ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses and offers a conceptual solution for the dichotomy between 'socialization' and 'cognitive' approaches to the study of social development. The impact of outer forces is dampened by the child's own cognition, thus passing some control of social development to the child himself. In the 1960s cognitive theory entered the study of social development and caused a switch in the concept of correspondence. Cognitive development can be seen in even more complex fashion when one turns to questions of how children understand psychological causes of behaviour. Differences between socialization and cognitive approaches can be illustrated in several particular formulations. The chapter addresses the interpersonal, relational and interactive kind of social knowledge. It also discusses two of social knowledge implications: the result of making interpersonal relations the units of analysis is considered and the consequences of schematizing interactions as relational functions. Social knowledge is achieved by putting oneself into an orderly interactive relation with another.
