Because of the sparcity of research on infants' response to social events, especially different categories of people, infants between 8 and 18 months of age were introduced to five different social events: strange adult male and female, strange 4-year-old female, mother, and self. The infants' responses indicated that approach affects stimulus…

Fixation time, smiling, vocalization, and fret/cry were recorded to obtain a complete picture of infants' responses to facial stimuli over the first year of life. Four stimuli were presented to 120 infants. Results of fixation data indicate that (1) there is a marked decrease in fixation toward facial stimuli within the first year, (2) at all ages…

Investigates the relationship between self-recognition and self-evaluative emotions in two studies on 27 children aged 9-24 months and 44 children aged 22 months. The results of both studies indicate that embarrassment but not wariness was related to self-recognition. (RJC)

Examines gender differences in social network (SN) development from early to middle childhood and the relation of network characteristics to school competence through mothers' reports of the SNs of 38 sons and 37 daughters. For girls, SN characteristics correspond to teacher ratings of social competence in school. (SLD)

This study examined the social labels which are first used by infants, social differentiation on the basis of labeling behavior, and overgeneralization of social labels. Subjects were 81 infants from 9 to 36 months of age. The 9- to 24-month-olds were shown slides of themselves, their mothers, their fathers, and unfamiliar children, babies, and…

This longitudinal study examined the interrelationship between sex of the child and sex of the parent on the expression of attachment behaviors during the child's first 2 years. Special consideration was given developmental changes in the attachment structure and the relationship of attachment to cognitive development. Ten boys and 10 girls were…

This study examines the relationship between mother-infant behavior and the infant's performance on perceptual-cognitive tasks as a function of the infant's sex. A total of 189 12-week-old infants and their mothers were observed in their homes during 2 hours of infant awake time. In addition, the Mental Development Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales…

Development in general, and sex-role behavior in particular, is influenced by both biological and environmental factors. However, the coalescence of these factors around the child's growing social cognitive abilities is the critical factor in the development of sex role behavior. (Author/EB)

This paper discusses the processes that are at work which produce some of the differences between male and female human beings. The sex of the child is an important attribute of the organism's identity. Before birth, parents express preferences for the sex of the unborn child and start providing names as a function of the sex of the child. Studies…

Fifty-two 44-month-old children were observed in a nursery school over a period of two weeks with peer and adult oriented behaviors recorded, and data analyzed in terms of the subjects' sex and birth order. Sex effects were as expected, but birth-order effects highlighted the second-born child as representing a distinct category. In particular,…

Portions of this paper were presented at the 1967 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New York.

Examines the development of social networks from middle childhood to adolescence based on a longitudinal sample of 100 children. Age changes, sex differences, and the relation between network characteristics and self-perceived competence are considered. Adolescent girls' social networks are larger than boys' and are also more related to specific…

The most impressive class difference in one-year-old infants revealed by this study was that lower-class infants vocalized considerably less in the playroom than did middle-class infants. (Authors)

This study examines the effects of sex, socioeconomic status, birth order and birth spacing on the cognitive performance of 12-week-old infants. A brief review of research on neonatal cognitive ability is followed by a description of the study itself. The subjects, 189 three-month-old Caucasian infants (61 first borns, 58 second borns, and 49…