Peers

Vocabulary flashcards for understanding peer relationships and interactions.

Peers

Children of roughly the same age.

Friends

Peers with whom a child has a special relationship.

Dyads

Pairs of children interacting.

Groups of Peers

Collections of children with defined boundaries and social organization, such as cliques, teams, and crowds.

Social Partner Recognition (Infancy)

Infants begin to recognize peers as social partners around 6-12 months old, initiating interactions through vocalizing, waving, and touching.

Toddler Social Exchanges

Toddlers' social exchanges become more complex due to gains in locomotion and language, facilitated by objects like toys. Sharing and cooperation are effective strategies.

Sharing Meaning (Toddlers)

The primary social achievement of children aged 2-3 years, involving suggesting activities, signaling role switches, and communicating shared knowledge.

Onlooker Behavior (Preschool)

Children watch or converse with other children engaged in play activities. Common in 2-year-olds.

Parallel Play (Preschool)

Children play in similar activities, often side by side, but do not engage one another. Common in 2-year-olds but diminishes by age 3-4.

Associative Play (Preschool)

Children play with other children but do not necessarily share the same goals. They share toys and materials and might comment on another child's activities. Common in 3-4-year-olds.

Cooperative Play (Preschool)

Children cooperate, reciprocate, and share common goals in play. Seen in 3-4-year-olds.

Gender Segregation

Boys and girls increasingly choose playmates of the same gender and exclude children of the other gender during elementary school.

Peer Influence (Adolescence)

Peers influence teens' styles of interpersonal behavior, selection of friends, and choices of fashion and entertainment. They have a stronger influence on whether teens use alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs than parents do

Modeling Behavior (Peers)

Children learn by observing the actions of their peers, especially older, more powerful, and more prestigious ones.

Reinforcing and Punishing Behavior (Peers)

Peers actively try to convince other children to engage in behaviors, reinforcing those they approve of and punishing those they dislike.

Contagion (Peers)

Passive, emotional processes where having friends with internalizing symptoms like depression and anxiety increases one's chances of developing similar symptoms.

Social Comparison (Peers)

Children measure themselves against peers to evaluate their own characteristics, abilities, and actions, playing a major role in determining self-esteem.

Nominations Sociometric Technique

A research method where children name peers they like most and least to measure peer acceptance and rejection.

Popular Children

Receive the largest number of most-liked nominations and the fewest least-liked ones.

Average Children

Receive some of both types of nomination but not as many most-liked nominations as popular children.

Neglected Children

Receive few most-liked and few least-liked votes; are isolated and friendless but not necessarily disliked.

Controversial Children

Receive a large number of most-liked nominations and a large number of least-liked nominations.

Rejected Children

Receive many least-liked nominations and few most-liked nominations.

Popular-Aggressive Children

A small number of children and adolescents who are perceived to be popular display a mix of positive and negative behaviors and are athletic, arrogant, and aggressive but at the same time are viewed as cool and attractive.

Aggressive-Rejected Children

Have poor self-control and exhibit frequent aggression and behavior problems.

Nonaggressive-Rejected Children

Anxious, withdrawn, and socially unskilled.

Socially Reticent-Anxious Children (Neglected)

Watch others from afar, remain unoccupied in social company, and hover near but do not engage in interaction.

Socially Uninterested-Unsociable Children (Neglected)

Not anxious or fearful but simply refrain from social interaction because they prefer to play alone.

Reputational Bias

The tendency of children to interpret peers' behavior on the basis of past encounters and impressions.

Positive Partnerships (Parents)

Documented links between children's relationships with their parents and their relationships with peers. Mothers and fathers are trusted partners, children are more likely to acquire social-interaction skills.

Homophily

Tendency to associate with similar others, meaning 'love of the same.'

Rotation Group (Friendship Patterns)

Children readily formed new relationships, but their social ties showed little stability. These children were playful teasers.

Growth Group (Friendship Patterns)

Children who added new relationships and kept the existing ones. These children were neither bossy nor easily pushed around.

Decline Group (Friendship Patterns)

Children whose friendships broke up and were not replaced. These children were caring, shared with others, and, like those in the rotation group, engaged in playful teasing; they were often judged to be 'show-offs.'

Static Group (Friendship Patterns)

Children maintained a stable pool of friendships and added no new ones. They were less apt to tease others, but they were also less caring; the girls in this group were known for their honesty.

Friendless Group (Friendship Patterns)

Children made no friends at all throughout the summer. Others perceived these children as timid, shy, and preferring to play alone. They couldn't deal with teasing and were easily angered.

Cliques

Groups based on friendship and shared interests in middle childhood, typically of the same gender and race.

Crowd

A collection of people who share attitudes or activities that define a particular stereotype: jocks, brains, populars, nerds, skaters, stoners, freaks, goths.

Gangs

Groups of adolescents or adults who form an allegiance for a common purpose, often involved in criminal activity.