Developmental Study of Person Perception in Boys and Girls
This study investigated children's person perception to determine if sex differences in perception are congruent with sex differences reported in children's peer interactions. Girls were predicted to be more knowledgeable and to differentiate more than boys about peer characteristics. 93 children from Grades 2 and 5 completed a questionnaire describing two stimulus children on nine items. The stimulus children, both of the same sex as the subject, were classified as a close friend or as not being known very well by the subject. Analysis provided evidence for the construct validity of the measure of person perception but gave no indication of sex differences. The absence of sex differences was interpreted as providing a caution against the inference of dispositional causes of sex differences in peer interaction without direct evidence for such dispositional causes.