ABSTRACT
Peer perception in childhood and adolescence has received considerable research attention during the past 40 years (Dubin & Dubin, 1965; Livesley & Bromley, 1973; Selman, 1980; Shantz, 1983; Yarrow & Campbell, 1963). Guided initially by Piagetian theory (Inhelder & Piaget, 1964), social stimuli were thought to be equivalent to objects; processes that explained cognition about objects were assumed to operate similarly in social cognition. A second wave of research on peer perception then ensued that emphasized the interpersonal dyadic context (Dornbusch, Hastorf, Richardson, Muzzy, & Vreeland, 1965; Livesley & Bromley, 1973). This theoretical advancement led to the use of new research designs and analytic methods developed specifically for dyadic research (Malloy, Sugarman, Montvilo, & Ben-Zeev, 1995; Malloy, Yarlas, Montvilo, & Sugarman, 1996). We extend this work in a study of generalized and dyadic perceptual phenomena in adolescence; the former are general processes that involve multiple peers, whereas the latter involve specific dyads.
