Socialization and Developmental Change

This paper considers the divergent paths that have been taken by research in cognitive development and research in social-emotional development, and notes that cognitive studies have dealt primarily with normative developmental change, while studies of social behavior in childhood have focused on individual differences and the socialization factors that bring them about. It is argued that studies of socialization need to become more developmental. 2 meanings of development are distinguished: sequentially dependent steps that may or may not be taken by individual children, and developmental changes that occur in predictable order in nearly all children. The way in which both these kinds of changes may affect the socialization process is discussed. The question is raised as to whether, and how, developmental change and individual differences can be brought into the same conceptual framework; the possibility of distinctive self-stabilizing developmental trajectories is discussed in relation to the degree and kind of parental socialization pressure and reciprocation that is likely to be effective at different points along these trajectories.