‘Evaluate the usefulness of Bigelow and La Gaipa’s work for understanding children’s friendship.’

There was limited understanding of the phenomenon of

friendship

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. The role of friends and the potential influences of friends on the behaviour of children, had been under researched in the field of psychology. Brian Bigelow and John La

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Gaipa

a constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building

Japan

in 1975, conducted

research

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on the changes in the way children perceive and define

friendship

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throughout the different stages of development.

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essay will evaluate the usefulness of these findings and the influence the

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had on understanding children’s friendships. To understand and define the term

friendship

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is very difficult because

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is subjective and means different things to different people.

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is

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dependent on what stage people are in life. The role of

friendship

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and influence of peers changes with age. Parents and carers are replaced by peers as the main source of support as children get older.

(

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(

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reference

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) Bigelow and La

Gaipa

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wanted to explore how children defined

friendship

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at different stages. Bigelow and La

Gaipa

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(

reference

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) used content analysis to conduct the study of children’s

friendship

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. Children between the ages of six and fourteen, were asked to write an essay on the expectations of their best friend of the same sex, and how

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expectation differed from other friends and acquaintances. A total of 480 essays was collected from 8 schools based in Canada, 30 boys and 30 girls were selected from each.

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method had limitations as it was more suited to older children who had the capability to express their emotions and expectations in writing. Bigelow and La

Gaipa

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recognised

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limitation, and even stated that younger children, may lack the verbal and written skills to effectively discuss expectations in an essay format.

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pg

one side of one leaf (of a book or magazine or newspaper or letter etc.) or the written or pictorial matter it contains

page

.245) To measure the results Bigelow and La

Gaipa

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created a list of pre-determined expectations, which they compared to the essays. The expectations were split into 21 categories, each particular expectation mentioned that matched the pre-determined criteria were counted.

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essentially turned qualitative data into quantitative data. Bigelow and La

Gaipa

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could use the frequency count to look for trending patterns in the data and compare results between younger and older children, including a comparison between the sexes. It was proposed that the findings from the study could be considered in terms of a three-stage model (

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).

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demonstrated the understanding that as children grow older,

friendship

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expectations become more complex. Subordinating characteristics of

friendship

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to a pre-determined coding did cause limitations. The focus is on what the researchers wanted to find.

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removed individual expectations of

friendship

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traits that children suggested and removed validity of the study.

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is because it was possible, that expectations other than those listed could have been overlooked with the use of content analysis.

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, it was recognised that

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methodology was a quick way to analyse large amounts of information,

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removing ethical problems associated with researching children.

(

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reference

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). A numerical summary enabled them to draw on difference between the age groups very efficiently, as analysing individual opinions would have been time-consuming. In conclusion, Bigelow and La

Gaipa

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’s

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was important for our understanding of friendships for multiple reasons.

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was one of the

first

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studies of children’s

friendship

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and placed the concept of children’s

friendship

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on the

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agenda. It

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provided interesting findings on the nature of friendships and how expectations developed in different stages of children’s lives. It introduced an interesting

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method for studying relationships, using written accounts and descriptions as data.

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, as explained there is a difficulty in defining

friendship

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and differences may exist between young children, adolescents and adults which could not be captured in the method used.