Is young children's helping affected by helpees' need? Preschoolers, but not infants selectively help needy others

Paulus, Markus (2020): Is young children's helping affected by helpees' need? Preschoolers, but not infants selectively help needy others. In: Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung, Bd. 84, Nr. 5: S. 1440-1450

Abstract

Infants and toddlers engage in instrumental helping, that is, help others in achieving an action-based goal. The underlying psychological mechanisms are unclear and hotly debated. The present study examined whether young children's helping is affected by others' need. To this end, 1.5- and 3.5-year-old children (n = 101) were simultaneously confronted with a needy and a non-needy other in a variety of helping tasks. The results show that the 3.5-year-old, but not the 1.5-year-old children preferentially helped the needy person. This suggests developmental changes in the psychological mechanisms underlying early instrumental helping. The results are explained by a developmental account according to which helping only gradually becomes an other-oriented and need-based behavior in the first years of life.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Psychologie und Pädagogik > Department Psychologie
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 150 Psychologie
• ISSN: 0340-0727
• Sprache: Englisch