Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:22:30.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Morality, Values, and Prosociality across Development

Intertwined yet Distinct

from Part II - Antecedents and Mechanisms of Prosociality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2023

By
Audun Dahl  and
Marie Grace S. Martinez
Edited by
Tina Malti  and
Maayan Davidov
Tina Malti
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Maayan Davidov
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses the intertwining of morality, values, and prosociality from childhood to adolescence. We define prosocial behaviors as acts that, if completed as intended, would directly promote the goals or welfare of others. We begin with three theoretical points: (1) People do not view all prosocial actions as inherently good or morally right. (2) Judgments about prosocial behaviors derive from reasoning about both moral and nonmoral values. (3) Judgments of right and wrong guide decisions about prosocial behaviors. From these propositions, we discuss research on three developmental periods: infancy and toddlerhood, when prosocial behaviors emerge; preschool age, when children make judgments of right and wrong; and school age to adolescence, when developments in social understanding and the coordination of competing considerations enable changes in prosocial judgments and decisions. Greater attention to how evaluative judgments shape prosocial decisions can strengthen efforts to explain and intervene on the development of prosociality.

Keywords

moral developmentmoral cognitionprosocial reasoningvaluesinfancypreschool agechildhoodadolescence
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Prosociality
Development, Mechanisms, Promotion
 , pp. 233 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2005). The influence of attitudes on behavior. In The handbook of attitudes (pp. 173–221). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Aquino, K., & Reed, A. (2002). The self-importance of moral identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1423–1440. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1423CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Archer, A. (2018). Supererogation. Philosophy Compass, 13(3), e12476. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12476Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (2016). Moral disengagement: How people do harm and live with themselves. Macmillan Higher Education.Google Scholar
Barragan, R. C., Brooks, R., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2020). Altruistic food sharing behavior by human infants after a hunger manipulation. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1785. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58645-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bar-Tal, D. (1982). Sequential development of helping behavior: A cognitive-learning approach. Developmental Review, 2(2), 101–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(82)90006-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batson, C. D. (2011). What’s wrong with morality? Emotion Review, 3(3), 230–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073911402380CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batson, C. D., Klein, T. R., Highberger, L., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Immorality from empathy-induced altruism: When compassion and justice conflict. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(6), 1042–1054. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.6.1042CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumard, N., Mascaro, O., & Chevallier, C. (2012). Preschoolers are able to take merit into account when distributing goods. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 492–498. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026598CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benish-Weisman, M., Daniel, E., Sneddon, J., & Lee, J. (2019). The relations between values and prosocial behavior among children: The moderating role of age. Personality and Individual Differences, 141, 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.01.019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, P. R., McAuliffe, K., & Warneken, F. (2014). The developmental origins of fairness: The knowledge–behavior gap. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(11), 559–561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.08.003Google Scholar
Blasi, A. (1980). Bridging moral cognition and moral action: A critical review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 88(1), 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, P. (2016). Against empathy: The case for rational compassion. HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Brownell, C. A. (2011). Early developments in joint action. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 2(2), 193–211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-011-0056-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brownell, C. A., Svetlova, M., & Nichols, S. (2009). To share or not to share: When do toddlers respond to another’s needs? Infancy, 14(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/15250000802569868Google Scholar
Buttelmann, D., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Eighteen-month-old infants show false belief understanding in an active helping paradigm. Cognition, 112(2), 337–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.05.006Google Scholar
Callaghan, T., Moll, H., Rakoczy, H., Warneken, F., Liszkowski, U., Behne, T., … & Collins, W. A. (2011). Early social cognition in three cultural contexts. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 76(2), 1–123.Google Scholar
Carlo, G., Knight, G. P., McGinley, M., Goodvin, R., & Roesch, S. C. (2010). The developmental relations between perspective taking and prosocial behaviors: A meta-analytic examination of the task-specificity hypothesis. In Sokol, B., Müller, U., Carpendale, J. I. M., Young, A., & Iarocci, G. (Eds.), Self and social regulation: Social interaction and the development of social understanding and executive functions (pp. 234–269). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327694.003.0010Google Scholar
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2001). On the self-regulation of behavior. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Cooperman, G., & Iannotti, R. (1987). Empathy and responsibility in the motivation of children’s helping. Developmental Psychology, 23(1), 140–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.23.1.140CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiarella, S. S., & Poulin-Dubois, D. (2013). Cry babies and Pollyannas: Infants can detect unjustified emotional reactions. Infancy, 18, E81–E96. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12028CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chisholm, R. M. (1963). Supererogation and offence: A conceptual scheme for ethics. Ratio, 5, 1–14.Google Scholar
