Donohue Meghan Rose, Williamson Rebecca A, Tully Erin C
Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, USA.
Int J Behav Dev. 2020 Nov 1;44(6):551-556. doi: 10.1177/0165025420912007. Epub 2020 Mar 20.
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 ( = 86; =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.
亲社会行为是一个高度异质的概念，幼儿会根据他人不同的情感需求采取不同的亲社会行为。本研究考察了幼儿在面对两种较少被研究的情感情境时亲社会反应是否存在差异——即儿童是否导致受害者痛苦，以及受害者所表达的具体情感。幼儿（N = 86；M = 35个月）及其父母参与了两个不同的意外事件范式，在其中父母分别假装疼痛和悲伤。样本的一半被引导相信他们的行为导致了父母的痛苦，而另一半只是作为旁观者目睹父母的痛苦。结果表明，与作为旁观者时相比，幼儿作为犯错者时总体上同样具有亲社会性，并且对悲伤的反应比疼痛时更具亲社会性。幼儿作为犯错者时比作为旁观者时更有可能使用亲昵行为，作为旁观者时比犯错者时更有可能寻求信息，对疼痛的反应比悲伤时更倾向于使用亲昵行为。所有儿童对悲伤的反应都比对疼痛时给予更多帮助，当他们作为旁观者时尤其如此。研究结果通过表明两种不同的情感情境会影响幼儿用于帮助他人的亲社会行为的数量和类型，进一步证明了幼儿期亲社会行为的复杂性。
