Different social experiences help children develop distinctions between domains of norms. This study investigated whether mothers respond differently to moral, prudential, and pragmatic norms during the 2nd year, a period that precedes the time when children are able to make explicit distinctions between these norms. Sixty mothers of infants…

Four- to 10-year-olds and adults (N = 265) responded to eight scenarios presented on an eye tracker. Each trial involved a character who encounters a perpetrator who had previously enacted positive (P), negative (N), or both types of actions toward him or her in varying sequences (NN, PP, PN, and NP). Participants predicted the character's…

In this study of two hundred and thirty 8- to 13-year-olds, a new "Silent Films" task is introduced, designed to address the dearth of research on theory of mind in older children by providing a film-based analogue of F. G. E. Happe's (1994) Strange Stories task. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that all items from both tasks loaded…

The capacity to imitate facial gestures is highly variable in rhesus macaques and this variability may be related to differences in specific neurobehavioral patterns of development. This study evaluated the differential neonatal imitative response of 41 macaques in relation to the development of sensory, motor, and cognitive skills throughout the…

Proposes a theory of development in which experience is directed by genotypes and in which genotypic differences affect phenotypic differences, both directly and through experience, via three kinds of genotype-environment effects. The theory adapts the three kinds of genotype-environment correlations in a developmental model used to explain…

Examines reactions to menarche and the subsequent effects of this experience as a function of preparation for and timing of menarche. A questionnaire including measures of responses about first menstruation, current symptoms, and self-image was completed by 639 girls in fifth through twelfth grades. (Author/MP)

In a laboratory procedure, 66 infants of 12 months were given happy, fearful, and conflicting emotional signals by their mothers and fathers with reference to five unusual toy stimuli. There were marked differences among infants in their capacity for and style of coping with conflict. A variety of specific responses to conflict were observed. (RH)

Examined individual differences in 50 preschool children's pretend play with their mothers and siblings. Results indicated individual differences in the amount and sophistication of preschoolers' social pretend play and suggested that these individual differences are related to experiences in preschoolers' relationships with their mothers and…

Examined relations of individual differences in regulation and negative emotionality to Indonesian third-graders' social skills/low externalizing problem behavior, sociometric status, and shyness. Found that children's low socially appropriate behavior/high problem behavior and rejected peer status were related to low dispositional regulation and…

Critically reviews research since 1972 on maternal deprivation. Topics discussed include: the development of social relationships and the process of bonding; critical periods of development; links between childhood experiences and parenting behavior; influences on parenting; and possible reasons why so many children do not succumb to deprivation…

Determined whether individual neonate characteristics could be detected and reliably measured in preterm infants. Results showed that preterms were highly self-consistent in their reactions to stimuli from neurobehavioral assessments. Highly reliable individual differences among infants were also seen. Individual consistencies and differences in…

Interprets literature on contributions of social cognitive and emotion processes to children's social competence in the context of an integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Provides neurophysiological and functional evidence for the centrality of emotion processes in personal-social decision making.…