Compare the Contrast the Approach to Studying Childrens Friendship

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Compare and contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study with that taken by William Corsaro Children’s friendships have been studied by a number of researchers and psychologists. The two studies that will be looked at will be those conducted by Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) and by William Corsaro. Each studies research will be analysed, including the methods that were used during the study. With this information, similarities and differences will be noted, in turn highlighting comparisons and contrasts of the two studies. Finally the conclusion will be drawn that even though the studies were researching the same subject matter, the difference in methods used sometimes highlighted contradictory findings. Both studies had an interest in researching children’s friendships. Although this similarity is present, the two studies approached the research of friendships in very different ways. Bigelow and La Gaipa’s (1975) study will be the first to be introduced. The aim for this study was understanding children’s friendship and how this understanding could change throughout the stages of development (Brownlow, 2012 p. 242). Research of children’s friendships had never really been carried out before their study, as previous studies concentrated on understanding the attraction between one person to another. This is in contrast to the aim of William Corsaro’s research. As Corsaro was more interested in how children talk to each other and focusing on what the word ‘friend’ means to children individually, and whether the meaning of friendships differs in particular places (Brownlow, 2012 p. 250). Corsaro stated that he wanted to gain insight from a child’s perspective (Interview with William Corsaro (2010). Although the subject of each study is the same, the research approach and investigations involved to gain
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