Ownership as interpersonal dominance

Rudmin, Floyd W.

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Book

Document type:: Book

Collection:: POP - Possession, Ownership, Property

Title:: Ownership as interpersonal dominance: a history and three studies of the social psychology of property

Author:: Rudmin, Floyd W.

Year of publication:: 1988

Language:: English

Subject:: Besitz; Eigentum; Sozialpsychologie

Topic:: C - Psychology

Shelfmark:: C/R916 O9

Access:: Free access

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.48671/pop.AC14489044

3 preschoolers to dominate in the possession of objects. In Germany, Lattke (1936) cited anthropological origins for his ethological study of possessiveness and dominance among school boys. He concluded that motives of social dominance were more important than utility in boys’ object relations, particularly for older boys. Lattke (1936) also described children’s acquisition motifs as “games”, not unlike Aldis’s (1975) observations that object conflicts among animals are “games” of dominarice. In the tradition of European action tasty, Yon Cranach and Kalbermatten (1982) have used ethological methods to record a high incidence of object conflicts among preschoolers. Most recently Ross and colleagues in Canada have been replicating much of the earlier studies on preschoolers’ object conflicts, but challenging the traditional presumptions that such interactions are socially and developmentally negative (Conant, 1987; Hay & Ross, 1982; Ross, 1982; Ross & Hay, 1977). They cite Piaget's (1926/1959) argument that children’s disputes are important to overcoming egocentric thought, since quarreling necessarily requires the recognition of others in order to accommodate to them. A second ethological tradition has arisen more recently and more directly from biology. For example, in an ecological study of interpersonal conflicts among nursery school children, Houseman (1972) found 67% of the conflicts to be centered on activities with objects. Interestingly, there were nearly twice as many conflicts when the teacher was present, indicating the very social nature of the phenomena. Eisenberg-Berg, Hand and Haake (1981) applied Esser’s ecological methodology to children and found that preschoolers with restricted territorial ranges to be ess dominant and less possessive. In the sociobiological tradition of child study, as reviewed by Strayer and Strayer (1976), Strayer (1980) and Ellyson and Davidio (1985), many studies have used successful seizure or defense of possessions as indicators of dominance in children (e.g. Chapeskie, 1975; Gellert, 1961; 1962; Omark, Omark & Edelman, 1975; Savin-Williams, 1977; Sluckin & Smith, 1977). In a recent study in Ethology and Sociobiology, Weigel (1984) made ethological observations of children in preschool classes and found that aggressive children with a record of successful dominance were more likely to obtain possession and use of desired objects. Surprisingly, aggressive displays caused stronger defensive reactions by the initial possessors of the objects in dispute, possibly because aggression is person-directed as opposed to obiject-directed.

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