A Study On The Characteristics And Development Of Children's Conceptualization Of Social Relations

Based on dynamic-contextualist,the convoy model,the relational model,children from grade 4,grade 6,grade 8 were studied to explore their conceptualization of social relations.Type of relation,dimension in the relation,reciprocity,the specific scene,etc.,were taken into consideration,so that the characteristic and development of children's conceptualization of social relations could be found more dynamically and integratedly.In the first study,the subjects were asked to classify different forms of address in children's whole social network.Children's conceptual structure was then revealed and a macroscopical, general knowledge about children's conceptualization of social relations was achieved.Based on study one,6 main relations in children's life were selected in study two to explore further children's cognitive characteristic and development of the dimensions in these relations.In the third study,the subjects were asked to evaluate the possibility of friendship for two persons who came from different contexts and were provided with different ranks or bei(generations). Children's understanding about social relations was revealed more and their understanding about friendship was achieved approximately too.Lastly,children's conceptualization of peer relations and friendship was focused on.IAT was used in study four to investigate children's relative attitude to each side in their peer relations.Ambiguous situations task and similarity task were used in study five to focus on the gender effect in children's attitude about their peer relationships and friendship.In study six,social dilemmas and flash simulation were used to examine children's choice of cooperation and competition and then children's social value orientation in their friendship was revealed.The results and conclusions were as followed.1 children's conceptualization of social relations took on complexity and diversityThe dimensions of bei(generations),sex,in-law,affectiveness were found in children's conceptual structure of kinship.The dimensions of rank and intimate level were found in children's conceptual structure of school relations.The dimensions of context and intimate level were found in children's conceptual structure of peer relations.The degree of children's cognition of the dimensions varied in different crossbei(generations) relations.The degrees of obligation,redoundness,obedience,affectiveness in mother-child relation were the largest and the degrees in teacher-student relation were the lowest. Grandparent-grandchild relation was provided with the lowest obligation yet the largest obedience. There are directions in all the dimensions except the redoundness.Elderships showed more obligation than juniors in their relations.The degree juniors obey elderships was higher than the degree elderships obey juniors.The degree juniors trust elderships was higher than the degree elderships trust juniors.Juniors were more important to elderships than elderships to juniors. Elderships showed more intimacy than juniors in their relations.The degree of children's cognition of the dimensions varied in different peer relations.The degrees of obligation,redoundness,obedience,affectiveness in friendship were higher than the degrees in common schoolmate relation.There are directions in obligation and affectiveness. Children themselves showed more obligation than their compeers in their relations.Children themselves were more familiar with and more friendly to their compeers than the compeers were. Children themselves were more important to their compeers than the compeers to them.Though the degree of obligation in friendship was higher than that in common schoolmate relation,there was no difference between children themselves and their compeers.The degree children obey their compeers was the same as the degree their compeers obey them.Furthermore,in peer interactions, special activity scenarios affected the way how children explained and assessed the ambiguous situations.Whether the sports interests were same influenced children's rating of similarity and reasoning for rating of similarity.When asked whether two persons could be friends,children's estimation was influenced by the two persons' contexts and their ranks or bei(generations).Two persons provided with the same ranks or bei(generations)were more possible to become friends.If two persons came from the same family,they were the most possible to become friends.If two persons came from the same school,they were more possible to become friends.If one person came from family and the other came from school,they were the least possible to become friends.Furthermore,in peer interactions,special activity scenarios and sports interests influenced children's judgments of friendship potential and reasoning for potential friendship.Children's cooperation or competition tendency in their friendship was also affected by many factors.There may be significant associations among the diversified dimensions in social relations. Factors such as social relation,dimension,direction,context,situation,etc,showed daedal interaction.Children's conceptualization of social relations resulted from effects and interactions of many factors.2 Children's conceptualization of social relations presented age difference and developmental trendThere was no age difference in children's conceptual structure of school relations and peer relations,whereas there were obvious differences in children's conceptual structure of kinship. The dimensions of sex,bei(generation),the aged/children were found in the conceptual structure of students in grade 4.The dimension of sex disappeared and the dimensions of in-law and intimate level appeared. The degrees of obligation,redoundness,obedience,affectiveness,trust,familiarity, friendliness,intimacy that children cognized in cross-bei(generations)relations showed on the whole such a developmental trend that there was a increase through grade 4 to grade 6,but there was a significant decline through grade 6 to grade 8.The degree that children in grade 6 cognized was the highest and the degree that children in grade 8 cognized was the lowest.The degree of importance that children in grade 6 cognized were the highest too,but there was no difference between grade 4 and grade 8.There was no age difference in children's conceptual structure of peer relations.There was no age difference either in children's implicit attitude to themselves and their compeers.There was no age difference in interpreting and rating ambiguous situations,except that in specific scenarios children in grade 4 interpreted"what happened"more negatively.There was no age difference in rating of similarity,whereas temperament and gender of the two kids in the pictures were the least used by children in grade 4.There were some age differences in children's cognition of dimensions in peer relations.There was no difference between grade 4 and grade 6,but there was an obvious decline through grade 6 to grade 8.Furthermore,children in grade 8 considered that they had shown more obligation than their compeers in their relations.There was no age difference in redoundness,yet children in grade 6 and grade 8 considered that they had redounded more on their compeers than the compeers had redounded on them.There was no age difference in obedience,yet children in grade 6 and grade 8 considered that the degree of obligation in friendship had been higher than that in common schoolmate relation.There was no age difference in intimacy.There was an increase in familiarity and friendliness through grade 4 to grade 6,but there was a decline through grade 6 to grade 8.There was no change in trust and importance through grade 4 to grade 6,but there was a decline through grade 6 to grade 8.With the growth of age,children in higher grade gradually cared more about the division between friendship and common schoolmate relation.There were significant age differences in children's judgment of potential friendship.There was increases through grade 4 to grade 8.Children in grade 8 were more likely to consider that two persons might become friends.There were also some age differences in children's reasoning for potential friendship.There was no difference between grade 4 and grade 6 in children's cooperative or competitive tendency in their friendship,but there was a significant development through grade 6 to grade 8.children in grade 8 showed the highest cooperative tendency in their friendship.3 Gender factor influenced children's conceptualization of social relations both explicitly and implicitly There was no difference between the boy subjects and the girl subjects in all the aspects except for the cognition of affectiveness in peer relations.The girls considered the degree of affectiveness in peer relations higher than that the boys considered.In opposition to gender of the subjects,gender of characters in ambiguous situations and pictures played an important part in children's understanding of peer relationship.Gender factor influenced children's conceptualization of social relations more implicitly.Children considered that kids with the same gender were more similar and more likely to become friends than those with different gender. Children considered that boys were more likely than girls to be the potential transgressors in peer interactions.It' more easy for girls to establish friendship.4 Generally speaking,there was no significant difference between the only children and the other children in their conceptualization of social relations...