A Discussion of the Two Basic Styles of Social Interaction and the ways they can affect the Development and Confirmative Behavior in Children
             From a wide variety of possible styles of social interaction that might inevitably play a role in the development of independence and confirmative behavior in children, Subbotsky (1976) choose two styles, which he considered to be particularly relevant to the development of independent and confirmative behavior. The first being an authoritarian style the second a democratic style, of which he wrote; In an authoritarian style of social interaction (ASI) one party has the opportunity of controlling, and in fact does control, the action of another in his or her interests; the other party does not have this possibility. In a democratic style of social interaction (DSI), both parties have equal rights to control, and indeed do control, each other's actions according to certain common rules or programs. (1).
             Subbotsky's decision to choose these two basic styles of social interaction was based on previous experiments he had conducted to determine which styles of interaction enhanced dependency in a child's behavior. He found that when a child was put in a situation whereby they were allowed to take a leading, teaching, or controlling role in an accompanying adults actions, this was enough to eliminate the child's Global imitative attitude (GIA) towards the adult and to foster a more independent role. Subbotsky therefore concluded that independent and co-confirmative behaviors in children are a product of the styles of interaction the child is exposed to. As a result of his findings he chose two styles of social interactions, which accounted for these behaviors.
             The confirmative behavior (and the global imitative attitude (GIA) towards adults) is a result of a prevalence of the authoritarian style in social interactions between preschool children and adults. As the democratic style of social inte...