Does anyone need help? Age and gender effects on children's ability to recognize need-of-help

Frontiers in Psychology

Volumn 5, Issue FEB, 2014, Pages

  Stolarova, Margarita ^a,b   Brielmann, Aenne A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ   (Germany)

^b RHINE WAAL UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES   (Germany)

Author keywords

Altruism; Child development; Gender differences; Helping behavior; Prosocial behavior; Psychology; Social categorization; Socioemotional development

Indexed keywords

EID: 84897660976     PISSN: None     EISSN: 16641078     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00170     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Anderson, L. C., Bolling, D. Z., Schelinski, S., Coffman, M. C., Pelphrey, K. A., and Kaiser, M. D. (2013). Sex differences in the development of brain mechanisms for processing biological motion. Neuroimage 83, 751-760. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.07.040.
2. Balliet, D., Li, N. P., Macfarlan, S. J., and Van Vugt, M. (2011). Sex differences in cooperation: a meta-analytic review of social dilemmas. Psychol. Bull. 137, 881. doi: 10.1037/a0025354.
3. Batty, M., and Taylor, M. J. (2002). Visual categorization during childhood: an ERP study. Psychophysiology 39, 482-490. doi: 10.1111/1469-8986.3940482.
4. Brielmann, A. A., and Stolarova, M. (2014). A new standardized stimulus set for studying need-of-help recognition (NeoHelp). PLoS ONE 9:e84373. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084373.
5. Brownell, C. A., Svetlova, M., Anderson, R., Nichols, S. R., and Drummond, J. (2013). Socialization of early prosocial behavior: parents' talk about emotions is associated with sharing and helping in toddlers. Infancy 18, 91-119. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00125.x.
6. Brunet, E., Sarfati, Y., Hardy-Baylé, M. C., and Decety, J. (2000). A PET investigation of the attribution of intentions with a nonverbal task. Neuroimage 11, 157-166. doi: 10.1006/nimg.1999.0525.
7. Carpenter, M., Uebel, J., and Tomasello, M. (2013). Being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in 18-month-old infants. Child Dev. 84, 1511-1518. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12083.
8. Cassidy, K. W., Werner, R. S., Rourke, M., Zubernis, L. S., and Balaraman, G. (2003). The relationship between psychological understanding and positive social behaviors. Soc. Dev. 12, 198-221. doi: 10.1111/1467-9507.00229.
9. Chiu, L. I., Evans, A. D., and Lee, K. (2011). The neural correlates of reasoning about prosocial-helping decisions: an event-related brain potentials study. Brain Res. 1369, 140. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.10.109.
10. Cole, P. M., Armstrong, L. M., and Pemberton, C. K. (2010). "The role of language in the development of emotion regulation." in Child Development at the Intersection of Emotion and Cognition, eds S. D. Calkins and M. A. Bell (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association), 59-77. doi: 10.1037/12059-004.
11. Croson, R., and Gneezy, U. (2009). Gender differences in preferences. J. Econ. Lit. 448-474. doi: 10.1257/jel.47.2.448.
12. Davidson, M. C., Amso, D., Anderson, L. C., and Diamond, A. (2006). Development of cognitive control and executive functions from 4 to 13 years: Evidence from manipulations of memory, inhibition, and task switching. Neuropsychologia 44, 2037-2078. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.02.006.
13. Decety, J. (2010). The neurodevelopment of empathy in humans. Dev. Neurosci. 32, 257-267. doi: 10.1159/000317771.
14. Dunfield, K. A., and Kuhlmeier, V. A. (2010). Intention-mediated selective helping in infancy. Psychol. Sci. 21, 523-527. doi: 10.1177/0956797610364119.
15. Eagly, A. H. (2009). The his and hers of prosocial behavior: an examination of the social psychology of gender. Am. Psychol. 64, 644. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.64.8.644.
16. Eagly, A. H. (2013). Sex Differences in Social Behavior: a Social-Role Interpretation. Psychology Press.
17. Ensor, R., Spencer, D., and Hughes, C. (2011). 'You Feel Sad?' Emotion understanding mediates effects of verbal ability and mother-child mutuality on prosocial behaviors: findings from 2 years to 4 years. Soc. Dev. 20, 93-110. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00572.x.
18. Gao, X., and Maurer, D. (2009). Influence of intensity on children's sensitivity to happy, sad, and fearful facial expressions. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 102, 503-521. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.11.002.
19. Hamlin, J. K., Wynn, K., and Bloom, P. (2007). Social evaluation by preverbal infants. Nature 450, 557-559. doi: 10.1038/nature06288.
20. Hepach, R., Vaish, A., and Tomasello, M. (2012). Young children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped. Psychol. Sci. 23, 967-972. doi: 10.1177/0956797612440571.
21. Hepach, R., Vaish, A., and Tomasello, M. (2013a). A new look at children's prosocial motivation. Infancy 18, 67-90. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00130.x.
22. Hepach, R., Vaish, A., and Tomasello, M. (2013b). Young children sympathize less in response to unjustified emotional distress. Dev. Psychol. 49, 1132. doi: 10.1037/a0029501.
