In her study of gender and relationship development Eleanor Maccoby's argues that sex differentiation is only minimally visible when observing children individually, and that sex differences become apparent primarily in social situations. Some of the distinctions she refers to are that children find same-sex partners more compatible and consequently tend to segregate themselves into same-sex groups, which display different interactional styles. She hypothesized that the reason for sexual segregation among children could be a function of two factors each relating to girls' avoidance of boys: 1) Girls find boy's dominance-oriented competitive nature aversive 2) Girls find it difficult to influence boys. As part of her findings, she noted that in planning a play sequence boys tend to be more commanding while girls prefer to get more involved the planning. In accordance, Maccoby found that when girls are in same sex groups they tend to take up locations farther from the teacher than when grouped with boys. Now considering her findings, this observation study seeks to verify her findings.
             The observation took place behind a one-way mirror looking into a playroom containing a slide, various toys and tables. At the time the observation began, there were two adults and two children present in the playroom. Both of the adults were female while one child was male the other female. Both of the children were able to walk and run and possessed advanced fine motor abilities that included the pincer grasp. They were both able to grasp, rotate and manipulate toys with little difficulty. The child selected for observation was the female. In collecting observational information, a time-sampling method was employed where a sample of activity was recorded at the top each minute for fifteen minutes (see attached sampling table).
             Many of the activity samples that were collected from observation were con
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