Socialization – Peers & Play
I. Who is a peer, and what functions do peers serve?
A. Same-age or equal status peers
B. Mixed-age interactions
C. Frequency of peer contacts
D. How important are peer influences?
II.The development of peer sociability
A. Infant beginnings
B. Sociability during preschool
C. Social interactions in middle childhood and adolescence
D. Parent effects on peer sociability
1. Promoting peer contacts
2. Monitoring and controlling play activities
III.Peer acceptance and popularity
A. Types of social acceptance
B. Causes of peer acceptance
1. Parenting style
2. Physical correlates
3. Cognitive skills
4. Ordinal position effects
5. Facial attractiveness
6. Behavioral contributors
IV.How do peers exert their influence?
A. Peer reinforcement and modeling
B. The normative function of peer groups
C. Peer versus parental influences
Who Is A Peer; What Functions Do
Peers Serve?
Definition of a peer:
• Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
• A “peer” is one who is of equal standing with
another
• Peers as social equals, or individuals who are
operating at the same level of behavioral
complexity
What functions do peers serve?
• Same age or equal status peers
• Mixed age interactions
• Importance of mixed age interactions
• Differences between mixed age and same age
interactions
• Frequency of peer contacts
• How important are peer contacts?
• Harlow’s work with monkeys
• A human parallel – research by Anna Freud
The Development of Peer Sociability
Infant beginnings:
• Are infants’ socially blind?
• Peer interactions in the 1st year
• Infant smiling and babbling
• Peer interactions between 12 and 18 months
• Peer interactions between 18 and 24 months
• Coordinated interactions that are social
• Peer interactions after 24 months
Peer sociability during the preschool years:
• The character of peer interactions
• Parten’s (1932) social play characterizations
• Non-social play – unoccupied onlooker,
solitary play
• Parallel play – child plays near other children
• Cooperative play – children play with other
children
Howes & Matheson (1992)
Cognitive Complexity of Social Interactions
Play Type
Age
Description
Parallel play
6-12 mos.
Perform similar activities
without paying attention to each
other.
Parallel aware play
By 1 year
Engage in parallel play while
occasionally looking at each
other and monitoring activity.
Simple pretend play 1 – 1½ yrs Engage in similar activities
while talking, sharing toys.
Complementary
and reciprocal play
1½ - 2 yrs
Display action-based role
reversals in social games such as
peek-a-boo.
Cooperative social
pretend play
2½ - 3 yrs
Play contemporary nonliteral
“pretend” roles (e.g., mommy
and baby), without any planning
or discussion about meaning of
the roles or forms they take
Complex social
pretend play
3½ - 4 yrs
Actively plan pretend play.
Explicitly assign roles to
players, propose a script, etc
Cooperation and Competition in
Children’s Play
Child’s Rules
Competitive
Cooperative Competitive
Partner’s Rules
Cooperative
Subjects: Grade 1 and 3 children
Parental Effects on Peer Sociability
Promoting peer contacts:
• Parental influence on the amount of peer contacts
• Choice of residence
Monitoring and controlling peer contacts:
• Parents arranging play dates
• How closely should parents monitor or intrude on
children’s interactions?
Liked By Peers
Peer Status in Nursery School
Disliked By Peers
0.5
0.0
-0.5
Direct
Indirect
Parent's Style of Monitoring
Play Activities
Peer Acceptance
Categories of peer acceptance:
• Popular: Liked by many, disliked by few
• Rejected: Disliked by many, liked by few
• Neglected: Few nominations of like or
dislike; ignored by peers
• Controversial: Liked by many, disliked by
many
• Average status children: Liked or disliked
by moderate number of peers
Categories of rejected children:
• Aggressive: Highly inappropriately
aggressive
• Non-aggressive: Anxious, display few
social skills, actively avoid peer contacts
How Do Peers Exert
Their Influence?
Peer reinforcement and modeling:
• Peers as reinforcers
• Gender appropriateness of behavior
• Modelling influences
• Moral judgments, achievement
behaviors, sex-typed attitudes
• Objects of social comparison
• The peer group as the most logical
place for social comparisons
• Controversial: Liked by many, disliked by
many
The normative function of peer groups:
• Peer conformity
Peers and Conformity
Prosocial
Antisocial
Average Conformity Score
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
3
6
9
12
Grade
Adapted from Berndt (1979)
How Do Peers Exert
Their Influence?
Peer reinforcement and modeling:
• Peers as reinforcers
• Gender appropriateness of behavior
• Modelling influences
• Moral judgments, achievement
behaviors, sex-typed attitudes
• Objects of social comparison
• The peer group as the most logical
place for social comparisons
• Controversial: Liked by many, disliked by
many
The normative function of peer groups:
• Peer conformity
Peer versus adult influences:
• The reality of “cross-pressures”
• Peer versus adult domains of influence