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The Clinicial Implications of Children’s Conceptions of Social Relationships

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Cognitive Development and Child Psychotherapy

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Developmental Psychology ((PDPS))

Abstract

In many ways, developing children are social scientists, gathering information and testing hypotheses about their social world in order to discover “how it works.” To succeed socially—to elicit rewarding interactions and to avoid punishing interpersonal experiences—they must learn how to predict the behavior and responses of others and must guide their own behavior accordingly. Gradually, children gather information about the characteristic behaviors of various others. They begin to compare an individual’s behavior across situations and time and infer dispositional, motivational, and contextual determinants (Barenboim, 1977). Based upon these inferences, adolescents construct theories about psychological processes. Concurrently, children acquire an understanding of the norms and values which guide social behavior within their culture, including the expectations associated with various social roles and role relations (Kelvin, 1970).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    Karen Linn Bierman

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  1. Karen Linn Bierman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Stephen R. Shirk

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Bierman, K.L. (1988). The Clinicial Implications of Children’s Conceptions of Social Relationships. In: Shirk, S.R. (eds) Cognitive Development and Child Psychotherapy. Perspectives in Developmental Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3635-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3635-6_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-3637-0

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