This study sought to clarify the process of knowledge acquisition by examining why people tend to misattribute others' activities as their own after having interacted with them. In Study 1, an experiment was conducted with 4-year-old children allocated to 2 groups: one group of children interacted with an adult, and the other group interacted with…

Children's experiences of empowerment in relation to preschool peers and in child-adult interactions were studied, involving 25 four- to six-year-olds from four Swedish preschools. Group interviews using puppets comprised pre-constructed scenarios to examine preschools' activities. Children took photos of indoor and outdoor preschool environments,…

This work explores the use of multimodal communication in a community of expert "World of Warcraft"® players and its impact on politeness, identity, and relationships. Players in the community regularly communicated using three linguistic modes quasi-simultaneously: text chat, voice chat, and face-to-face interaction. Using the…

The intervention of Intensive Interaction is gaining attention for its demonstrated effectiveness in promoting social engagement in individuals with severe communicative impairments. The present study sought to extend the evidence base for this intervention by investigating the rapidity with which an increase in engagement becomes apparent.…

In this paper the nature of adult sibling solidarity is considered, and two features of our kinship system that help explain its form are examined: (1) the fact that kinship operates as a social network; and (2) the element of personal choice permitted. (Author)

This paper represents an attempt to assess the merits of the general hypothesis that suggests that the quality of adolescent-adult interaction is an important variable in the explanation of differentials in adolescent peer-group involvement. (Author)

Two adults with developmental disabilities were trained to increase their prompt and polite acknowledgments of coworker initiations by means of daily review of interactions of the previous day which had been recorded. The review included self-evaluation, praise, corrective feedback, and role-play. Behavior changes were maintained during follow-up…

Three parameters of self-disclosure (intimacy, amount, and frequency) were examined during four 60-minute sessions of group interaction among 16 participants in a smoking-cessation seminar. Analyses focused upon the effects of successive sessions upon the measures of self-disclosure. Significant differences were found for intimacy and frequency of…

The impact of children's reactions to punishment on subsequent adult disciplinary actions was assessed in a study in which adult women administered rewards and punishments contingent on the behavior of a child viewed on a television monitor. Following an aggressive act by the target child and punishment administered by the adult subject, the adult…

The behavior of 304 mentally disabled adults was observed in five settings (one residence, four sheltered workshops) during periods when they were free to affiliate with peers. In total, the findings indicated that the variables most predictive of affiliation in the present community settings were also the ones most amenable to personal or…

In the third in a series on the social behavior of mentally disabled clients in community facilities, social choice for various cognitive and physical characteristics and for exposure to others was investigated in five settings. (Author/SBH)

The social/verbal interactions of six employees with moderate or severe mental retardation and six workers without mental retardation were observed in restaurant settings. Among findings was that interactions between workers with mental retardation and the job coach correlated negatively with the workers' initiation of interactions with co-workers…

This study evaluated Reiss's (2000) empirically derived system for understanding incompatibility of housemates in housing programs for people with mental retardation. Comparison of 57 dyads without significant conflict and 36 dyads with conflict found dissimilarity of basic motives and values was associated with housemate incompatibility as were…

The salience of kin and other categories of relationships for people at various stages of the life cycle is investigated. Their sets of close relationships, conceptualized as personal networks, are found to vary with age and life stage, in composition, stability, and degree of involvement. (Author)

The collection contains six papers of studies which investigated the social ecology of the workplace and associated implications for friendship formations between adults with and without mental retardation. The papers' authors, Janis Chadsey-Rusch, Frank Rusch, Patricia Gonzalez, Jeffrey Tines, Kathleen Minch, and Carolyn Hughes, observed…