Research on the relation between social information processing and social adjustment in childhood is reviewed and interpreted within the framework of a reformulated model of human performance and social exchange. This reformulation proves to assimilate almost all previous studies and is a useful heuristic device for organizing the field. The review suggests that overwhelming evidence supports the empirical relation between characteristic processing styles and children's social adjustment, with some aspects of processing (e.g., hostile attributional biases, intention cue detection accuracy, response access patterns, and evaluation of response outcomes) likely to be causal of behaviors that lead to social status and other aspects (e.g., perceived self-competence) likely to be responsive to peer status

A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment.

The present study used meta-analytic techniques to test whether trait consistency maximizes and stabilizes at a specific period in the life course. From 152 longitudinal studies, 3,217 test-retest correlation coefficients were compiled. Meta-analytic estimates of mean population test-retest correlation coefficients showed that trait consistency increased from .31 in childhood to .54 during the college years, to .64 at age 30, and then reached a plateau around .74 between ages 50 and 70 when time interval was held constant at 6.7 years. Analysis of moderators of consistency showed that the longitudinal time interval had a negative relation to trait consistency and that temperament dimensions were less consistent than adult personality traits.

http://jenni.uchicago.edu/Spencer_Conference/Representative%20Papers/Roberts%20&%20DelVecchio,%202000.pdf

The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: a quantitative review of longitudinal studies.

This multidimensional approach brings together cognitive, sociobiological and behavioural perspectives providing students with a thorough, vet balanced and well-synthesised presentation of contemporary empathy research. The author approaches the topic in two ways: 1. through empirical work which is examined in a variety of empathy-related areas, clearly recognising the theoretical context; 2. through an organisational model which puts the smaller pieces into one, more coherent whole.

Empathy : a social psychological approach

Social comparison theory has evolved considerably since Festinger (1954) originally proposed it. This article integrates these changes with insights offered by recent social comparison studies and by research on social cognition and the self. Contrary to the original theory or subsequent research, (a) the individual is not always an unbiased self-evaluator but may seek many goals through social comparison; (b) the social environment may not be inactive but may impose unwanted comparisons; and (c) the comparison process involves more than selecting a comparison target: It is bidirectional, rather than unidirectional, and it may adopt a variety of forms to meet the individual's goals. Research involving comparisons of personal attributes illustrates these principles. The couples we knew were also aging.., and paid rising taxes and suffered automobile accidents and midnight illnesses and marital woe; but under the tireless supervision of gossip all misfortunes were compared, and confessed, and revealed as relative. (Updike, 1985, p. 48) Salieri, speaking of Mozart, in Amadeus: Tonight... stands a giggling child who can put on paper, without actually setting down his billiard cue, casual notes which turn my most considered ones into lifeless scratches... [That] ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre. (Shatfer, 1980, p. 61) An important source of knowledge about oneself is comparisons with other people. In 1954, Festinger proposed a theory of social comparison based on this insight. Although interest in the theory has waxed and waned since then (Goethals, 1986b), social comparison research has enjoyed a resurgence recently: Over 100 journal articles on social comparison have appeared since 1982, which is almost three times the number published in the theory's first 12 years (Radloff& Bard, 1966). Moreover, social comparison processes are central to other prominent theories in social psychology, including relative deprivation (Masters & Smith, 1987; Olson, Herman. & Zanna, 1986), Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model (Tenet, 1986), and Tajfel and Turner's (1979) social identity theory of groups. Although social comparison theory was once dubbed "everybody's second-favorite theory in social psychology (but almost nobody's first)" (Arrowood, 1978, p. 491 ), the literature has never before had more vitality. These developments call for a reexamination of social comparison theory. For some time, researchers have operated under an understanding of social comparison that goes beyond Festinger's (1954) original theory and that in some ways contradicts

/pdf/theory-and-research-concerning-social-comparisons-of-1w9zhso3kp.pdf

Theory and Research Concerning Social Comparisons of Personal Attributes

Impact of parental discipline methods on the child's internalization of values: A reconceptualization of current points of view.

