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Learning how to help others: Two-year-olds' social learning of a prosocial act
Abstract
Engaging in prosocial behaviors (acts that benefit others) is associated with many positive outcomes in children, including the development of positive peer relationships, academic achievement, and good psychological functioning. This study examined the social learning mechanisms toddlers use to acquire prosocial behaviors. This brief report presents a new experimental procedure in which 2-year-olds (28-32months, N=30) saw a video of an adult performing a novel prosocial behavior in response to another person's distress. Children then had the opportunity to imitate and implement the behavior in response to their own parent's physical distress. Children who saw the video were more likely to perform the novel action and to display non-demonstrated prosocial behaviors relative to (a) children who did not view the video but saw a parent in distress and (b) children who saw the video but witnessed their mother engage in a neutral activity. These results suggest that toddlers imitate and emulate prosocial behaviors for social interaction and that children can apply such behaviors in appropriate situations.
... Indeed, such behavior has been studied in the context of social learning. One-year-olds were found to imitate helping behavior (Schuhmacher, Köster, & Kärtner, 2018), and the imitation and emulation of prosocial responses towards others in distress have been observed in 2-year-olds (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). Further empirical evidence for an impact of modeling on American and Indian children's sharing comes from a study by Blake, Corbit, Callaghan, and Warneken (2016). ...
... This allowed us to more directly test if and to what extent preschoolers evidence a conceptual understanding of reciprocity. That is, reciprocal behavior could alternatively be explained by imitative learning mechanisms (e.g., Williamson et al., 2013), whereas reciprocal expectations would point to a cognitive understanding of reciprocity. ...
... Indeed, it has been proposed that an initially simple mechanism that may drive the very early instances of reciprocity is complemented by more mature, cognitive mechanisms during the course of early childhood (Leimgruber et al., 2014). Experiment 1 and 2 in themselves do not conclusively answer this question because in the paradigm we used children's own behavior was assessed which could be explained by imitative learning (e.g., Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961;Williamson et al., 2013). ...
Recent research suggests that children’s sharing behavior is affected by experiencing or observing others’ sharing. These effects have been studied within research on the development of reciprocity and the effects of social modeling. In this study, direct and indirect types of reciprocity and social modeling were assessed in 3-6-year-old children in three experiments (overall n=382). In each experiment, we explored whether negative and positive social behavior were similarly paid back and forward in each of the different types of reciprocity. Moreover, we assessed to which extent children reciprocated towards the protagonist who had performed the actual behavior and towards a neutral other. In Experiment 1, we tested whether children have expectations that others will pay back and forward received goods. In Experiment 2, children observed another’s sharing behavior and could then allocate resources to this character or a neutral other. In Experiment 3, children were asked to predict another protagonist’s sharing in the same context. Overall, children treated the protagonist and the neutral agent similarly. Moreover, children reciprocated positive and negative acts when they were themselves recipients of the act. Yet, they were more likely to reciprocate negative acts in indirect types of reciprocity. The results are interpreted with respect to the impact of observational learning and representational development on children’s social behavior.
... Imitation is a well-established social learning mechanism through which toddlers learn new skills and connect socially with others (Over & Carpenter, 2012). Our previous work demonstrated that toddlers can learn a novel prosocial behavior and apply this behavior to help a distressed parent through imitation (Williamson, Donohue & Tully, 2013). The purpose of the current studies was to replicate and extend this finding by testing whether toddlers can imitate a prosocial behavior to comfort a distressed parent when children were led to believe they had caused their parent's distress. ...
... Only our previous study has directly investigated imitation as a mechanism through which toddlers learn prosocial comforting behaviors. In that study, 30-month-olds saw a video of an adult comfort a victim who had bumped her knee using a novel prosocial behavior-patting her head with a mitt (Williamson, Donohue & Tully, 2013). Following the video, the toddler's parent pretended to bump her knee, and children's behaviors were coded from video. ...
... Few experimental studies have tested causal mechanisms that underlie prosocial learning, and none has specifically examined reparative behaviors. Our previous study demonstrated that imitation is a mechanism though which toddlers can learn a prosocial comforting behavior and apply it in a bystander context (Williamson, Donohue & Tully, 2013). The purpose of Study 1 was to test the replicability of this robust finding in a larger sample of toddlers. ...
... At an individ-ual level, children who help other students academically (tutoring) have been found to make academic, social, and self-concept gains (Dineen, Clark, & Risley, 1977;Franca, Kerr, Reitz, & Lambert, 1990). Engaging in acts that benefit others has been found to be associated with diverse benefits for the child emitting helping behavior, including improved social relationships and positive psychological functioning (Caprara et al., 2015;Eisenberg et al., 2006;Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). ...
... Research has suggested that children's helping is influenced by their environment. For example, children are more likely to exhibit helping behaviors after watching a model help (Pettygrove et al., 2013;Williamson et al., 2013). ...
Research has demonstrated that engaging in helping behavior is highly valued by children and adults and has diverse benefits for the recipient, helper, and larger group. Not surprisingly, raising children who exhibit pro-social behavior such as helping others is a central concern for parents and societies. However, the learning process that leads to the emergence of helping remains understudied. The current study examined the establishment of generalized helping behavior in young, typically developing children, in a context in which helping competed with ongoing toy play. Additionally, we examined the emergence of vocalizations about behavior that suggest the adoption of a socially conventional rule that helping is a good thing to do. Generalized helping was initially established through multiple exemplar training, with some participants also receiving rule instruction and behavioral feedback. Generalized helping emerged across all participants, and 2 of 3 participants made vocalizations demonstrating a behavioral rule that helping is good.
... In these settings, children act as receivers and givers of care within a web of interdependent relations in which they engage and learn to be attentive and show connectedness through empathetic responses to the caring needs of others. Recent findings have demonstrated children's ability to respond through empathetic perspectivetaking (Cigala et al., 2015;Eisenberg et al., 2007;Williamson et al., 2013), which shifts previous perceptions away from notions of young children as ego-centric and incapable of recognizing another person's perspective. ...
... As evidenced in the findings, these participants demonstrated nuanced attunement to others that led to responsive enactments of caring for others, self, and things. These findings confirm that children are capable of demonstrating emotion-sharing (Eisenberg et al., 2007;Williamson et al., 2013) as well as self-other awareness (Cigala et al., 2015) to meet the care needs of another. ...
Children engage in a multitude of reciprocal relationships of care within Early Childhood Care and Education settings; they act as both care-receivers and care-givers. In order to better understand the ways in which children construct care (i.e. as they receive it and provide it to others), this study investigated how 15 three- to five-year-olds expressed, enacted, and then subsequently described and explained their experiences of care in one preschool classroom in the Midwestern United States. Data were captured using the Mosaic approach and included observations, photographs, videos, child conferences, and book-making. Analysis of the data revealed that children constructed care in five ways: to minimize the discomfort or pain of others, support relationships, promote positive emotion, enhance healthy and safe habits, and ensure the longevity and sustainability of their shared resources. Interpretations and implications of the mosaic of care generated in the site are discussed.
... It may also be that children who regularly observe their parents express concern and provide comfort when they or others are distressed may be learning to use these behaviours during their social interactions. Even 2-year-olds are able to learn and later appropriately enact a novel comforting behaviour after watching someone engage in the behaviour (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). This research implies that sensitive parenting during the second year of life may be an important antecedent of individual differences in children's later prosocial behaviour. ...
... Previous research suggests that children are learning how to be caring, express concern and provide comfort to others through their daily family interactions. In fact, 2-year-olds have the capacity to imitate novel comforting behaviours ( Williamson et al., 2013), confirming that they have the ability to learn empathic behaviours from observing others. The situation in which maternal sensitivity occurs may matter, such that maternal responsiveness when children are distressed or upset may be more clearly linked to their developing empathy, which then leads to more concern with their peers. ...
