Investigates factors of social influence strategies employed by 195 children aged 11-15 and 114 mothers. Girls reported more frequent use and success of strategies anticipating noncompliance and boys more frequent use and success of autonomous strategies. Mothers reported differential reinforcement of boys' and girls' strategies. (RJC)

Behavioral and physiological assessments of 41 seven-and-one-half-year-old children who had been selected to be inhibited or uninhibited at 21 months and observed again at four and five-and-one-half years revealed that each of the two original behavioral profiles predicted theoretically reasonable derivatives. Shy children remained shy, while…

This introduction to and overview of a special issue on social behavior assessment within schools discusses the impact of function-based methodologies on assessment and intervention practices in identification and remediation of challenging social behaviors. (JDD)

Provides an analysis of America based on the travel accounts of several foreign visitors and diplomats over the course of U.S. history. Viewpoints are expressed that reveal an America with many contradictions and a dark side. (GLR)

Describes investigation systematically comparing influence of naturalistic social behaviors and nonbehavioral variables, measured by live observations, on development of peer status in unfamiliar boys attending summer research program. Participants included attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and comparison boys. Discusses implications for…

Examined the relations among strategy knowledge about making friends, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and peer acceptance at school in a sample of 423 sixth and seventh graders. Findings indicated that knowledge of both appropriate and inappropriate strategies for making friends was related to both types of social behavior and to peer…

This paper discusses historical efforts to integrate social competence into a definition of mental retardation; presents a reconceptualized model of mental retardation as a condition characterized by deficits in social, practical, and conceptual intelligence; and argues that a definition of mental retardation based on social competence outcomes…

Assessed the interactions of preschooler dyads during two play sessions one year apart. Found that dyads' scores on measures of positive social orientation, cohesiveness, and control were correlated across time and that coordinated play and positive social orientation were more salient at time two than time one. (BC)

Eighteen handicapped and six nonhandicapped preschool children were observed during free play time. Children engaged in social behavior more often when playing with toys classified as social toys compared to isolate toys, and the incidence of social play was higher in integrated groups than in nonintegrated groups. (Author/JDD)

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)

Three persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) were matched with four community participants for leisure activities. Community participants were trained and were given specific interactions suggestions. Integrated social contacts were measured using a multiple-baseline design across participants. Results suggest that social integration can be…

Discussion of the use of daily habits or common social activities by anthropologists and sociology teachers to illustrate the power of popular culture focuses on the role of coffee. Provides a list of more than 60 specific songs and albums that could be used for classroom discussion. (Author/LRW)

Highlights the influence of Confucianism on Chinese thinking, learning style, and cultural values and the impact upon classroom behaviors. Corrects misconceptions Western teachers may have about the meaning of these behaviors. (SK)

Contributes to scholarship on defamation, legal interpretation, and social norms by examining 59 state and federal cases decided during the last 150 years involving allegedly false accusations of homosexuality. Finds 15% of the cases resulted in a determination that it was not defamatory to call someone gay, 35% that it was defamatory, and 50%…

Examines nonvoluntary relationships with disliked partners (NR/D). Hypothesizes that the subjects (undergraduate students) would try to attenuate this discomfort by increasing psychological distance between themselves and their disliked partners. Shows that people use distance to attenuate the discomfort created by an NR/D. Finds 36 distancing…