Wang Chenglong, Lin Yunqiang, Yang Yijin, Li Tingyu, Cheng Nanhua, Yan Congcong
College of Child Development and Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2024 Sep;42(3):359-375. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12499. Epub 2024 May 15.
This study examined the development of social power perceptions among Chinese children aged 3-5 years (N = 105). After watching videos about various social power cues, such as resource possession, resource control, goal achievement, permission, giving orders, setting norms and popularity, the children were asked to identify the powerful agents (whom do you believe is the more powerful person?) in the videos and provide explanations (why do you think he (she) is a powerful person?). Three-year-olds can recognize powerful agents who can grant 'permission' to other agents. By the age of 4, children begin to associate 'popularity', 'resource possession' and 'goal achievement' with social power. Five-year olds demonstrated the ability to recognize agents who control resources as being more powerful. Analysis of the reasons the children provided for their judgements revealed that for almost every cue (except giving orders), more than 14% of the responses highlighted 'possession of material resources' as an indicator of power. For children aged 3-5 years, 'resource possession' cues may be their preferred basis for inferring and explaining power differences. These results would facilitate researchers to further unravel the mechanisms underlying the development of children's social power perceptions.
本研究考察了105名3至5岁中国儿童社会权力认知的发展情况。在观看了关于各种社会权力线索的视频后，如资源占有、资源控制、目标达成、许可、发号施令、制定规范和受欢迎程度等，要求儿童识别视频中有权势的主体（你认为谁是更有权势的人？）并给出解释（你为什么认为他/她是有权势的人？）。3岁儿童能够识别可以给予其他主体“许可”的有权势的主体。到4岁时，儿童开始将“受欢迎程度”“资源占有”和“目标达成”与社会权力联系起来。5岁儿童表现出能够识别控制资源的主体更有权势的能力。对儿童给出的判断理由的分析表明，对于几乎每一个线索（除了发号施令），超过14%的回答都强调“拥有物质资源”是权力的一个指标。对于3至5岁的儿童来说，“资源占有”线索可能是他们推断和解释权力差异的首选依据。这些结果将有助于研究人员进一步揭示儿童社会权力认知发展的潜在机制。