The infant and toddler years are crucial for the development of prosocial behaviour, such as helping, sharing, comforting and cooperation. Recent evidence suggests that the correlates of different types of prosocial behaviour may differ. The current study investigated whether child, maternal parenting and situational characteristics were differentially associated with toddlers' cooperation and concern with a peer. The sample, drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, included the 612 children who participated in the 36-month dyadic play session and their mothers. The results indicated that girls were more cooperative and expressed more concern than boys. Greater sustained attention to toys was associated with lower cooperation. Children were more cooperative with peers who engaged in more positive social interaction, and expressed more concern with peers that they had a close relationship with. Maternal sensitivity at 24 months was associated with greater cooperation when the peer engaged in more positive social behaviour. Finally, both maternal sensitivity and cognitive stimulation at 15 months indirectly influenced toddlers' cooperation through maternal sensitivity at 24 months, underscoring the predictive power of early parenting when children are rapidly developing the capacity to engage in prosocial behaviour. Overall, the results highlight some differences in the correlates of toddlers' cooperation and concern. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... According to Blandon and Scrimgeour (2015) and Williamson, Donohue and Tully (2013), the infant and toddler years are crucial for the development of prosocial behavior such as sharing, helping, comforting and cooperation. Wu, Hursh, Walls, Stack and Lin (2012), Hay (1994) and Hogan, Scott and Bauer (1992) similarly stated that prosocial behaviour for toddlers includes: joining other children for play; following rules; helpfulness; empathy; turn-taking and sharing toys, which can all contribute to the development of social competence (Rose-Krasnor, 1997). ...
... Another group [Williamson et al., 2013] found that twoyear-olds wanting to comfort their parents who had seemingly hit their hand not only helped more often if they had watched a video of an emotional helping scene, but also imitated a specifi c way of providing emotional HB. The video showed how a person is comforted by putting a mitten on their hand and slapping them on the head, after which the victim immediately "recovers" and smiles. ...
... Laurin-ek eta Joussemet-ek (2017) urte eta erdi eta hiru urte eta erdi bitarteko adin-tartean egindako ikerketa eta Falkek (2018) hiru urte arteko haurrekin egindakoa bat datoz honako hau ondorioztatzean: adin horretan lankidetzan aritzeko moduan izandako aldaketen artean, haurraren parte-hartzea handitu egiten da, eta helduaren esku-hartzea murriztu. Helburu komunak lortzeko kideekin lankidetzan hasten direnez (Warneken et al., 2006), lorpen berri eta garrantzitsuak gertatzen dira: tartean dauden rolak ulertzen dituzte eta malgutasunez betetzen dituzte (Warneken et al., 2006), ezagunekin eta arrotzekin lankidetzan aritzearen artean bereizten dute (Hay et al., 1999), erreferentziazko helduak behatu eta haiekin elkarreragin ondoren, beren errepertorio pertsonalean esperientziak metatzen dituzte (Ensor et al., 2011;Williamson et al., 2013), eta gai dira jokabide berriak imitatzeko (Williamson et al., 2013) zantzu gutxiagoren beharrarekin (Warneken, 2018). Hala ere, oraindik ere badaude hezitzailearen presentzia, eskuhar tzea, pazientzia edo gogoa eskatzen duten ekintza, mugimendu eta keinu korapilatsu batzuk; eta, jakina, samurtasuna, zeina funtsezkoa den haurra lagunduta senti dadin, eta inoiz ere ez porrot eginda eta larrituta (Falk, 2018). ...
Janztea zaintza errepikakor eta funtsezkoa da haurtxoen eta haur txikien eguneroko bizitzarako. Bi urteen inguruan, norberaren zaintzan parte hartzeak nabarmen egiten du gora, eta, aldi berean, helduaren esku-hartzeak behera egiten du. Hezitzaileak behar bezala babestuz gero, ikaskuntza geldiezina izango da autonomiarako bidean aurrera egiteko. Ikerlan honen helburua da behatzea eta aztertzea Budapesteko Emmi Pikler haur eskolako hezitzaileak nola sostengatzen dituen bere taldeko bi eta hiru urte bitarteko haurrak modu autonomoan jantz daitezen. Ikerlan hau jardueraren testuingurunatural eta ohikoan egin da, behaketa bidezko metodologiak proposatzen duen bezala ad hoc sortutako tresna baten bidez. Emaitzek erakusten dutenez, zaintza honetan haurraren autonomia sostengatzeko berezko ezaugarriak dituzten bi patroi bereizi daude, bata hezitzailearen zuzeneko esku-hartzearekin eta bestea zeharkakoarekin. Biek haurren autonomia goiztiarra uneoro eta egoera guztietan babesten duen eguneroko zaintza hau ulertzeko eta gauzatzeko modu bat islatzen dute.
... In a similar study, Williamson et al. (2013) emphasized that infants imitate social behaviors for social interaction and can practice them in appropriate situations. The study points out that the behaviors viewed on video are imitated by the babies. ...
... In a similar study, Williamson et al. (2013) emphasized that infants imitate social behaviors for social interaction and can practice them in appropriate situations. The study points out that the behaviors viewed on video are imitated by the babies. ...
Animated films have an undeniable place in children's entertainment culture. The worldwide box office revenues indicate that these films reached many children in cinemas and were viewed on televisions by almost all children. The extent to which children can make sense of such content is still a question mark in minds. This study aims to demonstrate how children can interpret the animated film and the content of television they watch in general. The research was carried out by a mixed-method using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study group consisted of 210 children between the ages of 4-10. An average of 30 children was included in each age group. In this way, it is aimed to examine the change in the level of interpretation of the animated film and television content by children in each age group as age increases. In the research, a film (Toy Story 3) was selected and the realism of the characters, values and events in its content was examined through content analysis. Besides, a structured interview form consisting of values and reality section regarding the content viewed on TV has been developed. The children were allowed to watch the animated film and they were interviewed about the viewed content and relevant data was collected. As a result of the research, it was found that children in 4 and 5 age groups differed significantly from the children in 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 age groups in good-bad distinction, meaning and reality in the animated film. The same was found to be true for value and reality on television.
... We argue that this may be true for internalizing behaviors as well, and particularly important for prosocial behaviors. In fact, several studies suggest that the development of prosocial behaviours rely significantly on imitation mechanisms and that infants prefer prosocial over antisocial behaviour (Hamlin & Wynn, 2011;Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). ...
Background
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) predict poorer mental health across the life course but most of the extant research has employed ACE scores or individual adversities using retrospective data.
Objectives
To study the impact of ACEs on later mental health using not only ACEs scores and individual ACEs, but also latent class analysis (LCA), which respects the clustering of adversities.
Participants and setting
8823 members from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
Methods
We investigated the impact of prospectively reported ACEs on mental health trajectories derived using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at age 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14. Associations between LCA-derived ACE clusters, ACE scores, individual ACEs and mental health trajectories were tested using linear mixed effects models.
Results
With statistical significance set at 5% level, ACE scores showed a graded association with internalizing (ACE score of 1: β = 0.057; ACE score of 2: β = 0.108; ACE score of 3: β = 0.202), externalizing (ACE score of 1: β = 0.142; ACE score of 2: β = 0.299; ACE score of 3: β = 0.415) and prosocial behaviors (ACE score of 1: β=-0.019; ACE score of 2: β=-0.042; ACE score of 3: β=-0.059). Harsh parenting and physical punishment were particularly strongly associated with externalizing (β = 0.270 and β = 0.256) and negatively associated with prosocial behaviors (β=-0.046 and β=-0.058). Parental discord and parental depression showed the strongest associations with internalizing problems (β = 0.125 and β = 0.113). LCA did not discriminate ACE clusters in this dataset.