23. Kail, R. (1993). Processing time decreases globally at an exponential rate during childhood and adolescence. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 56, 254-265. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.109.3.490.
24. Kail, R. V., McBride-Chang, C., Ferrer, E., Cho, J. R., and Shu, H. (2013). Cultural differences in the development of processing speed. Dev. Sci. 16, 476-483 doi: 10.1111/desc.12039.
25. Kanakogi, Y., Okumura, Y., Inoue, Y., Kitazaki, M., and Itakura, S. (2013). Rudimentary sympathy in preverbal infants: preference for others in distress. PLoS ONE 8:e65292. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065292.
26. Kirschner, S., and Tomasello, M. (2010). Joint music making promotes prosocial behavior in 4-year-old children. Evol. Hum. Behav. 31, 354-364. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.04.004.
27. Koski, S. E., and Sterck, E. H. (2010). Empathic chimpanzees: a proposal of the levels of emotional and cognitive processing in chimpanzee empathy. Eur. J. Dev. Psychol. 7, 38-66. doi: 10.1080/17405620902986991.
28. Kret, M. E., and De Gelder, B. (2012). A review on sex differences in processing emotional signals. Neuropsychologia 50, 1211-1221. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.12.022.
29. Liebal, K., Colombi, C., Rogers, S. J., Warneken, F., and Tomasello, M. (2008). Helping and cooperation in children with autism. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 38, 224-238. doi: 10.1007/s10803-007-0381-5.
30. Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Striano, T., and Tomasello, M. (2006). 12-and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others. J. Cogn. Dev. 7, 173-187. doi: 10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_2.
31. Malti, T., Gummerum, M., Keller, M., and Buchmann, M. (2009). Children's moral motivation, sympathy, and prosocial behavior. Child Dev. 80, 442-460. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01271.x.
32. Miyake, A., and Friedman, N. P. (2012). The nature and organization of individual differences in executive functions four general conclusions. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 21, 8-14. doi: 10.1177/0963721411429458.
33. Monopoli, W. J., and Kingston, S. (2012). The relationships among language ability, emotion regulation and social competence in second-grade students. Int. J. Behav. Dev. 36, 398-405. doi: 10.1177/0165025412446394.
34. Prinzmetal, W., McCool, C., and Park, S. (2005). Attention: reaction time and accuracy reveal different mechanisms. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 134, 73. doi: 10.1037/0096-3445.134.1.73.
35. Proverbio, A. M., Riva, F., and Zani, A. (2010). When neurons do not mirror the agent's intentions: sex differences in neural coding of goal-directed actions. Neuropsychologia 48, 1454-1463. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.015.
36. Proverbio, A. M., Zani, A., and Adorni, R. (2008). Neural markers of a greater female responsiveness to social stimuli. BMC Neurosci. 9:56. doi: 10.1186/1471-2202-9-56.
37. Ratcliff, R., Love, J., Thompson, C. A., and Opfer, J. E. (2012). Children are not like older adults: a diffusion model analysis of developmental changes in speeded responses. Child Dev. 83, 367-381. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01683.x.
38. Renouf, A., Brendgen, M., Parent, S., Vitaro, F., David Zelazo, P., Boivin, M., et al. (2010). Relations between theory of mind and indirect and physical aggression in kindergarten: evidence of the moderating role of prosocial behaviors. Soc. Dev. 19, 535-555. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00552.x.
39. Santee, J. L., and Egeth, H. E. (1982). Do reaction time and accuracy measure the same aspects of letter recognition? J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 8, 489. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.8.4.489.
40. Svetlova, M., Nichols, S. R., and Brownell, C. A. (2010). Toddlers' prosocial behavior: from instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping. Child Dev. 81, 1814-1827. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01512.x.
41. Torgrimson, B. N., and Minson, C. T. (2005). Sex and gender: what is the difference? J. Appl. Physiol. 99, 785-787. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00376.2005.
42. Unger, R. K., and Crawford, M. (1993). Commentary: sex and gender: the troubled relationship between terms and concepts. Psychol. Sci. 4, 122-124. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00473.x.
43. Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., and Tomasello, M. (2010). Young children selectively avoid helping people with harmful intentions. Child Dev. 81, 1661-1669. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01500.x.
44. Völlm, B. A., Taylor, A. N., Richardson, P., Corcoran, R., Stirling, J., McKie, S., et al. (2006). Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a nonverbal task. Neuroimage 29, 90-98. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.07.022.
45. Warneken, F., and Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. Science 311, 1301-1303. doi: 10.1126/science.1121448.
46. Warneken, F., and Tomasello, M. (2007). Helping and cooperation at 14 months of age. Infancy 11, 271-294. doi: 10.1080/15250000701310389.
47. Warneken, F., and Tomasello, M. (2009). The roots of human altruism. Br. J. Psychol. 100, 455-471. doi: 10.1348/000712608X379061.