Compare and contrast the approach to studying children痴 friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1974) study with that taken by William Corsaro.
This essay will compare and contrast the academic research of three eminent , researchers in development psychology especially in the field of children痴 friendship.
Bigelow and La Gaipa (1974 as cited in Brownlow 2012) psychologists and researchers of development psychology and William Corsaro (1985 as cited in Brownlow 2012), professor of Sociology at Indiana University and ethnographer, looked in depth at the study of children痴 friendship,they proceeded to investigate children痴 friendships. Their research was based on the children痴 play experiences and on the preconceptions of friendship , they differed in that Bigelow and La Gaipa explanations were based on formal essays written by the children and that Corsaro findings were based on the study of the children痴 playing and social involvement.
Each study was taken from distinct different methods of research as both gathered and analysed their studies with a different regimen The difference was that Bigelow and La Gaipa honed in on general patterns within a group, while Corsaro was exact and
concerned with individuals.
Bigelow and La Gaipa undertook one of the first major in-depth studies regarding children's friendships., as children aged , by using exact interviews in controlled surroundings . In contrast Corsaro pointed out what friendship means in certain times , retained memories and how children interact with each other in real life conditions in their natural space, Bigelow and La Gaipa used the 田ontent analysisfor their study . Taking a sample of 480 interviews from 8 schools (30 boys and 30 girls from each school, between the ages of six and fourteen) written with questions about friendships of the same sex, about what they felt was vital and important ,...