Conclusions
ACEs have an important impact on mental health from childhood to adolescence. ACEs score approach yielded useful results, which were further enhanced by exploring individual ACEs.
... (Beck, 2005, Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013 . ...
... Gariépy et al. (2014) have stated that humans especially learn skills and behavior patterns from familiar individuals like parents, and younger individuals learn from adults. Williamson et al. (2013) found that already twoyear-old children learned prosocial skills by observing an adult perform new prosocial behavior. In addition, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory describes the cultural development of the child as occurring on two planes: first on the social plane between people and then on the psychological plane within the child him/herself (Wertsch 1985). ...
Our study examined the interrelations between the psychosocial well-being of parents at the time of pregnancy and the social competence of their three-year-old child. Whereas most previous studies have linked the psychosocial well-being of one parent to the social development of their child, newer research has highlighted the importance of examining the psychosocial well-being of both parents and its’ effects to the development of the child. This study used data from the Steps to the Healthy Development and Well-being of Children follow-up study (The STEPS Study, n = 1075) to examine the interrelations between the psychosocial well-being of both the mother and the father during the period of pregnancy and the social competence of their three-year-old child. The interrelations between the psychosocial well-being of one parent and the social competence of their child were studied with regression analyses, and family-level interrelations were modeled with a latent profile analysis of family-level psychosocial well-being. At the dyadic level, the poorer psychosocial well-being of one parent during the pregnancy period mostly predicted poorer social competence in their child. However, at the family level, these links were not statistically significant. The higher level of psychosocial well-being experienced by one parent seemed to protect the development of the social competence of their child. This study emphasizes the need to consider the psychosocial well-being of both parents as a factor that influences the social development of their child.
... Moreover, volunteering behaviors of adolescents whose parents attends nongovernmental organizations found to be more similar to their parents (Keith et al., 1990). However, not only observing the parents but also observing other adults contributes prosocial behaviors (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). ...
In this book chapter, it was aimed to understand prosocial behaviors in terms of biological, moral and emotional perspectives.
... We argue that this may be true for internalizing behaviors as well, and particularly important for prosocial behaviors. In fact, several studies suggest that the development of prosocial behaviours rely significantly on imitation mechanisms and that infants prefer prosocial over antisocial behaviour (Hamlin & Wynn, 2011;Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). ...
... RAs rated how globally prosocial children were by rating the overall frequency and sophistication of children's prosocial behaviors on a 5-point scale (0=none; 4=strong) based on systems used by Williamson et. al, (2013) and Zahn-Waxler, Cole, Welsh and Fox (1995). RAs made one global prosocial rating per trial; ICC = .92. ...
Prosocial behavior is a highly heterogeneous construct, and young children use distinct prosocial actions in response to differing emotional needs of another person. This study examined whether toddlers' prosocial responses differed in response to two understudied emotional contexts-whether or not children caused a victim's distress, and the specific emotion expressed by the victim. Toddlers (N = 86; M
age
=35 months) and their parent participated in two separate mishap paradigms in which parents feigned pain and sadness, respectively. Half of the sample was led to believe they had transgressed to cause their parent's distress, whereas the other half simply witnessed parent distress as bystanders. Results indicated that toddlers were overall equally prosocial when they were transgressors compared to when they were bystanders, and significantly more prosocial in response to sadness than pain Toddlers were significantly more likely to use affection as transgressors than bystanders, information seeking as bystanders than transgressors, and affection in response to pain than sadness. All children used greater helping in response to sadness than pain, and this was especially true when they were bystanders. Findings add to mounting evidence of the complexity of prosocial action in early childhood by identifying that two, distinct emotional contexts influence the amount and type of prosocial behaviors that toddlers use to help others.
... In an experimental study, some of toddlers were placed in the front of modeling video, watching at one person responded to another distressed person. As a consequence, researchers surprisingly found that those toddlers who watched the video were more willing to help when their own mother in distress than those did not watch (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). It was impactful as well if the parent modeling their children. ...
... Second, children who were more socially withdrawn or rejected were likely to be members of latent classes characterized by lesser reparative behaviors. Children who have fewer social interactions likely have fewer opportunities to learn prosocial skills, as children learn these skills partially through social exposure and social learning experiences (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). Further, there are likely bidirectional effects between social withdrawal and rejection and reparative difficulties; for example, rejected children are likely to respond with aggression and reduced prosocial behavior, which in turn may increase the extent to which these children are disliked and rejected (Sandstrom & Coie, 1999). ...
Children who have difficulty using reparative behaviors following transgressions display a wide range of poorer social and emotional outcomes. Despite the importance of reparative skills, no study has charted the developmental trajectory of these behaviors or pinpointed predictors of poorer reparative abilities. To address these gaps in the literature, this study applied growth mixture modeling to parent reports of children's reparative behaviors (N = 230) in a 9-year longitudinal data set spanning from preschool to early adolescence. Three distinct trajectories of reparative behaviors were found: a low-stable, moderate-stable, and high-stable latent class. Poorer emotion understanding, social withdrawal, social rejection, and maladaptive guilt in the preschool period predicted membership in a low-stable reparative trajectory. Externalizing diagnoses, particularly conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, also predicted membership in a low-stable reparative trajectory. Preschool-onset depression predicted membership in a low-stable reparative trajectory through high levels of maladaptive guilt. The findings from this study suggest that socioemotional deficits in the preschool period set children on longstanding trajectories of impaired reparative responding. Thus, emotion understanding, social functioning, maladaptive guilt, and early psychiatric symptoms should be targeted in early preventive interventions.
... Research on value development indicates that children learn a great deal about important values through socialization experiences involving responses to difficult or problematic situations. For example, parental instructions and discipline strategies are frequently deployed when children encounter problems (e.g., conflicts with family members or other events that trigger negative feelings), and these parent behaviours can in turn encourage the internalization of key sociocultural values (e.g., helping others who are in other distress; Grusec, 2011;Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). Grusec, Goodnow, and Kuczynski (2000) pointed to the way in which parents may use social problems such as racial discrimination as an opportunity to transmit sociocultural values and traditions (Hughes & Chen, 1997). ...
Previous research has linked materialism to lower well‐being in children, and recent findings suggest that this link is heightened among those exposed to high levels of advertising. One proposal is that children may be pursuing consumer culture ideals (CCIs) – orienting to material possessions and physical appearance – as a maladaptive coping strategy for dealing with underlying distress. The present work offers the first direct evaluation of this theoretically plausible hypothesis. In Study 1, higher scores on our measure of consumer‐focused coping (CFC) not only predicted lower well‐being in a sample of 109 9‐ to 11‐year‐olds, but also served as mediator in the indirect link between the number of hours spent watching television and lower well‐being. Study 2 tested our expanded model of these processes in a sample of 380 9‐ to 11‐year‐olds. Specifically, structural equation modelling revealed that frequency of watching commercial (advertising‐rich) television in particular predicted greater CFC. This, in turn, predicted greater endorsement of CCIs, which then predicted lower well‐being. Implications for theoretical models and educational interventions are discussed.
... Previous observational studies have shown that parents who engage in discourse about the feelings of others are likely to instill empathic concern in their children through a process of socialization (for reviews, see Brownell, 2016, andGal, 2018). Likewise, experimental work has shown that viewing a brief video of adults modeling a novel prosocial act in response to a display of distress increases the likelihood of 2-year-olds offering prosocial responses when their own parents modeled distress (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013). Therefore, we were particularly interested both in the kinds of discourse parents engaged in during the crying baby paradigm and in whether parents would use toddlers' reactions to the crying baby to model helpful acts. ...
