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Conversations of friends: Speculations on affective development
Person. individ. 018 Vol. IO. No. 2, p. 275. 1989 Pcrgamon Press pk. Printed in Great Britain
BOOK REVIEW J. M. GOT~MAN and J. G. PARKER:Conaersarions of Frienak Speculalions Press, Cambridge (1986). 429 pages f35.00.
on Affective
Development.
Cambridge University
What are the key factors involved in the development of friendships? More importantly, is making friends a skill that we acquire, develop and refine in childhood? If this is the case, what are the components of this skill? How do they change over time? John Gottman and Jeffrey Parker have put together a collection of papers that “-observe and describe the peer social world of childhood.” The book is divided into four sections. In the first, the meaning and importance of friendship in the development of relationships is discussed, and provides the theoretical framework for the rest of the book. In the second, the methodology used to gather information is outlined, while in the third the results of implementing it are discussed with reference to friendship formation, sex differences in coordinated play and in discussing the continuing development of social and affective skills into adolescence. The fourth section of the book is clearly a collection of papers that did not quite fit into any one of the previous sections. Three of the four papers in this section apply the theoretical framework and methodology to studying relationships in adults rather than children, while the fourth examines what linguistic processes children use to influence one another. The core of the book is the second section written by John Gottman in which he describes the complex observational techniques developed to record childrens’ verbal interactions. Two systems were used. The first (MICRO) was used to record and functionally classify verbal interactions while the second (MACRO) used larger interactional units than MICRO, coding whole interaction sequences as single units. Computing the probabilities of particular sequences of interaction units occurring allowed the function of each unit (as well as its content) to be specified. Given the fluid, yet structured nature of interaction, Gottman’s development of consistent coding systems constitutes a major achievement. Though it says nothing about the ontogeny of elemental interpersonal skills, it allows their functional analysis. That the same system can be applied to adult interactions is exploited in full in later sections of the book. The fascinating result of this inter-age group analysis is that while the same functional units occur in all age groups they are organized differently at different ages to meet changing goals and requirements. Implicit in this finding (and made explicit in Chap. 5, by Gottman and Mettetal) is that there are developmental stages (Gottman and Mettetal suggest three) and particular social concerns and goals for each of these stages. There is much to recommend this book, if only because the interaction coding system has proved so fruitful both conceptually and empirically, If I have one quibble it is that I would have liked to see more extensive coverage of abnormal skill development. The implications for research into people deficient in these skills, or handicapped in their development. and what this might mean for remedial programmes to compensate for inadequate or missing skills are great. ROBERTHALLEY
215
BOOK REVIEW J. M. GOT~MAN and J. G. PARKER:Conaersarions of Frienak Speculalions Press, Cambridge (1986). 429 pages f35.00.
on Affective
Development.
Cambridge University
What are the key factors involved in the development of friendships? More importantly, is making friends a skill that we acquire, develop and refine in childhood? If this is the case, what are the components of this skill? How do they change over time? John Gottman and Jeffrey Parker have put together a collection of papers that “-observe and describe the peer social world of childhood.” The book is divided into four sections. In the first, the meaning and importance of friendship in the development of relationships is discussed, and provides the theoretical framework for the rest of the book. In the second, the methodology used to gather information is outlined, while in the third the results of implementing it are discussed with reference to friendship formation, sex differences in coordinated play and in discussing the continuing development of social and affective skills into adolescence. The fourth section of the book is clearly a collection of papers that did not quite fit into any one of the previous sections. Three of the four papers in this section apply the theoretical framework and methodology to studying relationships in adults rather than children, while the fourth examines what linguistic processes children use to influence one another. The core of the book is the second section written by John Gottman in which he describes the complex observational techniques developed to record childrens’ verbal interactions. Two systems were used. The first (MICRO) was used to record and functionally classify verbal interactions while the second (MACRO) used larger interactional units than MICRO, coding whole interaction sequences as single units. Computing the probabilities of particular sequences of interaction units occurring allowed the function of each unit (as well as its content) to be specified. Given the fluid, yet structured nature of interaction, Gottman’s development of consistent coding systems constitutes a major achievement. Though it says nothing about the ontogeny of elemental interpersonal skills, it allows their functional analysis. That the same system can be applied to adult interactions is exploited in full in later sections of the book. The fascinating result of this inter-age group analysis is that while the same functional units occur in all age groups they are organized differently at different ages to meet changing goals and requirements. Implicit in this finding (and made explicit in Chap. 5, by Gottman and Mettetal) is that there are developmental stages (Gottman and Mettetal suggest three) and particular social concerns and goals for each of these stages. There is much to recommend this book, if only because the interaction coding system has proved so fruitful both conceptually and empirically, If I have one quibble it is that I would have liked to see more extensive coverage of abnormal skill development. The implications for research into people deficient in these skills, or handicapped in their development. and what this might mean for remedial programmes to compensate for inadequate or missing skills are great. ROBERTHALLEY
215