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Infant‐school children's perception of the behaviour of same‐ and opposite‐sex classmates
Author(s) -
Hartley David
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1981.tb00487.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , perception , contradiction , sociometry , social psychology , test (biology) , social approval , peer acceptance , class (philosophy) , peer group , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , biology , artificial intelligence , computer science
The study concerns the ways in which boys and girls define their own behaviour and that of the opposite sex in two large infant schools of different social class composition in an English city. Using a sociometric device, the Guess Who? test, it was found that in both schools boys defined their own behaviour both ‘positively’ and ‘negatively’, whereas girls saw their behaviour as being ‘positive’ and that of boys as being ‘negative’. The apparent contradiction in the boys' definition of their own behaviour is explored in terms of the conflicting social roles which they must fill.