The ability to display caring responses to another child’s distress is a key aspect of early empathy that is facilitated by parental socialization. However, existing studies typically involve lab settings and focus on toddlers’ unsupported responses to adult simulations of distress, raising questions about their ecological validity. Framed within the New Fathers and Mothers Study, the current study involved 156 British toddlers (Mage = 24.35 months, SD = 0.73) who were filmed at home with either their mother or father (87 mothers and 69 fathers) in a novel paradigm involving a lifelike crying baby doll. Capitalizing on the inclusion of both fathers and mothers, a key question concerned effects of parent–toddler dyad gender composition on both global ratings of toddlers’ displays of empathic concern and more specific indicators, including toddlers’ attentional, emotional, and behavioral responses. Whereas parental responses did not differ by either child or parent gender and appeared to be closely attuned to child behavior, toddlers’ responses showed effects of both (a) child gender, evident in higher rates of emotion labeling in girls than in boys (even when controlling for language ability), and (b) parent gender, evident in higher levels of empathic concern for girls observed with fathers than for those observed with mothers. These findings are discussed within the context of empathy development and parental socialization.
... Much of the research in this domain involves laboratory studies in which children earn prizes by winning a game, view or do not view a model, and then are provided an opportunity to donate to needy children. In general, researchers have shown that children who view a generous model or helpful model are more generous or helpful than those exposed to a control condition (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013; see Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). Investigators have also examined whether children appear to model real-life socializers, such as parents. ...
... Much of the research in this domain involves laboratory studies in which children earn prizes by winning a game, view or do not view a model, and then are provided an opportunity to donate to needy children. In general, researchers have shown that children who view a generous model or helpful model are more generous or helpful than those exposed to a control condition (Williamson, Donohue, & Tully, 2013; see Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). ...
... Nevertheless, we cannot know for certain if children were truly acting on their prosocial motivations, or if they were perhaps just imitating prosocial behaviors that they understood to be appropriate for the situation. Williamson et al. (2013) established that by 2 years of age, through observing others, children can learn and apply the appropriate behavioral solution for a specific situation. So it may be possible that by 4 years of age, children have seen others require help, and learnt that the appropriate behavior in that situation is to assist the individual in need: and hence their responses may be considered more normative than altruistic. ...
The propensity of humans to engage in prosocial behavior is unlike that of any other species. Individuals will help others even when it comes at a cost to themselves, and even when the others are complete strangers. However, to date, scant empirical evidence has been forthcoming on young children’s altruistic tendencies. To investigate this 45 4-year-olds were presented with a task in which they had opportunity to help an adult confederate retrieve a reward from a novel box. In a control condition children were given no information about the effect of potential helping behavior. Alternatively they were informed that helping would either cost them (i.e., they would miss out on getting the reward) or benefit them (i.e., they would get the reward). It was hypothesized that children would be less likely, and slower, to help in the cost condition, compared to the other two conditions. This hypothesis was not supported: children across all conditions provided help at near ceiling levels.
... First, an explosion of recent studies has documented social learning in children, chimpanzees, capuchins and other primates, but principally in the context of learning about objects and the physical world, rather than about social behavior 14,15,20,[46][47][48] . Conversely, much recent research has addressed a range of prosocial dispositions in children and non-human primates, from helping to food sharing 6-11,34,49 , but their dependence on the influence of others has been only rarely assessed, even in chil-dren [50][51][52][53] , and these studies have not covered the resource-donation which was our focus. The same is true of the handful of studies indicating social influences on social actions, such as reconciliation and affiliation, among non-human primates 22,23 . ...
Prosocial acts benefitting others are widespread amongst humans. By contrast, chimpanzees have failed to demonstrate such a disposition in several studies, leading some authors to conclude that the forms of prosociality studied evolved in humans since our common ancestry. However, similar prosocial behavior has since been documented in other primates, such as capuchin monkeys. Here, applying the same methodology to humans, chimpanzees, and capuchins, we provide evidence that all three species will display prosocial behavior, but only in certain conditions. Fundamental forms of prosociality were age-dependent in children, conditional on self-beneficial resource distributions even at age seven, and conditional on social or resource configurations in chimpanzees and capuchins. We provide the first evidence that experience of conspecific companions' prosocial behavior facilitates prosocial behavior in children and chimpanzees. Prosocial actions were manifested in all three species following rules of contingency that may reflect strategically adaptive responses.
... Furthermore, in more social instrumental situations, that is, communicative situations in which bodily gestures are used for social ends, both observational and experimental research has found little evidence of chimpanzees acquiring new gestures by copying them (Tomasello et al. 1997; Tennie et al. 2012), although there is positive evidence for this in even very young human children (e.g. Williamson et al. 2013). However, after extensive training chimpanzees can learn to copy some bodily actions (Hayes & Hayes 1952; Custance et al. 1995). ...
Cultural transmission, by definition, involves some form of social learning. Chimpanzees and other
nonhuman primates clearly engage in some forms of social learning enabling some types of cultural
transmission, but there is controversy about whether they copy the actual bodily actions of demonstrators.
In this study chimpanzees recognized when a human actor was using particular bodily actions
that had led to successful problem solving in the past. But then when it was their turn to solve the
problem, they did not reproduce the human actor’s bodily actions themselves, even though they were
clearly capable of producing the movements. These results help us identify more precisely key reasons
for the differences in the social learning and cultural transmission of humans and other primates.
From a very early age children are capable on prosocial acts: giving objects, comforting and sharing with other people. This review considers modern research on the patterns and neurophysiological mechanisms of helping behavior (HB) formation in early childhood, including the results of the authors’ own work. Methods for HB researching in infants and young children are presented. The factors of development and neurophysiological mechanisms of instrumental, empathic and altruistic HB, and the role of empathy in these kinds of behaviors are analyzed. We also described data about involvement of various brain structures (for example, the mirror system as extended part of sensorimotor and emotional neural networks) in implementation of HB. The importance of research into the mechanisms of prosocial behavior for the full-fledged upbringing and education of children in the conditions of modern society is emphasized.
Prosociality is a multifaceted concept referring to the many ways in which individuals care about and benefit others. Human prosociality is foundational to social harmony, happiness, and peace; it is therefore essential to understand its underpinnings, development, and cultivation. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, in-depth account of scientific, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding prosociality and its development. Its thirty chapters, written by international researchers in the field, elucidate key issues, including: the development of prosociality across infancy, childhood, adolescence, and beyond; the biological, cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms that underlie and influence prosociality; how different socialization agents and social contexts can affect children's prosociality; and intervention approaches aimed at cultivating prosociality in children and adolescents. This knowledge can benefit researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers seeking to nurture socially responsible, caring youth.
Much of human learning comes from learning from others. In this article, I review empirical work on the extent to which prosocial behavior is inspired by exposure to prosocial models. In fact, witnessing a prosocial model in person leads to an increase in the future prosocial behavior of the observer. Other research has shown that exposure to media (TV, music, video games) with depictions of prosocial behavior can also lead to an increase in prosocial behavior. Theoretical explanations and underlying mechanisms of the prosocial modeling effect are discussed. As prosocial behavior seems to be contagious, exposure to prosocial models is an effective way to encourage positive social encounters.
