Hugh Lytton

Parents' differential socialization of boys and girls: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 172 studies attempted to resolve the conflict between previous narrative reviews on whether parents make systematic differences in their rearing of boys and girls. Most effect sizes were found to be nonsignificant and small. In North American studies, the only socialization area o

Child and Parent Effects in Boys' Conduct Disorder: A Reinterpretation.

The importance of parent and child influences on the development of conduct disorder in boys is evaluated. The research approaches reviwed include studies of interactions between unrelated mothers and children, reaction to punishment, autonomic reactivity, biochemical factors, and drug treatment and longitudinal studies of delinquency.

Stability of genetic determination from age 2 to age 9: a longitudinal twin study.

Abstract In an earlier study of 46 pairs of male twins, genetic determination of certain social characteristics, speech, and vocabulary IQ was assessed at age 2.5 years. In a follow‐up of 35 of these pairs at age 9, genetic and environmental factors were examined again in the same characteristics, as well as in antisocial and neurotic behavior, nonverbal ability, school achievements, height, and weight. At 9, significant genetic variance, replicated via two methods of calculation, was found in height, weight, nonverbal IQ, and antisocial behavior (teachers rating). Shared family environmental influences were important for compliance, conscience, and antisocial behavior (parents’ ratings). Social traits were thus less under genetic influence than were physical and cognitive characteristics, and for antisocial behavior, genetic and environmental factors were both important. Stable genetic determination across both ages was found only for speech, measured by speech rate at age 2 and speech maturity at age 9.

Environmental and genetical causes of variation in ethological aspects of behavior in two-year-old boys.

Abstract The interactive behavior of two‐year‐old male twins (17 MZ, 29 DZ pairs) with their parents was observed in the home and laboratory. Behavior counts, ratings, and experimental measures were subjected to a biometrical genetic analysis. A model which included only within‐and between‐families environmental effects fitted most variables best, except for Instrumental Independence (a rating) and Speech Rate (a count variable) which showed a significant genetic component. Low reliability may explain the small proportion of genetic variation in count variables, but the greater reliability of ratings and experimental measures (the latter, however, of doubtful construct validity) did not produce greater genetic determination. The largest part of the variance was explained by between‐families environmental differences’, only a minor part of which was due to interobserver differences. The probability of detecting genetic determination with this sample size, although it was large for an ethological study, is ...

Historical and Theoretical Foundations

People change. They are altered continuously, not only in temporary and reversible fashion, but in enduring and irreversible ways. They grow larger and smarter and more adept at social interaction. Such alteration is an inevitable fact of life. Because bodies mature and environments are never static, change must be one of the salient characteristics of human functioning. In fact, it is stability, not change, that should puzzle us, for stability poses a far greater challenge to understanding.

Socialization and the Family

“The process whereby the child becomes a social being” is perhaps the most comprehensive short definition of what we mean by “socialization.” The word socialization implies that the individual lives in a social world, that is, within a group, and group living, by its nature, imposes its own restraints and patterns of living for animals as well as humans. It is in early childhood that the child most actively and rapidly acquires these patterns of behavior, and she does so by means and in the context of her interactions with her family. Hence the family—at least in most forms of Western society—is the primary agent of socialization.

Divorce and Its Aftermath

Social developmental research often addresses itself to pressing social problems, the results of which have implications for social policy and planning. In the last section of this book we will discuss some of this research. Practical policy decisions will never be based on research findings alone, but will always have to take into account the social and political context in which they are made. However, it is important that such practical decisions, whenever possible, not be made in the absence of findings from replicated, sound research that are applicable to the population in question and have been carefully interpreted.

Morality and Altruism

The social interactions of human beings are guided by elaborate sets of rules and regulations. These criteria for conduct help to make life predictable: They order the behavior of participants so that social exchanges can be carried out safely and efficiently. Among the rules governing social behavior are a subset that are regarded as more important, and their violation as more serious, than others. It is this subset that comprises a moral code and is considered to be fundamental to human functioning. Moral codes contain rules for behavior that seem self-evident, rather than determined by arbitrary social agreement. They comprise strongly held values that appear to need no justification for their existence. They are not statements of fact, nor are they subject to empirical test. They pertain to what ought to be, not what is.

Threats to Secure Attachment

Secure attachment to a mother (or father) figure has been considered a cornerstone of the child’s development, something we discussed in Chapter 4. The previous chapter has considered the effects of divorce, which often involves the severance of ties with fathers. The present chapter will examine what light research can throw on the consequences that the permanent, or temporary, separation from mother might, or might not, have on the child’s cognitive and social development.

Early mother‐son relations and son's cognitive and social functioning at age 9: A twin longitudinal study

A longitudinal study of twin boys examined how well mothers’ and sons’ characteristics and mutual interactions, assessed when the sons were 2, predict the sons’ cognitive and social characteristics at age 9. Ratings of social characteristics were obtained at both ages from interviews with mother and cognitive abilities were also assessed at both ages. Cognitive competence could be predicted very well from the childs 2‐year characteristics, particularly vocabulary IQ, and from mothers education level, which is seen as an index of her genetic contribution and environmental stimulation. However, her 2‐year socialization practices predicted cognitive competence poorly. Some 9‐year social characteristics, on the other hand, were fairly well predicted by mothers 2‐year attitudes and practices, whereas the childs own disposition and mothers education level had only a small effect on them.