Peers Flashcards
How do you define friendship?
Close, mutual, reciprocal, voluntary relationship
How do children’s defintion of friendships change over time?
- Early childhood (3-6): Live nearby, have nice toys, like to play
Rewards vs. costs - Middle childhood (6–12): based on shared interests, take care of/support each other
- Adolescence (13–18/19): more abstract, based on shared interests and shared values, engaging in self-disclosure and intimacy
Time spent with peers and perspective-taking abilities increase over time.
Increasing ages, more selective in choosing friends
What are some functions of friendships?
- Emotional support
- Physical support
- Buffer in stressful times
- Development of social skills
- Social comparison, e.g., compare to the norms of behavior to see if I am doing correctly
- Stimulation, entertainment, e.g., working my brain during COVID
- Conflict & resolution
- Model and reinforce behavior, may include deviancy training (drugs or truancy)
Overall having friends appears to be highly beneficial in development
What are cliques and what are some features of cliques?
- Smaller, voluntary, friendship-based groups
- Shared interests and attitudes
- Tend to have shared background:
Initially same gender, move to more mixed genders
Initially mixed race, move to more same race (development of ethnic-racial identity) - ~50%-75% of teens are members of a clique
What are crowds?
Group of peers that are reputation-based groups. They are less voluntary. People are placed into a crowd based on their reputation. e.g., nerds, partyers, normals, or populars
What are three functions of cliques?
- Context of friendship
- Providing you with a social group - Sense of belongingness
- For straight teens, can support/guide interest in romantic relationships
Trend: Historically it started with same-gender cliques, then mixed-gender cliques, and finally romantic couples
What are the three functions of crowds?
- Locate individuals within social environment, giving us a schema to understand the relationships
- Contribute to sense of identity and self-concept
- Establish social norms and know what behaviour is acceptable
When kids do not see themselves fit in any crowds, that’s less beneficial
How do researchers measure sociometric peer status?
Two dimensions: likes and dislikes
- Popular (12-20%): lots of likes and few dislikes
- Rejected (12-20%): lots of dislikes and few likes
- Neglected (6-20%): no one really cares much about them
- Controversial (rare 6%-12%): lots of likes and lots of dislikes
- Average (30%-60%): average numbers of likes and dislikes
What are some traits of the sociometrically popular/likeable kids?
- Skilled at initiating and maintaining positive interactions
- Good at recognizing and regulating emotions
- Good at perspective taking
- Rated by teachers as cooperative, friendly, helpful, leaders
- Assertive, but not pushy
What are three types of rejected children?
- Rejected-aggressive: instrumental and relational aggression (manipulating and spreading gossip), physical aggression, bullying
- Rejected-withdrawn: poor social skills, socially anxious, difficulty with social goals
- Rejected aggressive/withdrawn
Outcomes/reasons of the rejected status: Acting out problems (externalizing) and internalizing problems, academic problems.
[May be two-directional]
What are the traits of other statuses (controversial, neglected, average)?
- Controversial:
share characteristics of both popular and rejected children: can be helpful/cooperative, but can also be disruptive/aggressive - Negelected:
Timid, shy, lack of social skills
Often not bothered by classification
Controversial and neglected statuses are less stable, they tend to change over time.
- Average:
Most common
Moderately sociable, average cognitive skills
What leads children to have a certain peer status?
- Social skills
- Temperament, sense of humour
- Interpretations – hostile attribution bias (interpret ambiguous event as hostile), rejection sensitivity
- Parents, if parents use a lot of instrumental/aggressive aggression, children mimic that and become rejected
- Physical attractiveness
- Name? Having an atypical name may be less liked because it doesn’t fit into the norms
What are impact of race/ethnicity and context on peer statuses?
- Black youths are more likely to be liked if they are in a class with more black children.
- Black youths are more likely to be liked if they have black teachers
What is the concept of perceived popularity?
- Mix of positive and negative traits
- Decent social skills
- Aggression: instrumental, relational (manipulating relationships)
- Physical attractiveness
- More variable, based on changing norms, e.g., in art school or CS camps
Zhang et al. paper: Are there differences in the characteristics linked with peer status in the US vs. China?
Participants: grade 7 Chinese and US students
Methods: Check the names of the students you:
* Like the most
* Think are most popular
* Admire, respect, want to be like
6 months later, 1 year later
Findings: prosocial behavior and academic achievement linked with likeability and perceived popularity across both cultures
But more linked for Chinese adolescents, especially perceived popularity. Suggests that cultural norms may impact peer status – particularly perceived popularity!