The global COVID‐19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live and work in the short‐term, but history suggests that the crisis may also exert deeper, longer‐lasting effects. With the aim of providing preliminary insight into this possibility, we theoretically construct and empirically test hypotheses for how exposure to COVID‐19 stimuli (e.g., reading or watching media coverage, observing relief efforts) relates to the deep‐seated values that guide workers' attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, we build from prior work to posit that exposure to COVID‐19 stimuli is positively associated with workers' self‐transcendent prosocial values, which motivate prosocial behaviors directed toward society as a whole (i.e., charitable donations) and coworkers (i.e., helping). Extend the extant literature, we further argue that exposure to COVID‐19 stimuli will be positively associated with conservation values emphasizing self‐restraint, submission, protection of order, and harmony in relations, which in turn influences workers' willingness to tolerate mistreatment by authorities (i.e., abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, exploitation). Evidence from 2,929 full‐time Chinese employees tracked for nearly 2 months and a diverse sample of 310 workers in the United States generally support our arguments, but also provide insight into potential cultural nuances.
Can social communication alter children's preexisting inclinations toward equality-based or merit-based forms of resource distribution? Six- to eight-year-old children's (N = 248) fairness preferences were evaluated with third-party distribution tasks before and after an intervention. Study 1 indicated that stories about beavers dividing wood had no impact on children's fairness preferences, while Study 2 indicated that brief, direct testimony was highly influential. Study 3 matched storybooks and testimony in content, with each discussing a situation resembling the distribution task, and both formats exerted a significant impact on children's fairness preferences that persisted across several weeks. There were some indications that interventions preaching the superiority of equality-based fairness were particularly effective, but there were no differences between reason-based and emotion-based interventions. Overall, storybooks and testimony can powerfully and enduringly change children's existing distributive justice preferences, as long as the moral lessons that are conveyed are easily transferable to children's real-world contexts.
Exposure to prosocial models is commonly used to foster prosocial behavior in various domains of society. The aim of the current article is to apply meta-analytic techniques to synthesize several decades of research on prosocial modeling, and to examine the extent to which prosocial modeling elicits helping behavior. We also identify the theoretical and methodological variables that moderate the prosocial modeling effect. Eighty-eight studies with 25,354 participants found a moderate effect (g = 0.45) of prosocial modeling in eliciting subsequent helping behavior. The prosocial modeling effect generalized across different types of helping behaviors, different targets in need of help, and was robust to experimenter bias. Nevertheless, there was cross-societal variation in the magnitude of the modeling effect, and the magnitude of the prosocial modeling effect was larger when participants were presented with an opportunity to help the model (vs. a third-party) after witnessing the model’s generosity. The prosocial modeling effect was also larger for studies with higher percentage of female in the sample, when other people (vs. participants) benefitted from the model’s prosocial behavior, and when the model was rewarded for helping (vs. was not). We discuss the publication bias in the prosocial modeling literature, limitations of our analyses and identify avenues for future research. We end with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
A másik személy érzelmi állapotának megértése és az arra adott válaszreakciók proszociális viselkedések formájában, a társas viselkedés lényeges elemeiként jelennek meg. Egy társ affektív állapotára azok a gyermekek tudnak megfelelően reagálni, akik fejlett érzelemmegértési képességgel rendelkeznek, képesek a nézőpontváltásra, valamint kellően motiváltak, hogy tevékeny közbelépéssel beavatkozzanak a másik személy problémát jelentő helyzetébe, csökkentve annak negatív érzelmi állapotát. A gyermekek felnőtt distresszre adott proszociális reakcióit széles körben tanulmányozták, azonban kortársuk problémás helyzetére adott válaszaikról kevés adattal rendelkezünk. Jelen vizsgálat célja annak feltárása, hogy az óvodáskorú gyermekek milyen válaszreakciókat produkálnak egy kortársuk negatív érzelmi állapota esetén. Mivel az ilyen problémás helyzetek egy-egy kutatás során ritkán előforduló jelenségek, ezért vizsgálatukra azon személyek véleményét kérdeztem, akik a gyermekek mindennapjaiban részt vesznek és kellő információkkal rendelkeznek a gyermekek viselkedéséről. A mérés során egy korábbi, megfigyelés módszerével végzett kutatás (Phinney, Feshbach & Farver, 1986) eredményein alapuló kérdőívet használtam, amely olyan állításokat tartalmaz, melyek alapján a szülők (N=189) és a pedagógusok (N=26) véleményt alkothatnak a vizsgált gyermekek egy kortárs sírására adott válaszreakcióiról. A kutatás során a szülők és a pedagógusok válaszai közti különbségek feltárása mellett vizsgálat alá vontam az általuk vélt legjellemzőbb és legritkább válaszreakciókat, valamint elemeztem ezen viselkedések különbözőségeit néhány háttérváltozó mentén. Az eredmények azt mutatták, hogy a szülők és a pedagógusok véleménye több esetben is eltérő, azonban felfedeztem egybehangzó vélekedéseket is néhány háttérváltozó kapcsán. A kutatás értékes információkkal szolgálhat az óvodáskorú gyermekek proszociális viselkedéseinek megjelenéséről olyan helyzetek kapcsán is, amelyek egy-egy direkt vizsgálat során kevésbé jelennek meg intézményes környezetben.
In two experiments, the imitation of helping behavior in 16‐month‐olds was investigated. In Study 1 (N = 31), infants either observed an adult model helping or not helping another individual before they had the opportunity to assist an unfamiliar experimenter. In one of two tasks, more children helped in the prosocial model condition than in the no model control condition. In Study 2 (N = 60), a second control condition was included to test whether infants imitated the prosocial intention (no neediness control). Children in the prosocial model condition helped more readily than children in the no model condition, with the second control condition falling in between. These findings propose that modeling provides a critical learning mechanism in early prosocial development.
In this article, we examine the role of third parties on the durability of collaborative ties. We build on extant theory that has viewed the role of third parties in cohesive networks in two primary ways: as mediators who actively resolve situations and conflict and as individuals who encourage the development and adoption of cooperative norms. We argue that collaborations where third parities facilitate cooperative norms persist, whereas collaborations without helpful thirds become unstable and dissolve after the loss of the third party. We use a unique dataset comprising of scientific collaborations among pairs of research immunologists who lost a third collaborator to an unexpected death. We use this quasi-random loss as a source of exogenous variation to examine whether collaborations that lose helpful thirds -- as measured by acknowledgements -- are more durable than collaborations that lose less-helpful co-authors. Furthermore, we find that one potential reason why helpful thirds increase the endurance of others' collaborations is by making their co-authors more helpful themselves.
In this chapter, we review research and some current theory on the development of prosocial responding (including prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding) and possible antecedents/causes, outcomes, and correlates. In the initial section of this chapter, we briefly present a general framework for integrating factors that contribute to prosocial responding. Then the empirical literature related to the development of prosocial behavior, with an emphasis on the emerging literature on early development and development during adolescence, is reviewed. Next we review literature on the potential origins of prosocial responding, including potential biological, cultural, familial, and peer/school factors. Then we address sociocognitive correlates of prosocial responding and the relations of temperamental/personality and social-behavioral individual differences (e.g., aggression) to prosocial behavior and/or empathy-related responding. Due to space constraints, we focus more on current rather than older publications and disproportionately on topics of central importance to prosocial development and issues that have been foci of interest in the past decade. In the final sections of the chapter, gaps in the field and future directions are discussed.
Teachers were trained to use reinforcement and induction to increase prosocial behavior in a sample of 98 children in Head Start-affiliated preschools, using a peer coaching model. There was one control group and three intervention groups: reinforcement-only, induction-only, and reinforcement-and-induction. Results indicated that the intervention groups showed a significant increase in total classroom prosocial behavior compared to the control group. The induction-only group increased dramatically in affection. The reinforcement-only group increased more in helping, sharing, and cooperation than in affection and comforting. Teacher behaviors in the classroom did not reflect conclusively that they were using the intervention strategies, possibly due to inadequate measurement.
