Evolución del concepto de amistad en niños de cuatro a doce años

Resumen

The present research is the continuity of an investigation worked on a thesis at the School of Education at Universidad Central de Venezuela to obtain the Bachelor degree. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the different changes of the friendship concept in a group of schooling children (males and females ranging in age from four to twelve years) studying the third level of Pre school and all the levels of Elementary School at Centro Educativo Asociación profesores de la Universidad Central de Venezuela (C.E.A.P.U.V). This research was based on the socio-cognitive development theory, by Elliot Turiel, about the information of social knowledge and Selman and Schultz´s theory that refers to the socio-cognitive development and the different levels of conscious of the friendship. To achieve the proposed objective an exploratory fieldwork was done and a Piagetiane interview focused on the friendship topic was designed and then applied. The sample was composed by 24 children ( males and females) studying at C.E. A.P.U.V. The obtained information was analyzed and classified, taking into account the most relevant answers of the children. After this procedure the results were compared with Selman and Shultz¨s investigation (1990). The results of the present study show that there is an evolution of the friendship concept as Selman and Shultz (1990) and Merchán and Rodríguez (1998) pointed out in their respective studies.