Korean Journal of Child Studies (아동학회지)

Korean Association of Child Studies (한국아동학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

The Effects of Emotion Understanding on Preschoolers' Prosocial Decision-Making Based on the Emotional Conditions of a Counterpart Child

상대유아의 정서조건에 따른 유아의 정서이해가 친사회적 의사결정에 미치는 영향

  • Kim, Min Jeong (Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University) ;
  • Lee, Kangyi (Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University)
  • 김민정 (서울대학교 아동가족학과) ;
  • 이강이 (서울대학교 아동가족학과)
  • Received : 2016.12.21
  • Accepted : 2017.02.08
  • Published : 2017.02.28
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Objective: This study examined differences in preschoolers' prosocial decision-making, emotion understanding in prosocial dilemmas based on the age and emotional conditions of a counterpart child, and the effects of emotion understanding on preschoolers' prosocial decision-making. Methods: The participants were 114 children (35 3-year-olds, 39 4-year-olds, and 40 5-year-olds). Each child was presented individually with prosocial dilemma tasks and was asked to make decisions and understand emotions (in prosocial and desire-fulfilled situations) based on the emotional conditions of a counterpart child. Results: First, the 4- and 5-year-olds showed more prosocial decision-making in prosocial dilemmas than the 3-year-olds. Prosocial decision-making was significantly lower when the counterpart child was angry, rather than neutral or sadness. Second, in prosocial situations, the 5-year-olds displayed higher positive emotion understanding scores than the 3-year-olds, And in desire-fulfilled situations, the 3-year-olds showed positive emotion understanding, whereas the 4- and 5-year-olds showed negative emotion understanding. Finally, children were more inclined toward prosocial decision-making when they showed higher emotion understanding in prosocial situations, lower emotion understanding in desire-fulfilled situations, and greater age. These were equal to all emotional conditions of the counterpart child. Conclusion: These results suggest that emotion understanding is an important component of social cognition, which effects preschoolers' prosocial decision-making.

