prosocial behavior

prosocial behavior:

denoting or exhibiting behavior that benefits one or more other people (e.g., sharing, playing)

Piagets theory applied to moral development

children move from concrete to formal stages where they have the ability to solve abstract problems

example of Piaget's model of moral development

children behave in ways to avoid punishment, but adolescents are able to think through the consequences of their actions

Kohlberg's theory of moral development

moral development is based primarily on moral reasoning that unfolds in stages

Piaget vs Kohlberg

Piaget focused on behaviors alone, Kohlberg wanted to know why people behaved certain ways

pre conceptual morality:

Kohlberg's 1st stage, goal is to avoid punishment and get rewarded (adolescence)

conventional morality:

Kohlberg's 2nd stage, follow the rules, if it's legal that means its moral (early adulthood)

post-conceptual morality:

Kohlberg's 3rd stage, abstract reasoning beyond the law (late adolescence/adulthood)

Wynn & Bloom article

-infants have core knowledge of social awareness

-children have cognitive awareness of prosocial cues

Hamlin video (helping/harmful characters)

babies preferred the more positive character (the character that helped)

prosocial behavior at 14 months

spontaneous helping behavior

prosocial behavior at 18 months

comforting others in distress

prosocial behavior at 24 months

sharing resources

prosocial behavior at 3 years

more restrictive on who they help

Hepach (2022)

studied intrinsic motivation (why people do things) and reputational gain (reward for helping others)

Hepach findings

children are more likely to help again if the response to their help was neutral, less likely to help if the response was positive (verbal praise or physical reward given)

how prosocial behavior is linked to the autonomic nervous system

the degree of arousal affects the likelihood of helping (higher arousal means more likely to help)

conditions in which toddlers are most likely to help

the reward is intrinsic and they are the ones able to help