The relationship between assertion and sociometric status of children

A correlational study was conducted in an effort to examine the relationship between children's level of assertive skill and their social (sociometric) status. The Ss were 15 male and 15 female elementary school children ranging in age from 9 to 11 yr. Each S was administered: (a) positive and negative peer nominations and roster and rating scale sociometrics; (b) self-report questionnaires concerning their assertive behavior; and (c) standardized interviews to assess knowledge of assertive behavior. In addition, teachers' ratings of children's interpersonal behavior were obtained. Results indicated some degree of correspondence between assertion indices and sociometric ratings. However, correlation coefficients generally were in the low-to-moderate range. Also, several scales from children's self-report and teacher's ratings of children's assertive behavior differentiated high- and low-popular children. Results are discussed in terms of: (1) the utility of employing multiple criteria in assessing social functioning of children; and (2) the need to determine empirically the relevance of assertive and other interpersonal skills in childrens' social repertoires.     

Creative potential and the sociometric status of children

The social adaptation problems of highly creative children were first discussed by Torrance (1961a, 1961b), but there is still no clear consensus as to whether or not creative children suffer from social rejection. The social status of these children in classroom groups deserves attention because of the educational and developmental importance of sociometric position. The present study utilized a multivariate approach to sociometric status (exploratory principal‐components analysis). The principal components were subjected to cluster analysis, which produced a clear sociometric taxonomy, comprising “neglected,”; “popular,”; “academic,”; and “rejected”; groups. Most of the highly creative children were in the neglected group. Further exploration using path analysis demonstrated that the child's self‐perceived social distance from other group members represents an intervening variable which is related to creative potential and is negatively associated with popularity in classroom groups.     

Stability of continuous measures of sociometric status: a meta-analysis

A meta-analytic review was conducted of 77 studies including 93 samples and 18,339 participants that examine both the short-term and long-term stability of four continuous dimensions of sociometric status: acceptance, rejection, social preference, and peer ratings. A large mean short-term stability was found for each dimension, indicating good test–retest reliability of sociometric measurements. Weighted least square regression analysis revealed that long-term stability was influenced by four factors: children’s age, gender, the length of the time interval across which stability was examined, and the year the study was published. The current study provides evidence for good reliability and high stability of continuous dimensions of peer status in childhood and adolescence.     

经济地位和计量地位:社会地位比较对主观幸福感的影响及其年龄差异

采用麦克阿瑟梯子启动方法对个体的社会地位比较进行启动,主要探讨社会经济地位和社会计量地位对年轻人和老年人主观幸福感作用的年龄差异。120名年轻人(27.26±4.80岁)和120名老年人(65.12±6.49岁)参加了正式实验。实验首先测量被试的主观幸福感,3~7天后启动社会地位比较,随后再次测量主观幸福感。社会地位比较分为4种启动条件,即经济上行比较、经济下行比较、计量上行比较和计量下行比较,被试被随机分配到其中一种启动条件。结果发现:年轻人的主观幸福感更容易受到社会经济地位比较的影响,而老年人的主观幸福感更容易受到社会计量地位比较的影响。由于原有的等级评定方式并未验证启动的有效性,补充实验通过对麦克阿瑟梯子进行改进降低了锚定化的影响,为启动的有效性提供了直接的证据。本研究验证了主观幸福感悖论,并从社会比较的角度解释了老年人维持主观幸福感的机制,同时改进了麦克阿瑟梯子等级评定方法使其适用于中国情境。     

Predicting changes in adjustment using repeated measures of sociometric status

The authors' goals in the study were to investigate the possible gains made by including multiple assessments of status in the prediction of change in psychosocial adjustment and to compare the effectiveness of continuous and categorical measures of peer status in predicting adjustment. The authors obtained continuous and categorical measures of status (social preference and rejected status) for 644 Grade 4 students at 3 points within 1 school year (fall, winter, and spring). The authors measured peer, teacher, and self-report indexes of social adjustment (including aggression, anxiety, and sociability) in Grades 4 and 5. Both measures of peer status at all 3 time points in Grade 4 were significant predictors of adjustment in Grade 5, controlling for Grade 4 levels, with the midyear (i.e., winter) assessment showing a slight predictive advantage over the fall and spring assessments. Children who were classified as peer rejected over multiple assessments had more social adjustment problems in the next school year than did children who were classified as peer rejected at 1 time point only. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the utility of multiple assessments of both continuous and categorical measures of peer status for predicting later outcomes.     

SSRAT: The processing of rating scales for the determination of two-dimensional sociometric status

SSRAT is an MS-DOS computer program for two-dimensional sociometric status determination with rating scales. It classifies members of a population into five sociometric status groups, using 3-, 5-, 7-, or 9-point ratings in matrices of assessors and assessed. The processing of rating scales instead of nominations offers several advantages, including increased variability and reliability of the resulting scores. SSRAT is built on the null hypothesis of conditional random attribution of ratings, according to the particular probability distribution of an assessor. Output is available in the form of an ASCII SPSS data file for further statistical processing. Recent studies show that SSRAT, in comparison with nomination methods, (1) is superior in determining popular persons while it detects rejected persons as well, and (2) probably yields classifications that have a higher temporal stability.     