Keywords

References

  1. Arsenio, W. F., & Kramer, R. (1992). Victimizers and their victims: Children's conceptions of the mixed emotional consequences of moral transgressions. Child Development, 63(4), 915-927. doi:10.2307/1131243
  2. Carlson, C. R., Felleman, E. S., & Masters, J. C. (1983). Influence of children's emotional states on the recognition of emotion in peers and social motives to change another's emotional state. Motivation and Emotion, 7(1), 61-79. doi:10.1007/BF00992965
  3. Corral-Verdugo, V., Mireles-Acosta, J., Tapia-Fonllem, C., & Fraijo-Sing, B. (2011). Happiness as correlate of sustainable behavior: A study of pro-ecological, frugal, equitable and altruistic actions that promote subjective wellbeing. Human Ecology Review, 18(2), 95-104. Retrieved from http://apjh.humanecologyreview.org/pastissues/her182/corral-verdugo.pdf
  4. Denham, S. A. (1986). Social cognition, prosocial behavior, and emotion in preschoolers: Contextual validation. Child Development, 57(1), 194-201. doi:10.2307/1130651
  5. Dunn, J., Cutting, A. L., & Demetriou, H. (2000). Moral sensibility, understanding others, and children's friendship interactions in the preschool period. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 18(2), 159-177. doi:10.1348/026151000165625
  6. Eder, A. B., & Hommel, B. (2013). Anticipatory control of approach and avoidance: An ideomotor approach. Emotion Review, 5(3), 275-279. doi:10.1177/1754073913477505
  7. Farver, J. A. M., & Branstetter, W. H. (1994). Preschoolers' prosocial responses to their peers' distress. Developmental Psychology, 30(3), 334-341. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.30.3.334
  8. Gummerum, M., Hanoch, Y., Keller, M., Parsons, K., & Hummel, A. (2010). Preschoolers' allocations in the dictator game: The role of moral emotions. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31(1), 25-34. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2009.09.002
  9. Hepach, R., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Young children sympathize less in response to unjustified emotional distress. Developmental Psychology, 49(6), 1132-1138. doi:10.1037/a0029501
  10. Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press
  11. Howes, C., Rubin, K. H., Ross, H. S., & French, D. C. (1988). Peer interaction of young children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 53(1), i-92. doi:10.2307/1166062
  12. Hubbard, J. A. (2001). Emotion expression processes in children's peer interaction: The role of peer rejection, aggression, and gender. Child Development, 72(5), 1426-1438. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00357
  13. Keller, M., Lourenco, O., Malti, T., & Saalbach, H. (2003). The multifaceted phenomenon of 'happy victimizers': A cross-cultural comparison of moral emotions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 1-18. doi:10.1348/026151003321164582
  14. Lemerise, E. A., & Arsenio, W. F. (2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71(1), 107-118. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00124
  15. Malti, T., Gummerum, M., & Buchmann, M. (2007). Contemporaneous and 1-year longitudinal prediction of children's prosocial behavior from sympathy and moral motivation. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 168(3), 277-299. doi:10.3200/GNTP.168.3.277-300
  16. Malti, T., Gummerum, M., Keller, M., & Buchmann, M. (2009). Children's moral motivation, sympathy, and prosocial behavior. Child Development, 80(2), 442-460. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01271.x
  17. Malti, T., Keller, M., & Buchmann, M. (2013). Do moral choices make us feel good? The development of adolescents' emotions following moral decision making. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23(2), 389-397. doi:10.1111/jora.12005
  18. Paciello, M., Fida, R., Cerniglia, L., Tramontano, C., & Cole, E. (2013). High cost helping scenario: The role of empathy, prosocial reasoning and moral disengagement on helping behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(1), 3-7. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.11.004
  19. Paulus, M., & Moore, C. (2014). The development of recipientdependent sharing behavior and sharing expectations in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 50(3), 914-921. doi:10.1037/a0034169
  20. Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2004). Emotion comprehension between 3 and 11 years: Developmental periods and hierarchical organization. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1(2), 127-152. doi:10.1080/17405620344000022
  21. Saarni, C. (1992). Children's emotional-expressive behaviors as regulators of others' happy and sad emotional states. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 55, 91-106. doi:10.1002/cd.23219925508
  22. Sierksma, J., Thijs, J., Verkuyten, M., & Komter, A. (2014). Children's reasoning about the refusal to help: The role of need, costs, and social perspective taking. Child Development, 85(3), 1134-1149. doi:10.1111/cdev.12195
  23. Sierksma, J., Thijs, J., & Verkuyten, M. (2015). In-group bias in children's intention to help can be overpowered by inducing empathy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 33(1), 45-56. doi:10.1111/bjdp.12065
  24. Terwogt, M. M. (2002). Emotional states in self and others as motives for helping in 10-year-old children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20(1), 131-147. doi:10.1348/026151002166361
  25. von Salisch, M. (2001). Children's emotional development: Challenges in their relationships to parents, peers, and friends. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25(4), 310-319. doi:10.1080/01650250143000058
  26. Waugh, W., Brownell, C., & Pollock, B. (2015). Early socialization of prosocial behavior: Patterns in parents' encouragement of toddlers' helping in an everyday household task. Infant Behavior and Development, 39, 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.12.010
  27. Weller, D., & Lagattuta, K. H. (2013). Helping the in-group feels better: Children's judgments and emotion attributions in response to prosocial dilemmas. Child Development, 84(1), 253-268. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01837.x
  28. Hong, H.-R., Ha, J.-Y., & Seo, S.-J. (2008). Effects of children's temperament, emotional intelligence, maternal socializaion beliefs and strategies on preschoolers' pro-social behavior. Korean Journal of Child Studies, 29(6), 15-33. Retrieved from http://www.riss.kr/link?id=A75586845
  29. Kim, S. R., & Lee, K. (2013). The effect of event representation upon peer problem solving ability. The Korean Journal of the Human Development, 20(4), 1-22. Retrieved from http://www.riss.kr/link?id=A99957191
  30. Lee, O.-K. (2002). The relations between children's prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial decision-making, and mothers' prosocial moral reasoning depending on the characteristics of tasks (Doctorial dissertation). Retrieved from http://www.riss.kr/link?id=T8728097
  31. Song, H.-N. (2012). The development of moral emotional understanding in preschool children: The influence of offenders' intentions and victim's reactions. Korean Journal of Child Studies, 33(2), 1-12. doi:10.5723./KJCS.2012.33.2.1