Projects

Perceptions and Reasoning about Peers with Accents

As the world becomes smaller and with the increase of bilingual households, the importance of examining one's perceptions of people with accents grows. Children can be exposed to people with accents at home, within extended families, at school, and in their communities. This study will examine children's and adolescents' perceptions of peers with accents and their reasoning about relationships with peers with accents.

Understanding Social Status Differences

Do children perceive social status differences among their peers? We are interested in children’s perceptions of status differences in their own peer groups. Specifically, we are looking at how children understand social status differences and whether these perceptions affect psychological well-being.

Perceptions of Occupational Status

Do children and adolescents associate certain occupations with a certain gender, ethnicity, or social status? We are interested in understanding children's perceptions of occupational status. We aim to explore how early children start to associate occupations with gender, ethnicity/race, and social status, and do these perceptions differ across age.

Group Loyalty

We are interested in how children and adolescents think about group loyalty and make decisions based on loyalty or disloyalty. Is loyalty to your group an obligation? Are there ever times when it is okay to be disloyal to your group? These are just a few of the questions we are asking. We work with children from elementary school through high school to investigate the reasoning involved in decisions about loyalty.

Social Exclusion and Group Dynamics

How do children’s understandings about group dynamics impact their decisions to include or exclude peers? What criteria (personal interests, gender, race or ethnicity, group norms) do they use to make decisions about who they want to include or exclude from their peer groups? We are investigating children and adolescents’ understanding and evaluations of group dynamics, social group identity, and how these evaluations contribute to exclusion decisions.

Contact Us:

Social Reasoning in Childhood Lab (SeaRCH)

Lab Phone Number: (415) 422-5947

Aline Hitti
ahitti@usfca.edu
(415) 422-2175