Development of personal relationships – Emma Sprengers
THIS SUMMARY DOES NOT GUARANTEE A PASSING GRADE ON THE EXAM
PLEASE STUDY THE MATERIALS YOURSELF (to fully understand the theories and
examples given in this summary)
Lecture 1 - early social development
Focus on other humans
Scrambled faces paradigm
o Shows that children have innate knowledge to recognize human form
Dyadic peer-relationships (two)
o Contingent responses = responses that build on what the other person did
Start at 6 months old
Prosocial exchanges
o Responses to distress
o Attempt to intervene on behalf of a victim, to change the situation or lessen
the distress
E.g. crying babies on an airplane (only responded to real cries)
E.g. babies in a triangle example (babies focus on others)
Gaze > affect > physical response > self-distress (8 months)
Individual differences start to show, problem solving, aggression and
amusement at 2 years old
Sharing
o Starts at 12 months old (affiliative sharing)
Focus on non-sharing
o 18 months old
Share when requested
Understanding of ownership
o From 24 months and older
Children share spontaneously
Children start to reciprocate sharing
Sharing is predicted by sensitivity to distress
Non-sharing still frequent as well
o At 48 months old
Sharing keeps increasing and is related to theory of mind
Cooperating and conflict
o 1 year old
Basic cooperation
Resolve conflict by physical force
o 2 years old
Also use verbal means to resolve conflict
Development of conflict
o Conflict over toys start at age 1
o Kids avoid conflict, especially hard hits
o Retaliation in conflict occurs (also negative reciprocation)
o Gender differences start at age 3
o Subject of conflict changes (amount stays the same)
Triadic relations (three)
Infancy
o Non-verbal exchanges
6 months old
o Shared meaning
1
, o Copying
o Cooperation
Age 2
o Many triadic relations
Status and dominance
o Clear status in structures from 11 months to 15
o Related to tenure, development and gender
o Kids with higher status
Boys
Kids who ‘are there’ for longer (e.g. in a day-care)
Kids with the most toys
Underlying skills
Huge individual differences in underlying skills and speed at which they develop
Social system matters a lot
There might be evidence for continuity (but lack of studies!)
Joint attention
o Ability to coordinate attention with another person
o Starts at 6 months
o Mostly use gaze and gesture (e.g. looking at toy/ pointing at toy)
o One of the basics for theory of mind
Emotion regulation
o Contact with peers is important for emotion regulation development
o Differences between adult and peer situations
o ‘Safe haven’ to practice at home
Inhibitory control
o Control of your first reactions
o Important in play situation
o development of personal space
o Balanced inhibition
Imitation
o Needed for harmonious play with peers
o Learning tool for social skills
o Relevant for bonding
o Includes imitation of peers
Casual understanding
o The other is an intentional social agent
o One’s own action affects another
o Others can do things by accident
Language
o Verbal ability is related to higher prosociality and lower aggression
3 months - cooing and gurgling
6 months - babbling
18 months - knows 5 to 40 words
2 years - 150 to 300 words, 2 to 3 sentences
3 years - 900 to 1000 words and short questions
4 years - 2000 words, 5 word sentences
5 years - identifying words and letters, create longer sentences
o Related to theory of mind, higher verbal ability is more prosocial behaviour
o Conversations become important, pretend play important for social contact
and friend-making
Literature for lecture 1: The beginnings of peer relations (Hay, Caplan, Nash)
2
,Classic developmental theory
Psychoanalytic theory
o ‘Psychoanalytic theory divides the psyche into three functions: the id—
unconscious source of primitive sexual, dependency, and aggressive
impulses; the superego—subconsciously interjects societal mores, setting
standards to live by; and the ego—represents a sense of self and mediates
between realities of the moment and psychic needs and conflicts’
o Emphasizes the emotional limitations of infants
o Anna Freud observed significance in the connection between young peers in
rescued concentration camp children
Evolutionary theory
o Experimental studies of macaques have shown that, in comparison with social
isolation, being reared with peers provides a protective function for primate
social development. Although, young macaques who have been reared with
peers only showed some undesirable behaviours such as poor self-regulation
and susceptibility to alcohol
Attachment theory
o To the extent that children’s attachment representations are related to felt
security, they are more likely to concern asymmetrical relationships with
caregivers rather than more equal relationships with peers
Social learning theory
o Parents were seen as important influences on their children’s social
development, which was underpinned by processes of modelling and social
reinforcement. Imitation is key to social skills that develop in early life and
support interactions among young peers
cognitive developmental theory
o Hardly shows focus on young peer relations and interactions but mainly
focuses on the interactions between the child and older children or adults
Social systems theories
These theories emphasize the sociable nature of infants, who are attracted to
members of their species and socialize others as they are being socialized
themselves.
Infants abilities to engage in multiple relationships, instead of being attached to one
single caregiver
The complex social networks in which infants and their families are embedded
Research findings
Research has found that infants communicate widely through mutual engagement of
attention, communicative acts, sensitivity to the behaviour of others and coordination
of actions with others
Older toddlers are more likely to respond to positive object-oriented initiations from
their peers
Even in young age, peer interactions succeed best when it is flexible and creative, as
opposed to repetitive
Prosocial exchanges
Infant’s responsiveness to peers’ distress develops over the first 2 years of life. When
they begin to show attention, problem solving, aggression and amusement, not just
the matching of distress
Conflict
3
, Infants and toddlers mostly seem to avoid conflict. When conflict does occur, infants
usually use physical force (e.g. pushing the other or tugging on their toys)
Directed conflict was shown when an adult takes away a toy that was not actually
held by the infant, the infant mostly used distress signals to regain the toy (crying,
screaming)
Social influence between peers
In an experiment, toddlers were taught how to use a certain object by adults. Later
these toddlers modelled how to use the object to other toddlers. Days after the
experiment the ‘untrained’ toddlers were still able to replicate how to use the object.
Supporting the theory that even toddlers can learn from each other
Relationships with infants
Research found that children do not first form a relationship with their caregiver and
later with peers, but that they can form at the same time. However, this is a debated
topic
A mother’s influence can go as far as their mental state’s influence on her child.
Depression and anti-social behaviour in the mother, lead to more use of force from
the child against their peers. This is, again, a heavily debated topic
A father has influence on the child through his attachment to the child, his security
towards the child and the level of marital conflict between the parents
There is not a lot of research done in the field of sibling interaction between first and
second generation children. It has been suggested that children with older siblings
show more negative responses to distress signals in others
Putting a child in day-care has thus far given mixed signals, the NICHD suggests that
children in day-care were more potent in peer play
Literature reveals ways in which the sex of the child often serves as a moderating
variable, influencing the impact of other factors within the child and social setting
Lecture 2 - social networks
Social network
Those people with whom you are in direct contact with
o Repeated social interaction
o Mental representations of the relation
o Important because of resources
Types of social networks
o Global network
All social relations
Increases into young adulthood, decreases when you get older
o Personal network
Support network
o Friendship network
Increases into young adulthood, decreases when you get older
o Family network
Nuclear family, partner, sometimes grandparents
Remains the same throughout life
o Work network
Increases into young adulthood, decreases when you get older
Different kind of ties
o Strength
Time spent together, emotional intensity, intimacy, reciprocity
o Strong ties
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