Socialisation: The development of social skills

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Socialisation The development of social skills
Steve Croker Room C009 Ext. 2081 s.croker_at_derby.ac
.uk
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Outline

• What is socialisation
• Theories of social development
• Influences on social development
• Learning outcomes

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What is socialisation?

• The development of social skills, attitudes and
  behaviours
• Social developmentalists ask
• how do these skills develop?
• what are the important influences in a child's
  life that affect how well they develop
  socialisation skills?

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How do these skills develop?

• Three main theories
• Social learning theory
• parents are secondary reinforcers
• Psychoanalytic theories
• Freud parents satisfy biological needs
• Erikson parents satisfy social needs
• Ethological theory
• biological programming

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Influences 1. Parents

• Bonding
• Attachment
• An enduring emotional tie that develops between
  the infant and other significant people (Harris,
  1993)
• 4 phases(Ainsworth et al, 1978, Bowlby, 1984)
• No attachment (early years - about 0-5 months)
• Start of attachment (5-7 months)
• Separation Protest Fear of Strangers (7 months
  - 3 yrs)
• Goal corrected partnership (3 yrs )

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Influences 1. Parents (2)

• Attachment (cont.)
• The Strange Situation experiment (Ainsworth and
  colleagues)
• Children were
• securely attached - 65 of sample
• insecure avoidant - 20
• Anxious/resistent ambivalent - 15
• disorganised/ disoriented - Main Soloman - 13
• Attachment style depends on parental sensitivity
• Implications of attachment style

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From Messer Miller, 1999
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Influences 1. Parents (3)

• Parenting Styles
• Baumrind (1967, 1971, 1980)
• 2 dimensions of parenting
• permissive-demanding dimension
• accepting/rejecting dimension
• 4 styles of parenting
• Accepting-permissive (Steinberg et al 1994)
• Accepting-demanding (Baumrind, 1991)
• Rejecting-permissive
• Rejecting-demanding (Weiss, Dodge, Bates and
  Pettit, 1992)

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From Dworetzky, 1996
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Influences 2. Peers

• 3 months of age very first signs of social
  awareness (Field, 1979, Fogel, 1979).
• 6 months smiling, touching and lean at other
  children (e.g Hay, Nash Pedersen, 1983).
• Older babies crawl to one another (Vandell
  Mueller, 1980).
• 2 years start of proper interactions, become
  more frequent and more complex as the children
  age (Howes, 1987, Bronson, 1981).

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Influences 2. Peers (2)

• 4 ways in which peers serve as socialisers
• As models
• As reinforcers
• Provide a secure environment
• Reflect the values of the larger society
• Peer popularity (deRosier, Kupersmidt,
  Patterson, 1994)
• Physical attractiveness
• Good motor skills (Hops Finch, 1985)
• Social skills

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Influences 3. Siblings

• Relationship characterised by (Dunn, 1983)
• Uninhibited emotional quality (unlike in peers)
• Mutual interest in one another
• High frequency of interaction
• Attachment (Bernt Bulleit, 1985, Brody et al,
  1985)
• Aggression (Rafaelli, 1989)
• Influence on later development (Buhrmester
  Furman, 1990)
• Sibling rivalry (Abramovitch et al, 1982)

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Influences 4. Grandparents

• Role they play depends on several factors
• family structure
• gender and age of child
• age of mother (Spieker Bensley, 1994).

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Influences 5. Play

• Pleasurable, voluntary activity that involves
  much repetition and variation as the child
  explores the range of possibilities of behaviour
  (Butterworth Harris, 1994).
• Parton (1935) - social levels of play
• unoccupied play
• solitary play
• onlooker play increasing
• parallel play sociability
• associative play
• co-operative play

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Influences 5. Play (2)

• Influence of play
• Howes Matheson (1992) greater social
  comepetence
• Furth Kiane (1992) allows children to gain a
  greater understanding of their social environment
• Influence of social pretend play or fantasy play
• Connolly et al develop awareness of others and
  reciprocal relationships.
• Connolly Doyle amount and complexity of social
  fantasy play is significantly correlated with
  social competence.

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Influences 6. Culture

• Importance of most desirable behaviour
• attachment differences
• Importance of physical environment
• Whiting Edwards (1988)
• Kenya and Liberia rural villages
• Tarong community in Philappines

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Influences 7. The child

• Temperament and attachment
• Kagan, 1984
• van Ijzendoorn deWolff, 1997

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Learning outcomes

• Describe what socialisation is
• Describe and evaluate theories of socialisation
• Describe and evaluate the impact of different
  influences on the development of social skills