Prosocial behavior encompasses sympathetic, helpful, and caring responses toward others. Temperamental characteristics and experiences of child rearing are associated with children’s prosocial behavior. However, little research has examined the associations between prosocial behavior and either temperamental inhibition or paternal child rearing. This study examined the contributions of maternal and paternal parenting and inhibition at 2 years to displays of prosocial behavior toward mothers and unfamiliar adults by 46 male and 42 female preschoolers. There were no direct links between toddler inhibition or fathers’ parenting and prosocial behavior 2 years later, although protective maternal parenting predicted prosocial behavior. Toddlers’ inhibition and gender moderated the links between maternal parenting and prosocial behavior. Maternal parenting was most strongly predictive of the prosocial behavior of more highly inhibited girls, suggesting there may be temperament- and gender-specific pathways for the development of positive characteristics.
Previous research has shown that 16- and 20-mo-old children recall action sequences depicting familiar, script-based events, and also novel event sequences, in the correct temporal order. In 2 experiments, elicited imitation was used to assess 11.5- and 13.5-mo-olds' immediate recall of familiar and novel event sequences. In Exp 1, 13.5-mo-olds were tested on 2- and 3-act sequences depicting both familiar and novel events. They reliably recalled the event sequences in the correct temporal order. In Exp 2, the results were extended to 11.5-mo-olds: They accurately recalled 2-act sequences depicting familiar and novel events. Results demonstrate that by late in the 1st yr of life, children are able to accurately remember (1) specific sequences depicting familiar events and (2) novel event sequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Deferred imitation after a 1-week delay was examined in 14-month-old infants. Six actions, each using a different object, were demonstrated to each infant. One of the six actions was a novel behavior that had a zero probability of occurrence in spontaneous play. In the imitation condition, infants observed the demonstration but were not allowed to touch the objects, thus preventing any immediate imitation. After the 1-week delay, infants returned to the laboratory and their imitation of the adult's previous actions was scored. Infants in the imitation condition produced significantly more of the target actions than infants in control groups who were not exposed to the modeling; there was also strong evidence for the imitation of the novel act. From a cognitive perspective deferred imitation provides a means of assessing recall memory and representation in children. From a social-developmental viewpoint the findings illustrate that the behavioral repertoire of infants and their knowledge about objects can expand as a result of seeing the actions of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the development of prosocial and reparative behaviors by examining children's responses to distresses they caused and those they witnessed in others during the 2nd yr of life. Prosocial behaviors (help, sharing, provision of comfort) emerged between the ages of 1 and 2, increasing in frequency and variety over this time period. These behaviors were linked to expressions of concern as well as efforts to understand and experience the other's plight. Children's reparative behaviors after they had caused distress also increased with age. Age changes in these early signs of moral development were accompanied by social–cognitive changes in self-recognition. In assessments at age 2, children were most responsive to distress in their mothers but also showed some sensitivity toward unfamiliar persons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
32 male and 32 female kindergartners interacted with a female E who was either warm and friendly (nurturance) or neutral and task oriented (no nurturance). The E then went into an adjoining room, either to help a child there in response to mild distress cues (modeling) or to check on a child there (no modeling). Subsequently all Ss heard sounds of severe distress from the adjoining room while they were alone. Modeling and nurturance significantly increased attempts to help the distressed child. It is suggested that nurturance has an independent effect on behavior, and may have decreased fear of disapproval by Ss for possibly inappropriate behavior. Helping behavior was negatively related to family size. Correlations between teachers' ratings of Ss and their helping behavior were positive for boys and negative for girls. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In order to test the hypothesis that reinforcements administered to a model influence the performance but not the acquisition of matching responses, groups of children observed an aggressive film-mediated model either rewarded, punished, or left without consequences. A postexposure test revealed that response consequences to the model had produced differential amounts of imitative behavior. Children in the model-punished condition performed signifcantly fewer matching responses than children in both the model-rewarded and the no-consequences groups. Children in all 3 treatment conditions were then offered attractive reinforcers contingent on their reproducing the model's aggressive responses. The introduction of positive incentives completely wiped out the previously observed performance differences, revealing an equivalent amount of learning among children in the model-rewarded, model-punished, and the no-consequences conditions. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Infants' (N = 276) ability to learn from television under seminaturalistic conditions was examined in five experiments with 12-, 15-, and 18-month-olds. In all experiments, an adult performed a series of specific actions with novel stimuli. Some infants watched the demonstration live, and some infants watched the same demonstration on television from prerecorded videotape. Infants' ability to reproduce the target actions was then assessed either immediately or after a 24-hour delay. Infants of all ages exhibited imitation when the actions were modeled live. There were age-related and task-related differences, however, in infants' ability to imitate the same actions modeled on television. The role of perceptual, attentional, and cognitive development in the ability to learn from television is discussed.
This study examined the effects of the Second Step social–emotional learning program and addressed the relations between social cognitions and prosocial and antisocial behavior. Children (N = 1,253) in intervention and control groups were assessed by teacher ratings, self report, and observation in two conflict situations. Intervention children were more likely to prefer prosocial goals and give egalitarian reasons for satisfaction than control children. Intervention children also required less adult intervention, and behaved less aggressively and (among girls) more cooperatively. Teacher ratings of social behavior showed improvement over time. Individual and dyadic behavior varied as a function of goals, hostile attributions, and attitude concordance within dyads. Findings are discussed with respect to social-cognitive models of aggression and prosocial behavior.
Developmental changes in imitation were examined in three experiments with 6- to 24-month-old infants. In all experiments, infants in the demonstration condition observed an experimenter perform three specific actions with a puppet. Their ability to reproduce those actions was assessed for the first time during the test in the absence of prior practice. Infants in the control condition received equivalent exposure to the puppet and the experimenter but were not shown the target actions. The results of Experiment 1 showed that 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old infants exhibited clear evidence of imitation following a 24-hour delay (deferred imitation). In addition, the findings of Experiment 1 demonstrated that the 18- and 24-month-old infants reproduced more of the target actions during the test than the 12-month-olds. The results of Experiment 2 showed that 6-month-olds performed as well as 12-month-olds when they were tested in the absence of a delay (immediate imitation). Finally, the results of Experiment 3 showed that, with additional exposure to the target actions, even 6-month-old infants exhibited deferred imitation following a 24-hour delay. Taken together, these findings have important implications for current theories of the development of imitation and memory during the first 2 years of life.
The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more difficult than instrumental helping and required greater communication from the adult about her needs. Altruistic helping, which involved giving up an object of the child's own, was the most difficult for children at both ages. Findings suggest that over the 2nd year of life, prosocial behavior develops from relying on action understanding and explicit communications to understanding others' emotions from subtle cues. Developmental trajectories of social-cognitive and motivational components of early helping are discussed.
In a previous study (see ^W37^n: 856) children imitated the behavior of a model in the presence of the model. The present study investigated the degree of imitation when the model was not present. Degree to which like-sexed model behavior would be followed was also studied. Nursery school children exposed to aggressively behaving models tended to imitate not only their aggressiveness but other behavior as well. There was some confirmation of like-sex imitation. The results were related to the psychoanalytic theory of identification.
