Inner Position and Social Desirability in Preschool and Early School Age Children

The article reviews the correlation between the two psychological constructs - inner schoolchild position and social desirability — that appears when one enters a new social situation of development. Both constructs are reviewed within the framework of the problem of one's becoming the subject of his/her social relations. The article shows that, along with a child's desire to occupy a new social position in the transition from preschool to school age, a new way of acting in a socially approved manner emerges, enabling the child to involve him/herself in this new social situation and to build his/her relationships with significant others. As it is noted, this way of acting underlies the phenomenon of 'social desirability' and reveals itself in socially approved behaviour. The adduced results of an experimental research show that children who acquire socially approved ways of acting manage to establish good relationships with participants of the new social situation.

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