Social Relationships

One of the most important tasks in human development is the ability to develop relationships with significant others. According to Robert Hinde, a Cambridge University scholar who has written extensively on the topic, relationships are ongoing patterns of interaction between two individuals who acknowledge some connection with each other. In the case of children and adolescents, the social partners with whom interaction is most frequently experienced include parents, peers, and teachers. From Hinde’s multilevel perspective, individuals bring to their social exchanges [Page 2078]reasonably stable social orientations (temperament; personality) that dispose them to be more or less sociable and a repertoire of social skills for understanding the thoughts, emotions, and intentions of others and for solving social dilemmas. Over the short term, a child’s or adolescent’s ...