Social dominance results when members of a social group vary in their ability to acquire resources in the presence of others (i.e., compete). Traditional approaches to social dominance often emphasize coercive behavior, but nonetheless suggest that dominant individuals are socially central (e.g., watched, attractive social partners). These patterns, however, apply to humans only up to a certain age. This apparent discontinuity may give the false impression that social dominance is less relevant to human social organization than it is to animal social organization. This paper reintroduces the ethological concept of social dominance, but reinterprets it from a strategy-based perspective. That is, if social dominance is defined as differential ability to control resources-without reference to how this is done-then children evidently employ different strategies to compete with peers (e.g., coercive and prosocial). Furthermore, the type of strategy children employ and peers' responses to it depend largely on the ages of the children. By adopting a strategy-based approach to social dominance and explicitly incorporating developmental processes and uniquely human capacities, human social dominance patterns appear to be more similar to primate patterns than commonly believed. Implications for social competence, peer relationships, and the development of the self are discussed. © 1999
Academic PressSurvival, growth, and development oblige resource acquisition (Ricklefs, 1979), and resource acquisition compels competition (Darwin, 1859). The role that this principle plays in the lives of nonhuman species is virtually unquestioned. The issue is less clear for humans, however, largely because competition ranges from the trivial (e.g., the last chocolate donut) to the crucial (e.g., the last liter of potable water) and because humans claim to hold equity in high esteem. Yet for any species, individuals are not all equally able to procure the necessities (or niceties) of life. The natural asymmetries