem to be of the same gender as them. Both groups of genders have different ways of building a friendship. Tannen says that, “Little girls create and maintain friendships by exchanging secrets” (276). It is important to girls to share secretive things to get closer to one another and to get a mutual understanding. Unlike boys whose bonds are, “based less on talking, more on doing things together” (Tannen 276). Boys do not talk a lot unless the need to prove something. While girls are comfortable about talking about their feelings, boys feel uncomfortable because it is not something they discuss much.

My nephew claims it is important for boys and girls to be friends because when people are older they need to work around both genders. As for my niece she claims it is disgusting for girls to be near boys and playing together is not an option. I asked them about Cooties and my nephew explains to me that it is something people say others have but in reality it does not exist. My niece in the other hand claims everyone has cooties and to get rid of them one needs to shower. Something they both have in common is that in high school is when they will practice having friends of both genders without

Prior to commencing their research, Bigelow and La Gaipa and Corsaro needed to decide who the participants would be. They wanted to know what children’s personal views were, so a common factor for both types of research was that those taking part were all children. Bigelow and La Gaipa chose a large sample of children aged 6 to 14 years old (Brownlow, 2012). They all resided in the same city in Canada and came from a similar or identical social group. There were 480 participants all together chosen from eight schools, with thirty girls and thirty boys from each. The age-range was a significant factor to them because they wanted to study how children understood friendship at different ages and stages of their life. Using such a large number of children in their study meant that they could make generalisations about children’s friendships and how they develop over time. This data could then be applied to children as a whole. Corsaro chose his participants differently. The children that took part in his studies were about three years old (Brownlow, 2012). In addition, unlike Bigelow and La Gaipa, Corasro did not limit his research to one city, or even one country. He wanted to know what friendship meant for children at different times and in different places. Therefore, Corsaro studied children in different countries including, the United States and Italy (Interview with William Corsaro, 2010). By