List of contributors Preface Part I Introduction: 1 What's social about social-cognitive development? Diane N Ruble, E Tory Higgins and Willard W Hartup Part II Social Understanding and Interpersonal Relations: 2 Social cognition and the social life of the child: stages as subcultures E Tory Higgins and Jacquelynne Eccles Parsons 3 Beyond the information processed: socializations in the development of attributional processes Philip R Constanzo and Theodore H Dix 4 Social cognition and social interaction in childhood Willard W Hartup, Judith E Brady and Andrew F Newcomb 5 Social antecedents, cognitive processing and comprehension of social portrayals on television W Andrew Collins 6 The development of social-comparison processes and their role in achievement-related self-socialization Diane N Ruble 7 Social cognition, social behaviour, and children's friendships Thomas J Berndt Part III Value Internalization and Moral Development: 8 Culture as a cognitive system: differentiated rule understandings in children and other savages Deborah L Pool, Richard A Schweder and Nancy C Much 9 Development of interpersonal values Walter Emmerich and Karla Shepard Goldman 10 Affective and cognitive processes in moral internalization Martin L Hoffman 11 The internalization of altruistic dispositions: a cognitive analysis Joan E Grusec 12 Social-control processes and the internalization of social values: an attributional perspective Mark R Lepper Part IV Commentary and Overview: 13 Interaction and development in social cognition Elliot Turiel 14 Let's not overattribute to the attribution process: comments on social cognition and behavior Eleanor E Maccoby 15 Five questions for research in social cognitive development William Damon 16 What would my mother say? Reactions to gleanings from developmental studies on social cognition Tom Trabsso Index

Social cognition and social development : a sociocultural perspective

Developmental analysis of the role of social comparison in self-evaluation.

The present study represented a cognitive-developmental analysis of the effects of televised, sex-stereotypic information on children's behavior and attitudes toward toy play. The subjects were 50 male and 50 female 4-6-year-olds divided into high and low gender-constancy levels. As the children watched a cartoon, they either saw a commercial of a gender-neutral toy that showed 2 boys or 2 girls playing with the toy, or they saw no commercial (control). As predicted, only the high gender-constant children were differentially affected by the sex-role information in the different commercial conditions. Children at this stage who saw opposite-sex children playing with the toy avoided spending time with the toy and stated verbally that the toy was more appropriate for an opposite-sex sibling, relative to children in the 2 other conditions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of sex-role development and in terms of the role that television may play in maintaining sex stereotypes and sex-typed behavior.

Gender constancy and the effects of sex-typed televised toy commercials.

Two studies examined the accuracy and differentiation of 4–5-yearolds‘, 8–9-year-olds’, and undergraduates' predictions of the preferences of peers and nonpeers. In Study 1 each subject was presented with separate arrays of snacks, meals, and activities depicted on cards and were asked to select their own preferences and the preferences of peers and nonpeers (“grown-ups” for the children, and “4- to 5-year-olds” for the undergraduates). In Study 2 each subject selected his or her own preference, the preference of peers, and the preferences of both older nonpeers (“grown-ups”) and younger nonpeers (“2-year-olds”). For all age groups, including 4–5-year-olds: (1) the preference predictions differentiated peers from nonpeers, as well as older nonpeers from younger nonpeers; (2) it was very rare for a subject to select his or her own preferences for the preference predictions of both peers and nonpeers. There were no consistent developmental differences either in the tendency to select one's own preferences when predicting the preferences of others or in the tendency to differentiate predictions for peers and nonpeers. In contrast, there was a clear developmental increase in predictive accuracy, with 4–5-year-olds being relatively inaccurate in predicting the preferences of nonpeers. The inadequacy of constructs such as “assumed similarity” and “egocentrism” as explanations for the general accuracy in predicting peers' preferences and the 4–5-year-olds' inaccuracy in predicting nonpeers' preferences is discussed. Possible alternative variables underlying developmental increases in judgmental accuracy, such as “social reference,”“self reference,” and “social category knowledge,” are then proposed.

Diane N. Ruble

Papers

Social cognition and social development : a sociocultural perspective

Developmental analysis of the role of social comparison in self-evaluation.

Gender constancy and the effects of sex-typed televised toy commercials.

Accuracy and differentiation in social prediction: A developmental perspective1

Sex differences in small-magnitude heart-rate responses to sexual and infant-related stimuli: a psychophysiological approach.