WHAT DO CHILDREN WANT - A CONCEPTUALIZATION OF EVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES ON CHILDRENS MOTIVATION IN THE PEER GROUP

This paper presents an evolutionary perspective on children's resource directed behaviour in peer groups. It is argued that reciprocity is t heoretically expected to be the fundamental rule of resource exchange in peer relationships of friendship. Children are therefore expected t o be attracted to peers who are similar to themselves on a wide variet y of traits. These traits are viewed as resources in peer relationship s, and individual differences in these traits represent a resource env ironment for children. In this paper, the resource environment represe nted by individual differences in several evolved motivational systems will be emphasised. The discussion focuses on such three evolved syst ems, the sensation seeking/impulsivity system, the human affectional s ystem, and the behavioural inhibition system. It is concluded that ind ividual differences in these systems are important for understanding f riendship and sociometric status in children's peer relationships.