Q&A with "People Watcher" and behaviour expert Desmond Morris: please post your questions here

[HelenMumsnet]

We're delighted to welcome zoologist and ethologist Desmond Morris to Mumsnet for a Q&A session.

Desmond is the author of many bestselling books on human and animal behaviour, including People Watching, Naked Ape and Babywatching.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Desmond caused some controversy by saying he thinks TV is as good for toddlers as books.

Desmond's latest book, Child: How Children think, learn and grow in the early years explores the world of children from the ages of two to five, as they emerge from toddlerdom and start out on the long road to independence. Age-by-stage profiles describe growth patterns, social and emotional behavior, physical and cognitive skills.

Please post your questions to Desmond on this thread before the end of Friday 5th November, and we'll post up his answers the following week.

Thanks for all your questions that we've sent on to Desmond. We'll link to a transcription of his answers over the next week.

Would love to know the same thing Edam, great question. Would love to knwo the insights from your research on the nature/nurture debate around differences between boys and girls, and where to find more information on this areas of your research.

Damn my question didn't get asked / answered. Oh well.

Desmond, My 3.5 yr old son seems to be a real sheep.

He seems to really gravitate towards the kid in nursery misbehaving or standing out in the crowd.

Examples are, at mini kickers (football classes) all the other boys are looking at the coach and doing what the coach asks and having fun doing there own thing with the ball.
My son is closley observing the other boys and will pick someone and whatever they do, will copy. So when the coach asked them all to sit and one boy refused, my son stood firm next to him and did the same, closley watching him and his behaviour.

Im also told he does the same at nursery.
This worries me as I feel he must be insecure?

Sorry you missed the boat sneakapeak, this thread closed on 5th November.

Sorry, didn't mean to end there!
The question is, does this mean he is insecure and what could I do to encourage him to be less of a sheep?

Damn, thanks Goblinchild.

Apologies for the delay for posting on this thread - the full Q and A can now be seen here:

Desmond Morris Q and A