This study examined the development of imitation under naturalistic conditions. Participating were 320 parents, who provided diary records of imitation by their 12-, 15-, and 18-month-old infants over a 7-day period. Approximately half of the infants were first-borns and half had older siblings. The findings indicated that infants of all ages…

A field investigation of 32 groups of communally reared children utilizing 10 categories of group behavior reported group behavior forms and child socialization in groups of toddlers and preschoolers 18 months to 42 months of age. The groups were equally divided (16 each) among "total" and "day care" types and were age-homogeneous. Group forms…

This study was designed to test two major hypotheses: (1) Validity of expectation is an increasing monotonic function of development. (2) Invalidity of expectation is more a function of overestimation of hedonistic tendencies than a function of underestimation. A total of 277 middle class children in the first, fourth, and fifth grades were given…

This demonstration study examines the affective reactions of infants when they imitate or fail to imitate play behavior modeled by an adult. Subjects were twenty-four 18-month-old and twenty-four 24-month-old male and female infants. Each infant visited the laboratory twice with an inter-session interval of 48 hours. At each session, the infant…

In order to investigate developmental trends in the sex differences of two dimensions of proxemic behavior, distance and shoulder orientation, 406 elementary and junior high school students were studied while interacting in same-sex and heterosexual pairs. After engaging in discussion for one minute, the pairs were asked to stop and hold still…

This study investigated the effect of labeling a girl as "patient" on the girl's subsequent self-imposed delay of gratification. Subjects were 78 girls from 5 1/2 to 9 years of age. In a delay task, each child's possession of accumulating candy rewards was made contingent upon her stopping further accumulation. Labeled girls waited longer than did…

Three experiments involving 345 children aged 5-6, 7-8, and 12-13 were performed to investigate the development of children's motives to help. Two experimental paradigms were developed to determine children's motives for helping behavior in a specific behavioral context. In the first paradigm, situations were created in which children had the…

Adolescent determination of behavior can be viewed as the result of perceived locus of control. To investigate adolescent perceptions of control in terms of age, loci of control (internal or external), situations (community and home), and direction of control (from or over the environment), 909 adolescents (345 males, 564 females), aged 11-19,…