Social Initiations Research Articles

Peer social initiations and the modification of social withdrawal: a review and future perspective.

Peer social initiations and the modification of social withdrawal: a review and future perspective.

Sex Differences in Social Responsiveness between Six Months and Twelve Months

14 male and 14 female infants were observed interacting with their mothers for 4 min in a free-play situation at 6, 9, and 12 months, using a cross-sectional design. Both mother and infant initiations of interaction and responses to the other's initiations were recorded using an observational technique similar to that used by Clarke-Stewart. There were no age or sex differences in either maternal responsiveness or the number of attempts the mothers made to initiate interaction with the infants. Although no sex difference in responsiveness was observed when the mother used toys to elicit the infant's attention, girls were significantly more responsive when the mother merely spoke to them (vocal initiations). The frequency of social initiations made by the infants increased significantly from 6 to 9 months, but at all 3 ages girls initiated more interactions than did boys. These sex differences in sociability did not reflect differences in the amount of time spent manipulating toys, nor did they reflect sex differences in the frequency of vocalizations, although between 6 and 9 months there was a significant increase for both sexes in the percentage of vocalizations which were used to initiate interactions.

Effects of peer-mediated social initiations and prompting/reinforcement procedures on the social behavior of autistic children

Peer-mediated social initiations and prompting/reinforcement procedures were evaluated (in training and generalization sessions) as interventions for increasing the positive social behavior of four autistic children. During baseline, the peer trainer made few social initiations and did not prompt or socially reinforce subjects. For two subjects, baseline was followed by social initiation intervention, and for the other two, baseline was followed by prompting and social reinforcement. Both interventions produced dramatic and comparable increases in positive social behavior in training sessions. Post-treatment responding was not observed for either intervention. When interventions terminated in a second baseline period, the subjects' behavior returned to the level observed during the initial baseline. The subjects were then exposed to the intervention procedure they had not yet experienced. Again, there were positive and comparable behavior changes in the treatment setting, but no increase in positive social behavior was observed during generalization assessment.

Behavior of Withdrawn Autistic Children

In this study, positive social initiations by a behaviorally disordered age-peer were evaluated as an intervention for withdrawn, autistic children. During baseline, the peer trainer made few social approaches to target subjects. The peer trainer greatly increased his rate of positive social initiations during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. In order to evaluate whether increased social initiations toward a target subject would affect the social behavior of other children in the setting, intervention was begun at different times for each subject. Increases in peer trainer initiations resulted in an immediate acceleration in the frequency of all subjects' positive social behavior. For two of the three subjects, negative social behaviors increased marginally during intervention sessions. Intervention applied to one subject did not produce any "spillover" of treatment effect on the behavior of children not under intervention procedures at that time.

Peer-Mediated Social Initiations: A Procedure for Promoting Social Behavior with Mainstreamed Children

Peer-Mediated Social Initiations: A Procedure for Promoting Social Behavior with Mainstreamed Children

A Study of Reciprocity in Preschool Play Groups

LEITER, MICHAEL P. A Study of Reciprocity in Preschool Play Groups. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1288-1295. Child-child interactions were observed in 2 preschools during free-play time and were recorded in terms of social initiations and responses. The degree of reciprocity in the quantity and quality of overall initiations as well as among the various initiation/response dyads was analyzed. Friendly initiations were associated with more frequent agree responses, demanding initiations with more frequent coercive responses, and whiny initiations with ignore responses. There is evidence that the frequency with which an initiation mode is employed is associated with its efficacy in eliciting agree responses. In addition to the reciprocal patterns, evidence of complementarity in the demanding initiation mode was found. These findings are presented as a step toward a functional analysis of the reciprocal and complementary social interactions of preschool children.

EFFECTS OF PEER SOCIAL INITIATIONS ON THE BEHAVIOR OF WITHDRAWN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Social approach to peers was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschoolers. During baseline, confederate peers made few social approaches to the target subjects. Confederates greatly increased their rate of social approaches during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate social initiations immediately increased the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior. Additionally, five of six subjects showed an increase in their own positive social initiations during intervention periods. The results suggest that: (a) peers may be programmed to increase the positive social behaviors of their isolate classmates, and (b) remediating social deficits requires assessment and intervention specifically tailored to the individual child.

An experimental analysis of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children: some training and generalization effects.

In this study, positive social initiations by an age-peer was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschool children in training and generalization sessions. During baseline, the confederate made few social approaches to the target subjects. The confederate greatly increased his rate of positive social initiations during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate initiations resulted in an immediate acceleration in the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior during training sessions. Additionally, for two of the three subjects, positive social behaviors were also observed to increase during generalization sessions. The results suggest that (a) peers may be trained successfully to set the occasion for positive social behaviors by withdrawn classmates, (b) increased social responding by withdrawn children in the presence of frequent peer social initiations may also generalize beyond the training setting, and (c) the magnitude of direct and generalization effects appears to be related to the entry-level repertoire of target children.

“Spiritual Education” in a Japanese Bank1

Many Japanese companies train their new employees according to a philosophy of “spiritualism,” a set of ideas about human psychology and character development that inspired much of the country's pre‐war education. “Spiritualism's” debts to the Zen, Confucian and samurai traditions are quite apparent. It emphasizes social cooperation and responsibility, an acceptance of reality, and perseverance. Its educational methods emphasize specially constructed training experiences. As a case study in the anthropology of education, Japanese company spiritual education points to the value of (1) studying educational processes outside formal school systems; (2) considering native concepts of psychology in analyzing educational processes; (3) finding relationships between educational techniques and techniques found in religious conversion, psychological therapy, and social initiation; and (4) discovering avenues of education that proceed by non‐verbal means.