Correlates of sociometric status in school children in Buenos Aires

Teacher ratings on Spanish translations of the Comprehensive Behavior Rating Scale for Children and peer nominations were obtained for 110 school children (42 boys and 68 girls) in grades 2– 5 at a public elementary school in Buenos Aires. Nominations of likes best were negatively correlated with language processing deficits, attention problems, and sluggish tempo as rated by both teachers and peers, and positively correlated with teacher ratings of social competence, for both boys and girls. The reverse pattern was found for nominations of likes least. Children were assigned to sociometric status groups of popular (n=27), rejected (n=28), neglected (n=7) controversial (n=11), and average (n=37) based on number of LL and LB nominations. Rejected and popular children could be differentiated by teacher and peer ratings of linguistic information processing deficits, inattention, and sluggish tempo. Behavioral characteristics of motor hyperactivity, impulsivity, and aggression were significantly associated with being male but did not differ by sociometric status group.The assistance of Claudia Colon, Educational District of Buenos Aires, and Viviana Smith, Department of the Interior, Argentina, in the translation of measures is gratefully acknowledged. Particular thanks are also extended to the teachers and personnel of Escuela Normal 9 — Domingo F. Sarmiento.     

The relationship between children's sociometric status and ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion

This study explored the relationship between children's sociometric status (SMS) and ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions. As expected, high SMS children obtained significantly higher emotion recognition scores than did low SMS children. However, there was an unanticipated inverse correlation between low SMS children's recognition scores from adult photgraphs and child photographs. Possible reasons for the observed relationships are discussed.     

地位感知变化对消费者地位消费行为的影响

本文通过3个实验探究了地位感知变化对消费者地位消费行为的影响。研究发现,无论在感知到地位提升还是地位威胁的情况下,消费者对地位商品的购买意愿均会提升,然而两者却有着不同的作用机制。对于感知地位提升的消费者,自我提升动机在地位感知对地位商品购买意愿的影响中起中介作用;而对于感知地位威胁的消费者,自我补偿动机同时在地位感知对地位商品和非地位商品购买意愿的影响中起中介作用。在感知地位威胁的情境下,自我实现的新兴价值观具有强化消费者地位消费行为的作用,而谦卑的传统价值观具有弱化消费者地位消费行为的作用。     

Behavioral and sociocognitive correlates of ratings of prosocial behavior and sociometric status

Although peers' and teachers' evaluations of children's prosocial behavior and peers' sociometric ratings frequently have been used in studies of social development, the validity of young children's ratings of others has been questioned, as has that for teachers' ratings of prosocial behavior. In this study, preschoolers' ratings of peers' sociometric status and prosocial behavior, as well as teachers' ratings of children's prosocial dispositions, were obtained. These were correlated with children's naturally occurring prosocial or social behavior; ratings of prosocial behavior also were correlated with children's prosocial moral reasoning and prosocial self-attributions. Peers' sociometric ratings were positively related to children's sociability whereas prosocial ratings were related to helping (but not sharing) behavior. Teachers' ratings of prosocial behavior were not related to frequency of prosocial behaviors, but were positively related to developmentally mature moral judgments and self-reported motives.     

Social contexts influence ethical considerations of research

This article argues that we could improve the design of research protocols by developing an awareness of and a responsiveness to the social contexts of all the actors in the research enterprise, including subjects, investigators, sponsors, and members of the community in which the research will be conducted. "Social context" refers to the settings in which the actors are situated, including, but not limited to, their social, economic, political, cultural, and technological features. The utility of thinking about social contexts is introduced and exemplified by the presentation of a hypothetical case in which one central issue is limitation of the probability of injury to subjects by selection of individuals who are not expected to live long enough for the known risks of the study to become manifest as harms. Benefits of such considerations may include enhanced subject satisfaction and cooperation, community acceptance, and improved data quality, among other desirable consequences.     

权力和地位对信任行为的影响

采用两个实验探讨了权力和地位对信任和不信任行为的影响。实验1首先通过角色分配法操纵被试的权力感(高vs.低),然后采用信任和非信任博弈任务来测量被试的信任和不信任行为。结果发现,在信任行为上,高权力者比低权力者存在更低的信任水平;但在不信任行为上,二者不存在显著差异。实验2同时操纵被试的权力和地位水平,探索二者对信任和不信任行为的影响。结果发现:在信任行为上,高权力者比低权力者存在更低的信任水平,与之相反,高地位者比低地位者存在更高的信任水平,并且权力和地位的交互作用不显著;而在不信任行为上,权力和地位的效应均不显著。该研究结果说明,(1)权力负向影响信任行为,而地位正向影响信任行为;(2)权力和地位对信任的影响是独立的。     

The presumption of sociality: social learning in diverse contexts in brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

Data are presented on social and vocal learning in cowbirds (Molothrus ater) housed in large aviaries and given more degrees of freedom than in conventional experimental studies. The studies show that social and vocal outcomes are facultative responses to social contexts. Several findings are reviewed: First, cowbirds quickly self-organize into groups by age and sex; second, opportunities to interact across age and sex do exist and affect courtship competence; third, female cowbirds organize themselves differently in the presence and absence of male competition; and fourth, young, naive cowbirds show rapid and differential sensitivity to group dynamics. Taken as a whole, the data show that social Umwelten are dynamic, developmental ecologies.     

The emotional relations of children's participation rights in diverse social and spatial contexts: Advancing the field

Children's participation rights, enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), have been a popular area of research, policy and practice for decades. Despite a great deal of interest and activity, participation rights have posed a particular challenge to implement. In response, researchers have consistently called for more in-depth and nuanced analyses of the way participatory rights are actually lived and experienced by children and young people, within the complexity of interdependent relationships. However, there has been surprisingly little focus on the emotional relations of children's participation rights. The analytical links between emotions and participation rights are rarely the focus and, where emotions are discussed, they are rarely discussed as a central concern in their own right. This article provides a review of the field and identifies three ways in which making emotions a central concern can help to advance debates on children's participation rights: by helping to unsettle ‘traditional’ constructions of the child-adult binary, by increasing sensitivity to ethical and safeguarding issues, and by making visible and challenging intersectional power relations.