Prosocial Choices: How Do Young Children Evaluate (In)Considerate Behavior?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jellie Sierksma ◽  
Nikki Lee ◽  
Paul van Lange

Adults often act considerately towards others by, for example, leaving the last cookie on a plate or by stepping aside on a busy sidewalk. What do young children infer from such considerate behavior? In two preregistered studies, we assess how young children evaluate (in)considerate behavior by showing them animated videos in which targets make decisions that either leave or limit choice options for others. Specifically, in the videos one target decides to pick a unique object (e.g., picking the only toy boat) and therefore leaves no choice for someone else to pick that object. In contrast, the other target leaves a choice for someone else by picking a non-unique object (e.g., picking a toy train of which there are three). Study 1 (N = 372 6-to-12 year old children) showed that with age children evaluate considerate others (i.e., who leave a choice for others) as nicer and more trustworthy than inconsiderate others (i.e., who do not leave a choice for others). Moreover, children’s evaluations were specific to the social domain, as children of all ages evaluated both targets as equally smart. Study 2 (N = 99) focused on younger children (5-to-7-year-olds) and showed that when videos were presented in a simpler manner they also evaluated considerate people as nicer. These studies extend developmental research on prosocial behavior and suggest that considerate behavior conveys a clear social signal early in life.

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 551-556
Author(s):  
Meghan Rose Donohue ◽  
Rebecca A. Williamson ◽  
Erin C. Tully

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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Wright ◽  
Rebecca B. McCathren

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effects of a Social Story intervention on the behavior rates of 4 young children with autism using a multiple-baseline across participants design. The results of this paper indicate that the Social Story was modestly effective in increasing prosocial behavior rates in 3 of the 4 participants, though none of the participants reached the prosocial behavior rates of age and gender-matched peers. The problem behaviors of the participants modestly decreased with the intervention. Maintenance of skills over a 1-month period was demonstrated for all of the participants. The variable and inconsistent results of the research add to the current literature base in support of the use of Social Stories for some children with autism.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowena Robinson

The anthropology of Christianity has emerged as an exciting field in the last decade or so. Themes of interest for us in India and South Asia in general include issues of caste, conversion and belief, the ideas of sin and morality, individualism, and the like. As part of this growing field, the issue of belief in particular has gained considerable importance. It has been argued that the strict reliance on belief is obstructive and counterproductive for the understanding of non-Western Christianity, particularly where religious affiliations may be shifting rather than stable. Moreover, it has been suggested that belief could be laid aside in favor of the notion of commitment, wherein the latter term encompasses presence, embodiment, shared social location, and the like. This paper argues that while the discourse oscillates between belief on the one hand and commitment on the other, the intermediating term between these might be community. There are social and spiritual divisions, which the available discourse does not immediately allow us to contend with. In the words of one Dalit Catholic, the church must be with its people, the Bishop-Shepherd must ‘smell’ his sheep. This paper will explore how it is precisely the absence of community that Dalit Catholics experience when they find that Christian equality becomes physical separation and Christian fraternity remains outside the social domain and will suggest the implications this has for the anthropology of Christianity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 69-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaël De Clercq ◽  
Charlotte Michel ◽  
Sophie Remy ◽  
Benoît Galand

Abstract. Grounded in social-psychological literature, this experimental study assessed the effects of two so-called “wise” interventions implemented in a student study program. The interventions took place during the very first week at university, a presumed pivotal phase of transition. A group of 375 freshmen in psychology were randomly assigned to three conditions: control, social belonging, and self-affirmation. Following the intervention, students in the social-belonging condition expressed less social apprehension, a higher social integration, and a stronger intention to persist one month later than the other participants. They also relied more on peers as a source of support when confronted with a study task. Students in the self-affirmation condition felt more self-affirmed at the end of the intervention but didn’t benefit from other lasting effects. The results suggest that some well-timed and well-targeted “wise” interventions could provide lasting positive consequences for student adjustment. The respective merits of social-belonging and self-affirmation interventions are also discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.


