Young Children Help by Considering Other’s Needs
Researches revealed that helping behaviors emerge as early as after children’s first birthday of their life. However, in young children, it is not clear whether these behaviors are performed in order to benefit other(s) or for another reasons. To study this problematic, an instrumental helping ta...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sada Institute of Art and Language Studies
2018-06-01
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| Series: | Nesne Psikoloji Dergisi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.nesnedergisi.com/makale/pdf/1512752607.pdf |
| Summary: | Researches revealed that helping behaviors emerge as early as after children’s first
birthday of their life. However, in young children, it is not clear whether these behaviors are
performed in order to benefit other(s) or for another reasons. To study this problematic, an
instrumental helping task was used and four different conditions were designed depending on
whether the adult needs for the falling object or not and whether the object falls spontaneously
or the object is dropped by adult. In the within-subject design study, different conditions were
combined in a scenario and counter-balanced. Forty-three children (22 girl, 21 boy) aging
between 18-38 months participated in the study. The results of the study indicated that children
helped significantly more in the need conditions than in the no-need conditions. However, there
was no significant difference in children’s helping behavior either the agent of the falling object
is an adult or not. Results also showed that, regardless of need or no-need conditions, boys were
more likely to help the adult than girls in the conditions in which adult is an agent of the falling
object. These results are in line with researches that point out children’s instrumental helping
behaviors may occur by considering other’s needs. |
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| ISSN: | 2147-6489 2147-6489 |