Importance of research with children for social psychology

What is it about?

The article was related to my acceptance address of the Cooley-Mead Award from the social psychology section of the American Sociological Association. In the article I review my over nearly 50 years doing ethnographic research involving audiovisual recording with preschool and elementary school children in the US, Italy, and Norway. I discuss my methodology, theoretical perspective of interpretive reproduction as an alternative to classic socialization theory and how my work on the sociology of childhood contributes to social psychology.

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Photo by Charu Chaturvedi on Unsplash

Photo by Charu Chaturvedi on Unsplash

Why is it important?

My research was the first to argue for the agency of young children and was central to the creation of childhood studies in the US and throughout the world. I was the first to directly study young children in natural settings and gain their perspectives on their everyday lives and their creation of their own peer cultures. It has led to a critical re-examination of socialization theory and brought children and childhood directly into important theoretical and methodological advances in both social psychology and sociology more general especially in the United States, Europe, South America and Australia.

Perspectives