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Goal tracking and prosocial behaviour in early childhood
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Green, Alexander Patrick (2021) Goal tracking and prosocial behaviour in early childhood. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3728753
Abstract
Prosocial behaviour (behaviour aimed at benefiting other agents) and the ability to track the goals of other agents are foundational in human social life. This thesis investigates the development of these in toddlers. Specifically, this thesis investigates the relation between an underexplored aspect of goal tracking, goal status, and one of the earliest emerging prosocial behaviours, instrumental helping.
Chapter 1 introduces the topic and raises questions to be answered in this thesis.
Chapter 2 empirically investigates children’s sensitivity to goal status in an instrumental helping context. This is the first evidence that helping in 2-year-olds is sensitive to the distinction between abandoned and interrupted goals.
Chapter 3 investigates the cognitive mechanisms underpinning instrumental helping in early childhood. This experiment’s findings are the first to support the goal slippage hypothesis - that children contribute to others’ goals because they want to see goals be completed.
Chapter 4 addresses the role of goal status in determining goal salience. Across three experiments, two hypotheses about the relation between goal status and goal salience were tested with an adult population. The results failed to support either hypothesis or replicate past findings.
Chapter 5 focuses on a more applied context for goal tracking and prosocial behaviours: children’s ability to honour a commitment. Most research on commitment in early childhood does not focus in detail on the developmental trajectory of interpersonal commitment. To address this gap, I articulate and evaluate evidence for the hypothesis that social interaction scaffolds the development of commitment over childhood.
Chapter 6 discusses the theoretical implications of these findings. The research presented here extends our understanding of the relation between goal tracking and some of the earliest forms of prosocial behaviour, highlighting that the cognitive and motivational foundations of social cognition and prosocial behaviour in early childhood are multi-faceted.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Helping behavior in children, Altruism in children, Child psychology, Goal (Psychology) | ||||
Official Date: | February 2021 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Psychology | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Kita, Sotaro, 1963- ; Gummerum, Michaela ; Michael, John | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick. Department of Psychology ; European Research Council | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | x, 230 leaves : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
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