The Development of Prosocial Behavior in Early Childhood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors are actions intended to benefit others (Carlo, 2006). Researchers agree that prosocial behavior appears early in childhood, in multiple forms, including sharing, helping, comforting etc. (Dunfield et al., 2011; Paulus, 2014). Nevertheless, there is still much to learn about the dimensionality of early prosociality, as researchers arrive to different conclusions regarding integration between its multiple aspects (Paulus, 2018, Schachner et al., 2018). Moreover, several mechanisms were suggested to give meaning and motivate prosociality, including the moral self (Hardy & Carlo, 2015), prosocial motivation (Benish-Weisman et al., 2019), and moral agency (Recchia et al., 2014). Here, we explore the relevance of such mechanisms for prosocial behavior in early childhood.
The first presentation is a longitudinal study of children between 18 and 36 years of age. The authors follow multiple types of prosocial behavior and find intra-individual continuity within prosocial behavior type, as well as some inter-relations between behavior types. The second presentation compares narratives of children in early-childhood and middle childhood about sharing and refusing to share. It records different understanding of similar social concepts, as well as increase with age in the prevalence of internal motivations, and sensitivity to needs of self and other. The third presentation interviews two samples of children, in early and middle childhood, regarding their moral-self-concept, to find it multidimensional, and associated with prosocial behavior.
A discussant will raise questions regarding processes of development of prosocial behavior in middle childhood, and the importance of self-processes.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Ella Daniel, Tel Aviv University

Discussant

• Ross A Thompson, University of California - Davis

Individual Presentations

• Sharing behavior in early childhood: Development, consistency over time, and links to other types of prosociality - Presenting Author: Yael Paz, University of Pennsylvania; Non-Presenting Author: Maayan Davidov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Non-Presenting Author: Tal Orlitsky, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Non-Presenting Author: Ronit Roth-Hanania, The Academic College of Tel Aviv Yaffo; Non-Presenting Author: Carolyn Zahn-Waxler, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Talking about sharing: Children’s narratives in early and middle childhood - Presenting Author: Ella Daniel, Tel Aviv University; Non-Presenting Author: Dorit Aram, Tel Aviv University; Non-Presenting Author: Keren Ziv; Non-Presenting Author: Yael Asayas Varon, Tel Aviv University

• The moral self-concept in preschool children: Its dimensions and relation to prosocial behaviors - Presenting Author: Regina Sticker, LMU Munic; Non-Presenting Author: Natalie Christner, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Non-Presenting Author: Carolina Pletti, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Non-Presenting Author: Markus Paulus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München