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How are we to understand the complex forces that shape human behavior? A variety of diverse perspectives, drawing upon studies of human behavioral ontogeny, as well as humanity's evolutionary heri tage, seem to provide the best likelihood of success. It is in the attempt to synthesize such potentially disparate approaches to human develop ment into an integrated whole that we undertake this series on the Genesis of Behavior. In many respects, the incredible burgeoning of research in child development over the last decade or two seems like a thousand lines of inquiry spreading outward in an incoherent starburst of effort. The need exists to provide, on an ongoing basis, an arena of discourse within which the threads of continuity between those diverse lines of research on human development can be woven into a fabric of meaning and understanding. Scientists, scholars, and those who attempt to translate their efforts into the practical realities of the care and guidance of infants and children are the audience that we seek to reach. Each requires the opportunity to see-to the degree that our knowledge in given areas permits-various aspects of development in a coherent, integrated fashion. It is hoped that this series, which will bring together research on infant biology, developing infant capacities, animal models, the impact of social, cultural, and familial forces on development, and the distorted products of such forces under certain circumstances, will serve these important social and scientific needs.
List of contents
Introduction: Issues in the Study of the Social Network.- 1 The Child's Social Network: Social Object, Social Functions, and Their Relationship.- 2 The Infant as a Focus for Family Reciprocity.- 3 Conceptualization of Father Influences in the Infancy Period.- 4 The Infant's Exposure to Talk by Familiar People: Mothers, Fathers, and Siblings in Different Environments.- 5 The Family as a System of Mutual Influences: Parental Beliefs, Distancing Behaviors, and Children's Representational Thinking.- 6 Self-Recognition in Chimpanzees and Man: A Developmental and Comparative Perspective.- 7 Only Children, Stereotypes, and Research.- 8 Interaction between Young Siblings in the Context of Family Relationships.- 9 Toddlers + Toys = An Autonomous Social System.- 10 The Effect of Adults on Peer Interactions.- 11 Differential Development of Various Social Relationships by Rhesus Monkey Infants.- 12 Young Children's Concepts of Social Relations: Social Functions and Social Objects.- 13 The Changing American Family and Its Implications for Infant Social Development: The Sample Case of Maternal Employment.- Author Index.
