Division of Clinical Child and Educational Psychology, Seymour Fox School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 8410501, Israel.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Jul;219:105400. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105400. Epub 2022 Mar 4.
We examined children's distinct positive emotions (pride vs. joy) following sharing decisions while manipulating the recipient's neediness. Whereas both emotions are positive and desirable, pride is experienced when adhering to social goals and expectations. Therefore, we hypothesized that, with age, as children become more aware of their society's norms and internalize them, pride would be more positively related to sharing situations that highlight social norms and expectations (i.e., sharing with a poor child). We examined this hypothesis between two age groups (7-9 and 10-12 years) while assessing children's predictions of others' emotions following a decision to share in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1) and their self-reports following actual sharing decisions (Study 2). We found that older children (10-12 years), but not younger children (7-9 years), predicted more intense pride for protagonists who had decided to share their endowment with a needy other (recipient in poverty) than with a not-needy other. This effect was mediated by older children's perception of the motivation to share with a needy other (what one should do). A similar pattern was found for overall positive feelings (pride and joy) in children's self-reports following an actual sharing decision.
我们考察了儿童在分享决策后所产生的不同积极情绪（自豪感与喜悦感），同时操纵了接受者的需求程度。虽然这两种情绪都是积极且令人愉悦的，但自豪感源于对社会目标和期望的坚持。因此，我们假设，随着年龄的增长，儿童对社会规范的认识不断提高，并将其内化，那么自豪感与突出社会规范和期望的分享情境（即与贫困儿童分享）的关联就会更加积极。我们在两个年龄组（7-9 岁和 10-12 岁）之间检验了这一假设，同时评估了儿童在假设情境下对他人情绪的预测（研究 1）以及他们在实际分享决策后的自我报告（研究 2）。我们发现，年长的儿童（10-12 岁），而不是年幼的儿童（7-9 岁），在预测决定与有需要的他人（贫困的接受者）分享时，主角会产生更强烈的自豪感，而不是与没有需要的他人分享。这种效应是由年长儿童对与有需要的他人分享的动机的感知（应该做什么）所介导的。在实际分享决策后的儿童自我报告中，对于整体积极情绪（自豪感和喜悦感）也出现了类似的模式。
