Social development refers to the changing ways infants and children
interact with other persons as they mature. In this chapter we have cho-
sen topics which are highly significant for understanding social develop-
ment, and for which there is a substantial literature. In order to gain
some understanding of our evolutionary heritage, we first discuss play,
aggression, and dominance in different monkey cultures. We then move
on to a discussion of infant and children's play emphasizing Piaget's
research and theory. We next take up sociodramatic play which makes
extensive use of language and imagination, and has clear connections
with dominance and other social relations. We round out this discussion
with a cross-cultural view of games.

Children's play and games often involve aggression, dominance, altru-
ism, cooperation and competition. In the next three sections we take up
these themes individually and discuss children's development in each
from early childhood to preadolescence. The section on cooperation and
competition discusses some of the extensive cross-cultural literature in
this area. In the last section of the chapter we emphasize how parental
socialization practices influence children's social behavior with peers.

With few exceptions, monkeys and apes are born into and reared in a
social group made up of members of both genders and varied ages.

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