Family Relationships, Relationships - Friendship, Social Psychology, Child Rearing & Development, Interpersonal Relations - Psychology, Child & Infant Psychology & Psychiatry, Social Sciences - General & Miscellaneous

Learning the Rules

Name: Learning the Rules
Author: Brian J. Bigelow
ISBN: 9781572300842

by Brian J. Bigelow, John H. Lewko, Geoffrey Tesson

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Overview

This unique and insightful volume is about childhood relationships - what they mean and how children manage them. Shedding light on how more mature and complex adult phenomena can be seen in their earlier nascent forms, the work also gives readers an understanding of the basic processes the govern relationships in general. The authors focus on what children themselves say, to illuminate the personal constructions they use order thier social reality, as well as to address the actual content and meaning of their relationships. In interpreting children's verbalized social rules with parents, siblings, peers, and teachers, the work provides a contextually informed framework from which to explore such issues as the impact of parental authority on child compliance, sibling rivalry, close friendships, and disclosure.

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

Synopsis

Reporting what children themselves say about their personal and social relationships, this book illuminates the personal constructions children use to order their interpersonal worlds, as well as the actual content and meaning of their relationships. In its interpretation of children's verbalized social rules with parents, siblings, peers, and teachers, the book provides a contextually informed framework from which to explore such issues as the impact of parental authority on child compliance, sibling rivalry, close friendships, and disclosure.

Booknews

A fascinating study of childhood relationships shedding light on how we form our first understandings of the complex rules governing personal interactions. The authors draw on interviews with over 1,000 young people (straight from the horse's mouth so to speak) in order to interpret their social rules with parents, siblings, peers, and teachers, demonstrating that social rules are related to social order and are derived from children's personal constructions of deference, assertiveness, control, expression, loyalty, and trustworthiness. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author, Brian J. Bigelow

Brian Bigelow has been teaching child development for many years and is most noted for his research on children's friendship expectations. More recently his interests have extended to how children and adolescents order their social understandings which has given rise to research on social rules. Current activities include children's social construction of educational goals and the effects of social class on personal relationships. His parallel career as a clinical psychologist has extended to forensic issues. Dr. Bigelow currently teaches at Laurentian University in the Psychology Department and in Child and Development Studies.

Geoffrey Tesson received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1982 and is currently Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Laurential University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He has contributed chapters on socialization and development to various volumes, including K. Anderson, et al., Family Matters, J. A. Meacham, Interpersonal Relations: Family, Peers, Friends, J. Lafontant, L'Initiation thématique à la sociologie, and P. Anisef and P. Axelrod, Transitions: Schooling and Employment in Canada. He has co-authored, with Brian Bigelow and John Lewko, previous papers on the development of social rules in children and adolescents.

John H. Lewko, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Human Development at Laurentian University. His launching of the current social rules research program has led to more recent work on mental models and decision-making related to risk perception and changes in adolescent risky behaviors.