Author(s):  
Marcio Luis Costa ◽  
Alex Silva Messias

Nas últimas décadas se observa o retorno da religião sob forma de fundamentalismo religioso, utilizando a mídia e instrumentos de pressão política para fazer valer suas crenças, pois diante do receio ao questionamento, os fundamentalistas veem no “outro”, no diferente, uma ameaça a ser combatida e, em alguns casos, extirpada para preservar suas convicções. O presente estudo tem por objetivo discutir as tendências sócio-políticas do fundamentalismo religioso cristão. Para tanto, com método bibliográfico narrativo, visitamos alguns autores em nível nacional e internacional, que abordam as condições que fizeram emergir o fenômeno social do fundamentalismo religioso, sua estruturação e atuação, até suas demandas sócio-políticas. Os resultados apontam que quando se identifica e transfere qualquer responsabilidade pessoal e histórica para as forças externas, o “outro”, entendido como pessoa e/ou instituição, não podemos negar que esse processo alcança dimensões de problema social. Notamos algumas tendências como mudança de movimento religioso para ideologia acirrada, da postura de fiel para militância, do “ad intra” das religiões para demandas “ad extra”, dos altares e púlpitos para ocupações políticas.Palavras-chave: Fundamentalismo Religioso; Protestante; Católico. CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: SOCIAL-POLITICS TENDENCIESAbstractIn the last decades the return of religion in religious fundamentalism form can be observed, using media and instruments of political pressure, because when facing the fear of questioning, fundamentalists see in the “other”, in the different, a threat to be stopped and, in some cases, extirpated top preserve their convictions.  This study aims to discuss the social-politics tendencies of the Christian religious fundamentalism. For that, with the narrative bibliographic method, we visited some authors of national and international level, that approach the conditions that caused the emergence of the religious fundamentalism social phenomenon, its structure and role, until its social-politics demand. The results show that when any personal or historical responsibility is identified and transferred to external forces, the “other”, understood as person and/or institution, we cannot deny this process reaches dimensions of social problem. We notice some tendencies such as the change of the religious movement to fierce ideology, from the posture of faithful to militancy, from “ad intra” of religions to “ad extra” demands, from the altars and pulpits to political positions.Keywords: Religious Fundamentalism; Protestant; Catholic.


2018 ◽  
pp. 13-38
Author(s):  
N. Ceramella

The article considers two versions of D. H. Lawrence’s essay The Theatre: the one which appeared in the English Review in September 1913 and the other one which Lawrence published in his first travel book Twilight in Italy (1916). The latter, considerably revised and expanded, contains a number of new observations and gives a more detailed account of Lawrence’s ideas.Lawrence brings to life the atmosphere inside and outside the theatre in Gargnano, presenting vividly the social structure of this small northern Italian town. He depicts the theatre as a multi-storey stage, combining the interpretation of the plays by Shakespeare, D’Annunzio and Ibsen with psychological portraits of the actors and a presentation of the spectators and their responses to the plays as distinct social groups.Lawrence’s views on the theatre are contextualised by his insights into cinema and its growing popularity.What makes this research original is the fact that it offers a new perspective, aiming to illustrate the social situation inside and outside the theatre whichLawrenceobserved. The author uses the material that has never been published or discussed before such as the handwritten lists of box-holders in Gargnano Theatre, which was offered to Lawrence and his wife Frieda by Mr. Pietro Comboni, and the photographs of the box-panels that decorated the theatre inLawrence’s time.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 361-373
Author(s):  
Maciej Kokoszko ◽  
Katarzyna Gibel-Buszewska

The present article focuses on one of the Greek delicacies mentioned by Photius and Eustathius, i.e. a Lydian import called kandaulos/kandylos. The dish was developed before the mid. VI th c. BC and named after a Lydian king, Kandaules, who ruled in the VII th c. BC. The delicacy was (via the Ionians) borrowed by the Helens and established itself in Greece sometime in the V th c. It became popular in Hellenistic times. The information we possess allow us to reconstruct two varieties of kandaulos/ kandylos. The first was savoury and consisted of cooked meat, stock, Phrygian cheese, breadcrumbs and dill (or fennel). The other included milk, lard, cheese and honey. The dish is reported to have been costly, prestigious and indicating the social status of those who would eat it. Though there is much evidence suggesting its popularity in antiquity, we lack solid evidence proving that kaunaudlos/kandylos was eaten in Byzantine times. On the other hand, Byzantine authors preserved the most detailed literary data on the delicacy. If it had not been for the Byzantine interest, our competence in the field of Greek cuisine would be even faultier.


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