The article discusses how the use of ethnographic approaches to the study of researcher-child relations highlights the importance of structures that shape and define children's actions. The discussion is illustrated by using case study material from research with pre-school and pre-adolescent children in Indian educational settings. The article…

The collection of articles in this special issue on relational aggression gives a glimpse into the complex social networks, first, of children's relational aggression and, second, of the collaborators who develop and validate children's prevention programs. The programs described in this special section are among the first to address relational…

In this paper, the authors highlight features of the social and cultural context which surrounds services to children. Emphasis is given to the point that those who work with children exist within the same cultural landscape occupied by the children, parents and other parents. Whilst this landscape is diverse, it contains certain dominant,…

Examines some of the values in Perls's theory of psychotherapy, which his Gestalt Prayer epitomizes. Argues that at least five of the major value claims presupposed by his psychotherapeutic theory and practice are in fact dangerous half-truths. (JAC)

This paper focuses on the relationships which exist between the looking-glass-self theory of human behavior of Charles Horton Cooley (published in 1902) and the idea of social penetration of I. Altman and D. Taylor (published in 1973). The paper discusses Cooley's classic metaphor of the looking-glass-self: humans use the verbal and nonverbal…

Discusses the sexual acts and behaviors that may constitute or be considered sexual harassment in hopes of reducing the stress of investigating harassment reports. Information is based on 10 years of supervision of an office with responsibility for investigating all complaints of discrimination at a large public institution, and personal…

Recent social changes and changes in the ways the profession views itself suggest that there are undeveloped options for teaching clothing. Clothing can be a medium for teaching about a wide variety of issues such as individual personality, interpersonal relationships, and family and social behavior. (JOW)

Clifford Nass, one of the authors of "The Media Equation: How to Treat Computers, Television and New Media Like Real People and Places," observes that, when people interact with computers, television, and other new media, they tend to display the same social behaviors as when they react to other humans. (JOW)

To explain how interpersonal behavior in relational contexts usually reproduces but sometimes modifies macro structural patterns, I outline a conceptual framework within which to understand existing theories and evidence and to develop new ones. Actors create and enact structure by means of several types of shared cultural schemas ("ordering…

Methods employed in social science research must be true to the phenomena under investigation. Both symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology take everyday life as their fundamental premise. Symbolic interactionism, based primarily on the work of George Herbert Mead, is the peculiar and distinctive character of interaction as it takes place…

Power dependence theory and anticompetitive theory/sex strategy research were used to study a power v a socialization perspective. Results indicate that neither theory adequately explains perceptions or behavior in mixed sex groups. A sex stratification perspective can illuminate societal reasons for sex differences. (Author/GC)

Until recently the subject of females competing against other females has been rarely considered, while most of the literature on sex-related competition written since the 1960s concerns women's competition against men. This paper reviews current literature on female versus female competiton and explores: (1) cultural conditioning in relation to…

School faculties are complex social communities consisting of countless social interactions that weave the larger web of social relationships. Collective observations of 16 teachers and the author, in an Indiana elementary school over 1 year, identified several distinct forms of social encounters: affirmations are interactions that, while serving…

Personal relationships can provide comfort and pleasure or strain and disappointment. Relationships which provide the greatest opportunities for support and companionship may also be the ones most open to negative exchanges. Theoretical perspectives can help predict how positive and negative interpersonal experiences can together affect…

Instances of conversational disruption caused by a clanger, or interactionally aggressive utterance, which disrupts the expected relationship of verbal moves in conversation are examined at the phonological, lexical and syntactic levels. Speakers use clangers to redefine the relationship between the participants in the interpersonal domains of…