1-015 - New Methods in Research on Young Children’s Prosocial Behavior

Session Type: Poster Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children begin to help others early in the lifespan, handing over dropped or misplaced objects, comforting others, and sharing resources by the second year of life. The precocity and ubiquity of children’s early prosociality has enormous implications for developmental, moral, and evolutionary psychology. However, the origins of and mechanisms underlying prosocial behavior remain largely unknown.

In this poster symposium we will feature several exciting new methodologies that are expanding the toolbox available for understanding early prosociality. Researchers from five international research teams, who are using novel and cutting-edge methods to investigate how and why infants and toddlers help, comfort, and cooperate with others, will present posters and brief presentations showcasing research into prosocial behavior using: 1) resting-state EEG; 2) pupil dilation; 3) online surveys (Amazon MTurk) of parental practices; 4) multi-level and state space grid models of dyadic interaction; and 5) mixed methods of experimental and naturalistic study. Each poster, and associated presentation, will detail the particular method and show how the findings uniquely address the ontogenetic pathways and psychological mechanisms of early prosociality.

A senior researcher of early prosocial behavior will discuss the promise and potential of these new methodologies as adjuncts to currently dominant observational methods, as well as their possible limitations. We expect that the dialogue on these innovative methods will foster new research directions and collaborations as well as advancing current understanding.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Stuart I Hammond, University of Ottawa

Discussant

• Celia A Brownell, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• 1. Using Resting-State EEG Assessments to Study Helping Behaviour and Empathic Responding in Children - Presenting Author: Barbara Müller, Radboud University Nijmegen; Jorg Meinhardt, Ludwig-Maximilians University; Markus Paulus, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München; Beate Sodian, Universtat Muenchen

• 2. Measuring Underlying Motives of Prosocial Behavior via Changes in Internal Arousal - Presenting Author: Robert Hepach, Max Planck Inst for Evol Anthropology; Amrisha Vaish, University of Virginia; Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute

• 3. Using Amazon MTurk to Explore Young Children’s Helping in the Home - Presenting Author: Stuart I Hammond, University of Ottawa; Celia A Brownell, University of Pittsburgh

• 4. Getting the Best out of Dyadic Data – Applying Mixed Models and State Space Grids to the Analysis of Toddlers’ Peer Cooperation - Presenting Author: Nils Schuhmacher, Westfälische Wilhelms Universität, Münster; Joscha Kärtner, No Institutional Affiliation; Paul Van Geert, University of Groningen

• 5. Combining Naturalistic and Experimental Methods to Explain Infant Helping - Presenting Author: Audun Dahl, University of California, Santa Cruz; Emma Satlof-Bedrick, University of Pittsburgh; Stuart I Hammond, University of Ottawa; Jesse Drummond, University of Pittsburgh; Whitney Waugh, University of Pittsburgh; Celia A Brownell, University of Pittsburgh