In a test of the hypothesis that exposure of children to film-mediated aggressive models would increase the probability of Ss' aggression to subsequent frustration, 1 group of experimental Ss observed real-life aggressive models, a 2nd observed these same models potraying aggression on film, while a 3rd group viewed a film depicting an aggressive cartoon character. Following the exposure treatment, Ss were mildly frustrated and tested for the amount of imitative and nonimitative aggression in a different experimental setting. The overall results provide evidence for both the facilitating and the modeling influence of film-mediated aggressive stimulation. In addition, the findings reveal that the effects of such exposure are to some extent a function of the sex of the model, sex of the child, and the reality cues of the model. (24 ref.)
The present work documents how the logic of a model's demonstration and the communicative cues that the model provides interact with age to influence how children engage in social learning. Children at ages 12, 18, and 24 months (n=204) watched a model open a series of boxes. Twelve-month-old subjects only copied the specific actions of the model when they were given a logical reason to do so--otherwise, they focused on reproducing the outcome of the demonstrated actions. Eighteen-month-old subjects focused on copying the outcome when the model was aloof. When the model acted socially, the subjects were as likely to focus on copying actions as outcomes, irrespective of the apparent logic of the model's behavior. Finally, 24-month-old subjects predominantly focused on copying the model's specific actions. However, they were less likely to produce the modeled outcome when the model acted non-socially.
We explored the effects of prosocial modeling on young children's caretaking of a "sick" child confederate. One group was exposed to affection and caretaking modeling, a second to only caretaking modeling, and a third to affectively neutral (control) modeling. While the children displayed almost no affectionate behavior when tested, there was a high but nondifferential rate of caretaking across all 3 groups. However, the affection and caretaking group displayed significantly more generalized nurturance than the caretaking only and control groups. A teacher's rating prior to the experiment showed that there was a significantly positive correlation between the children's affectionate disposition and subsequent caretaking behavior. Our findings indicate that young children are far more able to produce complex prosocial behavior than was believed previously.
Expressions of concern and caring for others begin in the first years of life and are hallmarks of our humanity. Under certain conditions, they become costly and selfsacrificial as they interfere with children's self-expression, and social and emotional development. Parental depression can heighten children's overinvolvement in parental problems, evoking empathy-based feelings of guilt, anxiety, and personal failure, since children are unable to take care of their parents. These are breeding grounds for depression, and girls are at particular risk. Because girls are often more socially engaged with depressed parents, especially mothers, they are more likely than boys to feel burdened, anxious, and depressed. Empathy-based guilt generates negative cognitions and self-defeating actions implicated in the development of depression.
Previous research has shown that 16- and 20-month-old children recall action sequences depicting familiar, script-based events, and also novel event sequences, in the correct temporal order. In 2 experiments, elicited imitation was used to assess 11.5- and 13.5-month-olds' immediate recall of familiar and novel event sequences. In Experiment 1, 13.5-month-olds were tested on 2-act and 3-act sequences depicting both familiar and novel events. They reliably recalled the event sequences in the correct temporal order. In Experiment 2, the results were extended to 11.5-month-olds: They accurately recalled 2-act sequences depicting familiar and novel events. The results demonstrate that by late in the 1st year of life, children are able to accurately remember (a) specific sequences depicting familiar events and (b) novel event sequences.
Although it has been shown that toddlers express distress when personal or physical events violate their expectations, there has been little detailed examination of their emotional reactions to such events. In this study, 45 2-year-olds were observed during 2 mishaps: a doll breaking and juice spilling. Their emotional reactions and their attempts to fix the mishap were coded. 2 components to their reactions to mishaps were found: one of tension and frustration, and another of concerned reparation. Mishaps elicited more negative emotions in toddlers than free play, and most toddlers attempted to correct the mishap. Children's styles of emotional response to mishaps may be related to maternal mental health. Symptoms of depression and anxiety in mothers were related to a suppression of tension and frustration in their offspring. Maternal acting out symptoms were not related to toddlers' reactions to mishaps. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of emotion in the formation of individual differences in sociomoral functioning and factors contributing to early differences.
We conducted a meta-analysis of 34 studies of the positive effects of television on children's social interactions, levels of aggression, altruism, and levels of stereotyping (a total of 108 effect sizes, 5,473 children). Across dependent measures, there were consistent moderate positive effects for those who watched prosocial content in experimental settings compared to control groups or those who watched antisocial content. Moreover, the positive effect of self-selected exposure to prosocial content was as strong as the negative effect of self-selected exposure to violent content. Effects were largest for depictions of altruism, primarily because such content tended to involve explicit modeling of desired behaviors. Strong negative effects occurred in the few studies where children watched aggressive prosocial content.
A review of recent studies on imitation, particularly during infancy, suggests that imitation may serve two functions: gaining understanding of puzzling observations and communicating mutuality and shared understanding with another person. Although changes in cognitive understanding influence development in imitation, the occurrence of imitation in specific situations may be governed by the interplay of the two functions that imitation can serve. This analysis implies that research needs to consider not only the kinds of acts that are imitated at different developmental levels, but also the child's understanding of the interpersonal interaction during which imitation is obtained in order to elucidate the age-related trends in imitation.
The effects of prosocial television alone and in combination with training, verbal labeling and role playing on learning and helping behavior were assessed. 73 kindergarten children were assigned to 1 of 5 conditions for the 4 viewing and training sessions: neutral television and irrelevant training, prosocial television and irrelevant training, prosocial television and verbal labeling training, prosocial television and role playing training, or prosocial television and both verbal labeling and role playing training. Three measures of learning were employed: a content test to measure knowledge of specific content of programs and generalization of themes to other situations, a puppet measure to assess both spontaneous speech related to program content and helping behavior in a fantasy context, and a third measure designed as a behavioral index of helping another child. The results provide support for the prediction that children learn the prosocial content of television programs and generalize that learning to other situations. Support is also found for the prediction that training enhances verbal learning and affects actual helping behavior. The verbal labeling had the greatest impact on the verbal measures of learning, particularly for girls, and role playing training was more effective, particularly for boys, in increasing nonverbal helping behavior. The 3 diverse measures of learning, both specific and generalized, were positively related to one another. This was true for verbal as well as behavioral indices of helping.
This study focused on empathic and prosocial orientations in preschool children who vary in externalizing problems. Children were categorized as low, moderate, or high risk for developing disruptive behavior disorders, depending on severity of current behavior problems. Hypothetical and real encounters with others in distress were used to examine children's affect, behavior, autonomic activity, and social cognitions. When children witnessed someone in distress, empathic concern and prosocial behaviors were present at similar levels for all risk groups. However, moderate and high-risk children were less able than low-risk children to remain positively engaged with distress victims. Girls showed more prosocial behavior than boys, and boys showed more anger than girls. During sadness mood inductions to assess autonomic activity, risk groups did not differ on heart rate or vagal tone. Girls showed higher skin conductance than boys, with high-risk girls showing the highest levels. Higher heart rate (and heart rate deceleration) predicted empathic concern and prosocial behavior, whereas lower heart rate was associated with aggression and avoidance, irrespective of risk. Although biological correlates of emotions and behaviors that reflect caring versus indifference to others' distress are identified, they do not support an early direct link to externalizing psychopathologies.
This study investigates links between children's social behaviour and their sociometric status, empathy and social problem-solving strategies. Sociometric ratings were obtained from a sample of 131 9–10-year-old children drawn from two matched schools. Each child also completed a newly developed and empirically derived Social Behaviour Questionnaire. This questionnaire led to the identification of 21 prosocial children, 23 bullies and 14 victims of bullying. Children in these subgroups were then assessed on measures of empathy and social problem-solving. Prosocial children were significantly more popular than the other role groups, and bully-victims were most frequently rejected by their peers. Prosocial children also showed greater empathic awareness than either bullies or victims, but gender was the significant source of variance. Prosocial children and victims responded more constructively than did bullies to socially awkward situations, and bullies were less aware than prosocial children of the possible negative consequences of their solution strategies.
