social cognition, prosocial behaviour and moral development - psych 200 (module 5)

what is social cognition?

thinking about others

theory of mind is a key concept

what is theory of mind? (ToM)

the understanding that people’s actions are motivated by internal mental states

what are three types of internal mental states? (ToM)

desires (wants, intentions, likes/dislikes, preferences)

thoguths, knowledge, beliefs

emotions

describe the social attribution task (klin, 2000) (social cognition)

multiple shapes on screen

big trangle seems to be the ‘bully’ to the little triangles

we can attribute feelings to non-human things

why do we need ToM?

predicting behaivours

reflecting on others

building connections

communication

what are precursors of ToM?

things that are related to ToM but are not technically considered ToM

they lay foundation for skills that allow children to develop understanding of other people’s mental states

what are the four precursors or ToM?

imitation

joint attention

pretend play

emotion understanding

describe imitation (precursors of ToM)

helps build understanding of others’ actions

describe joint attention: (precursors of ToM)

awareness of the visual experience

early steps towards perspective taking

describe pretend play: (precursors of ToM)

start taking others’ perspectives

distinguish between reality and fantasy

emerges around 1-2 years

describe emotion understanding: (precursors of ToM)

identifying and understanding causes of basic emotions

emerges around 2 years

what are wellman’s (1990) 5 stages of ToM development?

desire understanding

diverse belief understanding

knowledge access

false belief understanding

hidden emotions

describe desire understanding: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that people have wants and they like things and that drives their behaviour

describe the task used to measure desire understanding (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

‘diverse desires’ task (repacholi & gopnik, 1997)

establish which snack child prefers - broccolli or gold fish crackers

experimenter says “ew I do not like goldfish crackers” (shows a different desire)

experimenter then says “can you give me one” (which snack does the child give?)

what were the results of the ‘diverse desires’ task? (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

seen as early as 18 months of children passing the task

variation due to differences of methology

what is diverse belief understanding? (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that people can hold different beliefs about the same object or event and they will act in accordance with those beliefs

describe the task used to measure desire beliefs (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

‘lost cat’ paradigm

someone lost their cat and child says “child says I think it is in the bedroom”

experimenter says “sally thinks it is in the garage, where do you think sally will look for the cat?”

see if child will demonstrate awareness

what is knowledge access? (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that seeing an object or an event means that someone has the knowledge of that event

what is false belief understanding (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that beliefs can be false and people will act in accordance with their beliefs

describe an example of a false belief understanding task: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

"‘sally/anne task’

sally puts ball in her basket then leaves

anne moves sally’s ball to the box

sally comes back, where will she look for the ball?

4 year olds would pass the task, but 3 year olds wouldn’t

describe a more complex notion of false belief understanding: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

first order: “what does sally think?”

second order: “what does sally think about what mary thinks?”

describe hidden emotions: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that people can deliberately hide and falsify internal emotional states

what are two forms of perspective taking? (ToM)

visual and cognitive/emotional

describe cognitive/emotional perspective taking: (ToM)

ability to imagine how others think and feeling

understanding why another person may think or feel as they do

not the same as empathy

what are two types of influences on the dev. of ToM?

biology (nature) and environment (nurture)

what are the two factors that influence ToM dev. on the nature side?

neurologoical disposition

evolutionary basis (natural selection, non-human primates understand intetions and beliefs, but not to the same extent)

what are the two factors that influence ToM dev. on the nurture side?

experience with language (eg: deaf children with hearing parents have delayed ToM dev., but deaf children with deaf parents do not)

family interactions (parenting styles)

what are three components of morality?

understanding right and wrong, and the reasons that actions are moral and immoral

acting in a moral manner

experiencing the emotions that accompany moral/immoral acts: pride and shame, experiencing empathy

what are four examples of prosocial behaviour (in volunteering to benefit others)?

helping

sharing

cooperating

comforting (empathetically)

describe prosociality in infancy:

infants’ basic understanding of prosocial behaviour emerges in first two years

understanding joint action is collaborative, emerges between 10-14 months

describe an example of how to measure prosocial behaviour in infancy:

a habituation paradigm to measure infants understanding of cooperation

babies watch a stimulus until they get bored

first stimulus = two people working together to get a toy out of a box

do babies see this as a cooperation?

second & third stimulus (test trials) = one picture girl holding toy, one picture girl holding box

if babies look longer at the box trial, they view this as a cooperation

what are four types of prosocial behaviours in infancy?

helping

sharing

cooperation

comforting

describe helping in infants’ prosocial behaivour:

instrumental helping - assisting others with goal orientated tasks

first emerges at 14 months

by 18 months has developed into more complex goals

describe sharing in infants’ prosocial behaivour:

18-24 months will divide resources with familiar children

more likley to divide if hard previosuly worked together, resources had to same colour

describe cooperation in infants’ prosocial behaviour:

display basic abilitiy in participating in cooperative activities

can coordinate basic actiosn with adult help, but not with peer help at 14 months

aware that cooperative action is depdent on both partners contributing

describe comforting in infants’ prosocial behaviour:

children may start displaying concern for others and comforting familiar people

comforting doesn’t really emerge until around 2.5 years

describe a study done by svetlova, nicholas & brownell (2010) that looked at children’s prosocial behaviours:

x32 18 month olds and x33 30 month olds

measured children’s assistance in: instrumental helping, comforting and altruism helping (eg: giving own toy)

describe the results from the study done by svetlova, nicholas & brownell (2010) on children’s prosocial behaviours:

the 30 month olds were more likely to engage in prosocial behaviour than the 18 month olds

both groups were more likely to take action (eg: picking up dropped toy) than show emotion or altruism (eg: giving own toy)

describe prosocial behaviour in childhood:

at school age, helping and comforting measured through vignettes and teacher/parent reports

school aged children more helpful towards same gendered peers

begin to see helping as beneficial to the helper as well as the helpee

sharing becomes more discerning

cooperative abilitiy imrpvoes as motor skills also improve

begin coordinating actions between peers between 2 and 3 years

what is antisocial behaivour in childhood?

despite knowing a lot about morality children do not always act in moral ways

give three examples of callous-unemotional traits in antisocial behaviour:

lack of empathy/guilt, manipulative use of others

poor emotion-regulation for cues of fear and distress

delayed maturation of brain regions linked to morality and empathy

give three examples of conduct disorder traits in antisocial behaviour:

severe and chronic antisocial behaivour

disruptive and violent

refusal to follow rules

what are two big factors that shape prosocial behaviour?

nature and nurture

what are three nature factors that contribute to prosocial behaviour?

evolutionary basis

empathy

cognitive development

what are three nurture factors that contribute to prosocial behaviour?

parenting style

mental state language

sibling interactions

what is mental state language? (prosocial behaviour)

the conversational use of vocab that refers to internal psychological experiences eg: thoughts, desires, intentions etc

what are four factors to the evolutionary basis (nature) of prosocial dev.?

being prosocial is adaptive

cooperation = better survival

benefits for individual success

non-human primates help and cooperate but not at cost to self