The purpose of the study was to examine the contributions of maternal encouragement of autonomy and maternal encouragement of connectedness to the prediction of children's social behaviors. A sample of children (N = 94), initially aged two years, and their mothers in China participated in the two-year longitudinal study. Child autonomy and…

Aggression is examined in this discussion of the role of television in the development of young children's social behaviors. The way aggression is interpreted by children watching television and program influences on the children's own aggressive behavior are among topics considered. Some suggestions are made in regard to context of aggression…

The behaving organism is described as a system with internal motivational and memory components which guide the actions of external input and output components. The organism actively shapes its environment by using its output to control its input from the environment. Output is a function of the psychological forces, topographic memory, and input…

Examines the extent to which an infant's social initiative resists or is modified by three variations in the behavior of adult responsiveness: repeated responses, varied responses, and eye aversion. (HOD)

This study examined the effects of differentially characterizing a model as "good", "bad", or "neutral" on preschool children's subsequent evaluation and imitation of the model. The model's aggressive and motor behaviors were more frequently imitated than were his non-aggressive and verbal behaviors. Instructions influenced the Ss' evaluation of…

Examines the capability and motivation of 18- and 24-month-old infants to share, help, comfort, and cooperate with their older siblings; the frequency of such prosocial behavior by both siblings; and the children's response to sibling distress. The relationship between prosocial and conflict behavior was also studied. (HOD)

This report reviews evidence concerned with age-related aspects of social perception processes and their effects on overt behavior. Focus is on the variability among children in comprehension and evaluation of action, motives, and consequences of modeled behavior. Findings indicated that comprehension of acts in terms of motives and correctness of…

A method for direct observation study of early peer-social and object directed behavior in humans was designed to articulate with techniques widely used in studies of social behavior of infra-human primates. Occurrence of behavior fitting the definitions of each of six categories of object behavior and nine categories of social behavior is noted…

This paper presents a summary of behavior concepts that together provide the outline of a possible developmental theory of prosocial motivation. These concepts, based on human role-taking capacities, include empathic distress, sympathetic distress, personal guilt, and existential guild. At first, a child cannot discriminate between himself and…

Four research papers discuss the influence of social cues on children's behavior. Specifically, the focus of this program of research was to systematically investigate the impact of two classes of social cues: (1) implicit or explicit instructional cues inherent in social interactions, and (2) inferred or actual evaluative cues present in…

Discusses a previous study of the operational and sociomoral reasoning of 70 congenitally deaf children. Reports that, although the results indicated no differences between the hearing and nonhearing students on the development of sociomoral reasoning, the researchers still advocated intervention programs. (CFR)

Responds to criticism of research into the development of sociomoral reasoning of deaf children. Defends research methodology and asserts that the criticism does not accurately interpret their hypotheses. Concludes that their recommended intervention program also would be helpful with sensory unimpaired children. (CFR)

Human development from about ages 2 to 5 is presented in terms of the history of a child conceptualized in terms of stimulus and response functions and his interactions in current situations which consist of organismic, physical, and social conditions. The concepts describing the changes that occur during this developmental period, such as…

This selective bibliography contains references to 255 ERIC documents from "Research in Education (RIE)," and "Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE)," January 1970 - March 1974, related to social development and behavior in children. Topics include peer relationships, interpersonal competence, social attitudes, socialization and…

Examined the role of pretend play interactions in stimulating social and emotional competence by comparing the quality of pretend and nonpretend social play. Found that pretend play involved more complex, mutually responsive, and emotionally invested social interaction than nonpretend play. Expression of psychosocial issues within pretense was…