An Appraisal of Certain Aspects of Children's Social Behavior

Abstract

themselves rather than on documented facts. There is a need to sensitize professional workers to the value of more objective instruments in the appraisal of a child's behavior as he works and plays with others.How one child feels about another is important in his ability to learn. The kind of acceptance and respect that he has for the members of his working group affect his attitude toward the task at hand. The teacher who is aware of interpersonal relationships can better set a positive emotional tone in the classroom. Persons preparing to teach should have many opportunities to see how pupils react to their peers and to know how pupils feel about the responses they make to others and the responses that are made to them. Generalizations can then be made about group endeavor and the individual's role in it.At the University of Georgia students preparing to teach in the elementary school spend six consecutive months in contact with children, as observers, participants, and student teachers. They have many opportunities to observe and work with children in different situations and to collect and use information about them. Folders containing pertinent facts about the pupil's life history from kindergarten to the present, autobiographies, place on sociograms, pupils' statements about aspirations, and many descriptions of social experiences are available to them.The Study Student teachers working in the fifth grades of an elementary school decided to test the validity of a social relations scale in supplying information about children not gained from other sources.The Syracuse Scale of Social Relations was administered to ninety children in three fifth grades twice during a sixmonth period.Each pupil was asked to rate his classmates as possible sources of aid when he was troubled by a personal problem and as a possible source of support in his effort to reach personal goals, the attainment of which would bring social approval and commendation. The pupils' evaluations were made with reference to a scale &dquo;of all persons he has ever known&dquo; which permitted inter-individual and inter-group comparisons of need-satisfaction expectations.Since every pupil was evaluated by every other pupil, complete information was available on (1) how each pupil viewed his classmates as satisfying his need for succorance and achievement recognition and (2) how each pupil was evaluated by his classmates as being able Dr. Sutton is professor and chairman of the

Personality and Social Development: Peer and School Influences

“…Additional References: Clifford (1963); Cox (1963); Green and Zigler (1962); Karnes and others (1963); Medinnus (1962);Meyerowitz (1962); Ringness (1961); Sutton (1962).…”