Early Media Use: Access, Experiences, and Parental AttitudesHow Do Children Learn from Media Presentations?The Educational Lessons of MediaEngagement and Learning: Interactive StoriesMedia, Gender, and EthnicitySocial Policy and Media ExposureConclusion
We highlight two aspects of research into social learning that have been neglected in existing developmental research, namely: (1) The role of social learning in learning to use tools, and (2) Whether children’s social learning involves copying the actions themselves (‘blind’ imitation or mimicry), or alternatively, the effects of those actions (emulation). In Part I of the paper we argue that the failure to distinguish between these different mechanisms is closely related to the lack of research on the social transmission of tool use and that both omissions limit our understanding of early social learning. We conclude Part I by outlining the requirements for an adequate study of these two issues. In Part II, we use this analysis to critically examine data from existing developmental research with children. We also assess the data currently available in the comparative literature which address these issues more directly. We conclude that children learn only what actions to perform via observation (‘blind’ imitation or mimicry), and not why those actions are effective (emulation). We close by identifying important potential pitfalls and unresolved questions for the future study of the social learning of actions on objects.
Prosocial behaviors are a diverse group of actions that are integral to human social life. In this study, we examined the ability of 18- and 24-month-old infants to engage in three types of other-oriented behaviors, specifically helping, sharing, and comforting. Infants in both age groups engaged in more prosocial behavior on trials in which an unfamiliar adult experimenter required aid (experimental conditions) than on those in which she did not (control conditions) across two of the three prosocial tasks (i.e., helping and sharing). The infants engaged in these behaviors with similar frequency; however, there was no correlation between the tasks. The implications for the construct of prosocial behavior and the presence of a prosocial disposition are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children's dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children's negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children's negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was negatively related to girls' prosocial reputation.
Although it has been shown that toddlers express distress when personal or physical events violate their expectations, there has been little detailed examination of their emotional reactions to such events. In this study, 45 2-year-olds were observed during 2 mishaps: a doll breaking and juice spilling. Their emotional reactions and their attempts to fix the mishap were coded. 2 components to their reactions to mishaps were found: one of tension and frustration, and another of concerned reparation. Mishaps elicited more negative emotions in toddlers than free play, and most toddlers attempted to correct the mishap. Children's styles of emotional response to mishaps may be related to maternal mental health. Symptoms of depression and anxiety in mothers were related to a suppression of tension and frustration in their offspring. Maternal acting out symptoms were not related to toddlers' reactions to mishaps. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of emotion in the formation of individual differences in sociomoral functioning and factors contributing to early differences.
This study explored infants' ability to discriminate between, and their tendency to reproduce, the accidental and intentional actions of others. Twenty 14- through 18-month-olds watched an adult perform a series of two-step actions on objects that made interesting results occur. Some of the modeled actions were marked vocally as intentional (“There!”), some were marked vocally as accidental (“Woops!”). Following each demonstration, infants were given a chance to make the result occur themselves. Overall, infants imitated almost twice as many of the adult's intentional actions as her accidental ones. Infants before age 18 months thus may understand something about the intentions of other persons. This understanding represents infants' first step toward adult-like social cognition and underlies their acquisition of language and other cultural skills.
Two experiments investigated the proclivity of 14-month-old infants (a) to altruisti- cally help others toward individual goals, and (b) to cooperate toward a shared goal. The infants helped another person by handing over objects the other person was un- successfully reaching for, but did not help reliably in situations involving more com- plex goals. When a programmed adult partner interrupted a joint cooperative activity at specific moments, infants sometimes tried to reengage the adult, perhaps indicat- ing that they understood the interdependency of actions toward a shared goal. How- ever, as compared to 18- and 24-month-olds, their skills in behaviorally coordinating their actions with a social partner remained rudimentary. Results are integrated into a model of cooperative activities as they develop over the 2nd year of life. Prosocial behaviors such as helping and cooperation are interesting both cog- nitively and motivationally: To help someone with a problem, the helper must un- derstand the other's unachieved goal and possess the altruistic motivation to act on behalf of the other. Whereas in the case of helping, understanding another's indi- vidual goal of action might be sufficient, cooperative activities are based on the formation of a shared goal. That is, two or more persons have to perform interde- pendent roles directed at a shared goal and possess the motivation to mutually sup- port each other's action to reach that goal. These kinds of prosocial behaviors are at the core of the human condition. Indeed, humans might act altruistically and coop- erate in ways not found in other primates (e.g., Alexander, 1987; Richerson & Boyd, 2005), giving rise to social-cognitive skills such as complex mind reading and communication (Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, & Moll, 2005).
Human beings are intensely social creatures and, as such, devote significant time and energy to creating and maintaining affiliative bonds with group members. Nevertheless, social relations sometimes collapse and individuals experience exclusion from the group. Fortunately for adults, they are able to use behavioral strategies such as mimicry to reduce their social exclusion. Here we test whether children, too, increase their imitation following an experience of ostracism. Given humans' profound need to belong, we predicted that the mere hint of social exclusion--even third-party social exclusion--would be sufficient to increase affiliative imitation in 5-year-olds. As predicted, children primed with videos in which one shape was ostracized by a group of other shapes subsequently imitated the actions of a model more closely than children in a control condition. These findings highlight just how sensitive humans are to social exclusion and demonstrate that children, like adults, modify their social behavior in response to ostracism.
Maternal rearing behavior was examined in relation to children's reparation for transgressions and altruism as bystanders to distress in others. The children were 1 1/2-2 1/2 years old. Mothers were trained in techniques of observing. They recorded their child's reactions and their own behaviors in everyday encounters with expressions of distress in others (sorrow, discomfort, pain). Distress was also simulated by mothers and investigators. Mothers' empathic caregiving was rated during home visits. Mothers' affectively delivered explanations regarding the distresses their children had caused to others were associated with children's reparations for transgressions. Such explanations were also associated with children's altruism when they were bystanders to another's distress. Empathic caregiving by mothers was positively associated with children's reparation and altruism. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of altruism, conscience, and child rearing.
Infants between 12 and 21 days of age can imitate both facial and manual gestures; this behavior cannot be explained in terms
of either conditioning or innate releasing mechanisms. Such imitation implies that human neonates can equate their own unseen
behaviors with gestures they see others perform.
Studies indicate that infants in our culture are exposed to significant amounts of TV, often as a baby-sitting strategy by busy caretakers. The question arises whether TV viewing merely presents infants with a salient collection of moving patterns or whether they will readily pick up information depicted in this 2-D representation and incorporate it into their own behavior. Can infants "understand" the content of television enough to govern their real-world behavior accordingly? One way to explore this question is to present a model via television for infants to imitate. Infants' ability to imitate TV models was explored at 2 ages, 14 and 24 months, under conditions of immediate and deferred imitation. In deferred imitation, infants were exposed to a TV depiction of an adult manipulating a novel toy in a particular way but were not presented with the real toy until the next day. The results showed significant imitation at both ages, and furthermore showed that even the youngest group imitated after the 24-hour delay. The finding of deferred imitation of TV models has social and policy implications, because it suggests that TV viewing in the home could potentially affect infant behavior and development more than heretofore contemplated. The results also add to a growing body of literature on prelinguistic representational capacities. They do so in the dual sense of showing that infants can relate 2-D representations to their own actions on real objects in 3-D space, and moreover that the information picked up through TV can be internally represented over lengthy delays before it is used to guide the real-world action.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children's dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children's negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children's negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was negatively related to girls' prosocial reputation.