5 - Prosocial behaviour & Altruism Flashcards
what is prosocial behaviour?
voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another
what is altruism?
prosocial behaviour that is performed for unselfish motives
define the 3 features of prosociality?
comforting - addressing negative emotional state
helping - addressing instrumental need
sharing - addressing material need/desire
when do children begin to comfort others?
the rate with which children comfort others who are in pain or distress increases over the second year of life
what are individual differences regarding comforting?
genes influence affective response to others’ distress
those not overwhelmed by emotions they experience more likely to feel sympathy
those not inhibited more likely to act on sympathetic feelings
a child may struggle to process or act on emotions and thus seemingly show no concern or comforting
is comforting limited to humans?
chimpanzees do comfort/reassure others
but at later in development than humans
when do children start helping?
liszkowski et al.
12-month-old infants help others by pointing informatively
when do children demonstrate active assistance?
18-month-olds helps others in simple tasks where adults feigns a need for help
when do chimpanzees and bonobos demonstrate helping?
they help when it is easy for them to infer what the person’s goal is
most agree that chimpanzees display prosocial helping
what approaches don’t promote helping?
reasoning - explaining the need
praise
character attribution (“you’re so good at helping”)
how can caregivers promote helping?
pettygrove et al.
18 months - directives (“grab that toy”) and scaffolding (emotional regulation and involving child in activity)
30 months - scaffolding and negotiation (“if you tidy you can play”)
when do children start sharing?
6 months - share attention and interest
9-10 months - actively give objects
sets the stage for notions of ‘mine’ and ‘yours’
when do infants start resource sharing?
from 18 months
- initially this requires heavy scaffolding from adults
- at 18 months this behaviours is not common, rarely spontaneous and not very generous
when do children improve at resource sharing?
by 24 months infants share:
- more quickly
- more often
- with less prompting
- more generously
driven by increased social understanding
when do children become concerned with fairness and reciprocity?
around 3 years, children start to become more discerning about who should benefit from their kindness
they prefer to share with:
- friends and family
- people who have shared with them (reciprocity)
- people who have shared with others (indirect reciprocity)
how do children show strong reciprocity?
by sacrificing resources to punish, as well as to reward
robins and rocha found 3-year-olds were self-maximising (stingy) by 5 years children shared more evenly and consistently punish stingy puppet
is strong reciprocity a universal moral tendency?
no
samoan children (collectivist culture) were less self-maximising and less likely to punish the stingy puppet
evidence of non-human species sharing
bonobos voluntarily hand food to but not tools or toys
evidence of altruism in children
toddlers help others even anonymously
2-year-olds remedy unnoticed accidents, like picking up a dropped object
proactive rather than solely reactive pro sociality
what are the motivational sources of prosociality?
- empathetic concern for others’ wellbeing
- gratitude and guilt
- obligation created by norms
what is the impact of material reward on pro sociality?
a material reward makes children less likely to exhibit prosocial behaviour
intrinsic motivation is important for altruism
is altruism innate?
Warneken & Tomasello - yes, infants display helping early in development and extrinsic motivation inhibits helping behaviour
Dahl & Paulus - no, early helping can be explained by a motivation for social interaction rather than altruism
what is the strong prosociality hypothesis?
humans are prosocial, other apes are not
what is the versatile pro sociality hypothesis?
humans display a range of forms of pro sociality, other apes display particular facets
