Graduate

This investigation examined the effect of a modeling/role playing counseling technique upon the social adjustment of second-grade socially withdrawn children. The specific hypotheses investigated dealt with changes in the socially withdrawn child's social adjustment as measured by a peer sociometric instrument, teacher rating, trained observer rating, and self-rating which were administered one week prior to the initial session. A one-way analysis of covariance was employed to test the hypotheses. The following conclusions are presented as a result of these findings: 1. The symbolic modeling/role playing procedure as utilized in this study is effective in increasing the frequency of social interaction of socially withdrawn children. 2. The symbolic modeling/role playing -procedure as utilized in this investigation is effective in increasing the sociometric status of socially withdrawn children. 3. The symbolic modeling/role playing counseling procedure as utilized in this study appears to be ineffective with respect to changing children's self-perception.

The aim of this study is to examine how preschools contribute to the forming of identity in children, with a specific focus on the quiet and socially withdrawn child. How do the teachers describe the quiet child and the socially withdrawn child? Are there any opportunities for children to be quiet/withdrawn in preschools? These questions have also been analysed from a gender perspective. The method chosen is qualitative method. Nine preschool teachers from two Swedish preschools have been interviewed. Two theories are presented, social constructionism and a theory of personality traits in order to compare different views on identity and personality. The analysis was conducted by using the concepts of positioning and "the constructions of situations" have been analysed. The preschool teachers place quiet children in passive positions like calm, listener etc. Social interactions are very important in a preschool context and children are expected to play and interact with others. If they don’t participate, they are invited to join other children’s play. If a child wants to be left alone, without being invited to play, they have to choose a specific place or activity, like a sofa, a window or reading a book. By choosing those places and activities the child signals their desire to be alone. The teachers' descriptions of the quiet child as passive and the outgoing child as active, is similar to the traditional belief of girls being passive and boys being active. They are not, however, saying that it is only negative to be quiet or socially withdrawn, but there seem to be difficulties not being outgoing and active in the preschool.