Attractiveness in young children: Sex-differentiated reactions of adults

Attractiveness ratings of 50 children aged 12–38 months were investigated in relation to adult socializing agents' behavior toward the children in their homes and play groups and their attitudes toward the children. Attractiveness scores were derived from 43 judges' ratings of facial photographs of the children. The same children were observed in play groups with female care givers; 40 of them were also observed in their homes with their parents. Play-group care givers rated the children for likability, tractability, and peer relations. Parents rated their attitudes toward giving routine care to their child. Attractiveness scores were not correlated with any adult attitude measures. Girls' attractiveness scores were positively correlated with their attempts to communicate in home and play group, and with mothers', fathers', and care givers' instructional responses, but negatively correlated with passive behavior in the home and with mothers' positive reactions. Boys' attractiveness scores were negatively correlated with passive behavior in the play group; no other significant correlations were found in the data for boys.     

Is there coherence among the cognitive components of gender acquisition?

This study examined the relationships among five measures that assess various cognitive components of the child's acquisition of gender. At around 2 years of age, children were given a task assessing their ability to accurately label as a boy or a girl some head-and-shoulders pictures of boys and girls. At 4 years of age, these children were given tasks measuring (1) the degree to which they found gender a salient parameter of categorization, (2) the amount of gender-related knowledge they could display (SERLI-SRD), (3) the degree to which their preferences were gender-typed (SERLI-SRP) and (4) the accuracy of their memory for gender-typed information. There was no consistent pattern of relationship among the children's scores on these five tools for measuring gender acquisition. Our findings suggest that gender is a multidimensional construct in children's development, and thus these results challenge the undimensional manner in which gender is repeatedly addressed in developmental theory and research.This research was funded in part by a federal biomedical research grant (No. 2507RR07080) awarded to the first author from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon, and by Grant No. RO1HD175751 from the National Institute of Child Development awarded to the third author.We wish to thank Margo Lane, Rachel Robertson, Jacqui Oucalt, Laura Baker, Dale Roberts, and the teachers, parents, and assistants of the Child Research Laboratory at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, for their invaluable contribution to this research.     

Friendship patterns of overseas students: A functional model1

The respondents were 30 foreign students at the University of Hawaii (6 each from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand), and 6 host national (American) students, balanced for sex. The subjects identified their 5 best friends, and the 5 people with whom they spend most of their time. The subjects were then presented with a list of 15 activities, and identified a preferred companion for each of the situations. The data were used to test a functional model of the academic sojourn, which predicts that foreign students will belong to three social networks, in descending order of salience: a) a conational network whose function is to affirm and express the culture of origin; b) a network with host nationals, whose function is the instrumental facilitation of academic and professional aspirations; and c) a multinational network whose main function is recreational. The results confirmed the existence, predicted differential function, and salience hierarchy of these three social networks, and reconciled previous conflicting reports regarding the social relations of foreign students.     

Variation in aggressive behavior and anatomo-physiological correlates generated by crowding without physical contact in the house mouse

Behavioral, physiological (i.e., endocrine), and anatomical consequences of crowding in mice were studied in a situation where animals were in auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile contact but restrained from full physical interactions, to prevent overt aggression. Males that cohabited with females undisturbed by neighboring conspecifics showed greater propensity to attack same-sex intruders and had higher plasma testosterone levels than did their “crowded” counterparts, that is, males cohabiting with females and housed adjacent to other male/female pairs. In this respect, the latter animals resembled submissive males. However, a significant increase in weight of androgen-dependent target organs (i.e., seminal vesicles and preputial glands) was found in crowded males. These data indicate that despite the observed inhibition of social aggression these males are not physiologically comparable (homologous) to male mice that experienced defeat and the stress of submission during fighting. The intriguing possibility that different conversion pathway of testosterone are accelerated, as a result of social communication, in males living in these two environments and the behavioral implications of these possibilities are discussed. Finally, the parental behavior of crowded animals, although not freely interacting with each other, was disrupted, causing a marked decrease in reproductive success. In this situation a high incidence of infanticide of their offspring by both parents was observed, whereas this behavior was virtually absent in non-crowded male/female pairs.