Dahl, A. (2014). Definitions and developmental processes in research on infant morality. Human Development, 57(4), 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1159/000364919Google Scholar
Dahl, A. (2015). The developing social context of infant helping in two U.S. samples. Child Development, 86(4), 1080–1093. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12361Google Scholar
Dahl, A. (2017). Two challenges for psychologists against, or in favor of, empathy. Human Development, 60, 193–200. https://doi.org/10.1159/000479845Google Scholar
Dahl, A. (2018). How, not whether: Contributions of others in the development of infant helping. Current Opinion in Psychology, 20, 72–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.038Google Scholar
Dahl, A. (2019). The science of early moral development: On defining, constructing, and studying morality from birth. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 56, 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2018.11.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dahl, A., & Freda, G. F. (2017). How young children come to view harming others as wrong: A developmental analysis. In Sommerville, J. A. & Decety, J. (Eds.), Social cognition: Development across the life span (pp. 151–184). Routledge.Google Scholar
Dahl, A., Gingo, M., Uttich, K., & Turiel, E. (2018). Moral reasoning about human welfare in adolescents and adults: Judging conflicts involving sacrificing and saving lives. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial No. 330, 83(3), 1–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12374Google Scholar
Dahl, A., Gross, R. L., & Siefert, C. (2020). Young children’s judgments and reasoning about prosocial acts: Permission, obligation, and supererogation. Cognitive Development, 55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100908CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, A., & Kim, L. (2014). Why is it bad to make a mess? Preschoolers’ conceptions of pragmatic norms. Cognitive Development, 32, 12–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.05.004Google Scholar
Dahl, A., & Paulus, M. (2019). From interest to obligation: The gradual development of human altruism. Child Development Perspectives, 13, 10–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12298Google Scholar
Dahl, A., Satlof-Bedrick, E. S., Hammond, S. I., Drummond, J. K., Waugh, W. E., & Brownell, C. A. (2017). Explicit scaffolding increases simple helping in younger infants. Developmental Psychology, 53(3), 407–416. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000244Google Scholar
Dahl, A., & Schmidt, M. F. H. (2018). Preschoolers, but not adults, treat instrumental norms as categorical imperatives. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 165, 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.07.015Google Scholar
Dahl, A., Schuck, R. K., & Campos, J. J. (2013). Do young toddlers act on their social preferences? Developmental Psychology, 49, 1964–1970. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031460CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, A., & Waltzer, T. (2020). Constraints on conventions: Resolving two puzzles of conventionality. Cognition, 196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104152Google Scholar
Davidov, M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Roth-Hanania, R., & Knafo, A. (2013). Concern for others in the first year of life: Theory, evidence, and avenues for research. Child Development Perspectives, 7, 126–131. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12028Google Scholar
De Groot, J. I. M., & Steg, L. (2009). Morality and prosocial behavior: The role of awareness, responsibility, and norms in the norm activation model. The Journal of Social Psychology, 149(4), 425–449. https://doi.org/10.3200/SOCP.149.4.425-449CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunfield, K. A. (2014). A construct divided: Prosocial behavior as helping, sharing, and comforting subtypes. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00958CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunlop, W. L., Walker, L. J., & Matsuba, M. K. (2013). The development of moral motivation across the adult lifespan. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.746205Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Lennon, R., & Roth, K. (1983). Prosocial development: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 19, 846–855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.19.6.846Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Miller, P. A., Shell, R., McNalley, S., & Shea, C. (1991). Prosocial development in adolescence: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 27, 849–857. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.27.5.849Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Shell, R., Pasternack, J., Lennon, R., Beller, R., & Mathy, R. M. (1987). Prosocial development in middle childhood: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 23, 712–718. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.23.5.712Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2015). Prosocial development. In Lamb, M. E. & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (Vol. 3, pp. 610–656). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1994.tb01132.xGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, N., VanSchyndel, S. K., & Spinrad, T. L. (2016). Prosocial motivation: Inferences from an opaque body of work. Child Development, 87, 1668–1678. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12638Google Scholar
Elenbaas, L. (2019). Interwealth contact and young children’s concern for equity. Child Development, 90(1), 108–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, P., Krueger, J. I., Greitemeyer, T., Vogrincic, C., Kastenmüller, A., Frey, D., Heene, M., Wicher, M., & Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 517–537. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023304Google Scholar
Gustafson, G. E., Green, J. A., & West, M. J. (1979). The infant’s changing role in mother-infant games: The growth of social skills. Infant Behavior and Development, 2, 301–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(79)80039-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814Google Scholar
Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2008). The moral mind: How five sets of innate intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules. In Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., & Stich, S. (Eds.), The innate mind, Vol. 3: Foundations and the future (pp. 367–391). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hamlin, J. K. (2013). Moral judgment and action in preverbal infants and toddlers: Evidence for an innate moral core. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(3), 186–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412470687Google Scholar
Hamlin, J. K., & Wynn, K. (2011). Young infants prefer prosocial to antisocial others. Cognitive Development, 26(1), 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2010.09.001Google Scholar
Hamlin, J. K., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P. (2007). Social evaluation by preverbal infants. Nature, 450, 557–559. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06288Google Scholar
Hammond, S. I., Al-Jbouri, E., Edwards, V., & Feltham, L. E. (2017). Infant helping in the first year of life: Parents’ recollection of infants’ earliest prosocial behaviors. Infant Behavior and Development, 47, 54–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.INFBEH.2017.02.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammond, S. I., & Brownell, C. A. (2018). Happily unhelpful: Infants’ everyday helping and its connections to early prosocial development. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01770Google Scholar
Hammond, S. I., & Carpendale, J. I. M. (2015). Helping children help: The relation between maternal scaffolding and children’s early help. Social Development, 24, 367–383. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardecker, S., Schmidt, M. F. H., Roden, M., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Young children’s behavioral and emotional responses to different social norm violations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 150, 364–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.012Google Scholar
Hastings, P. D., Miller, J. G., & Troxel, N. R. (2015). Making good: The socialization of children’s prosocial development. In Grusec, J. E. & Hastings, P. D. (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 637–660). Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hawley, P. H. (2016). Evolution, prosocial behavior, and altruism: A roadmap for understanding where the proximate meets the ultimate. In Padilla-Walker, L. M. & Carlo, G. (Eds.), Prosocial development: A multidimensional approach (pp. 43–69). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hay, D. F., & Cook, K. V. (2007). The transformation of prosocial behavior from infancy to childhood. In Brownell, C. A. & Kopp, C. B. (Eds.), Socioemotional development in the toddler years (pp. 100–131). Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hepach, R., Haberl, K., Lambert, S., & Tomasello, M. (2017). Toddlers help anonymously. Infancy, 22, 130–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12143CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hepach, R., Kante, N., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Toddlers help a peer. Child Development, 88, 1642–1652. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12686Google Scholar
Heyd, D. (2016). Supererogation. In Zalta, E. N. (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/supererogation/Google Scholar
Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imuta, K., Henry, J. D., Slaughter, V., Selcuk, B., & Ruffman, T. (2016). Theory of mind and prosocial behavior in childhood: A meta-analytic review. Developmental Psychology, 52, 1192–1205. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000140Google Scholar
Kahn, P. H. (1992). Children’s obligatory and discretionary moral judgments. Child Development, 63, 416–430.Google Scholar
Kant, I. (1785). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals (H. J. Paton, Trans.). Routledge.Google Scholar
Kenward, B., & Dahl, M. (2011). Preschoolers distribute scarce resources according to the moral valence of recipients’ previous actions. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1054–1064. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023869Google Scholar
Killen, M., & Dahl, A. (2020). The moral obligations of conflict and resistance. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e75. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19002401Google Scholar
Killen, M., & Dahl, A. (2021). Moral reasoning enables developmental and societal change. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691620964076Google Scholar
Killen, M., Elenbaas, L., & Rizzo, M. T. (2018). Young children’s ability to recognize and challenge unfair treatment of others in group contexts. Human Development, 61, 281–296. https://doi.org/10.1159/000492804Google Scholar
Killen, M., Mulvey, K. L., Richardson, C., Jampol, N., & Woodward, A. (2011). The accidental transgressor: Morally-relevant theory of mind. Cognition, 119, 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.006Google Scholar
Killen, M., & Smetana, J. G. (2015). Origins and development of morality. In Lamb, M. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (7th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 701–749). Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L. (1971). From is to ought: How to commit the naturalistic fallacy and get away with it in the study of moral development. In Mischel, T. (Ed.), Psychology and genetic epistemology (pp. 151–235). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kornbluh, M. E., Pykett, A. A., & Flanagan, C. A. (2019). Exploring the associations between youths’ explanations of poverty at the societal level and judgements of distributive justice. Developmental Psychology, 55, 488–497. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000523Google Scholar
Köster, M., Cavalcante, L., Vera Cruz de Carvalho, R., Dôgo Resende, B., & Kärtner, J. (2016). Cultural influences on toddlers’ prosocial behavior: How maternal task assignment relates to helping others. Child Development, 87, 1727–1738. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12636CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krettenauer, T. (2017). Pro-environmental behavior and adolescent moral development. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 27, 581–593. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12300Google Scholar
Kuhlmeier, V., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P. (2003). Attribution of dispositional states by 12-month-olds. Psychological Science, 14, 402–408. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.01454Google Scholar
Latané, B., & Nida, S. (1981). Ten years of research on group size and helping. Psychological Bulletin, 89, 308–324. http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/0033-2909.89.2.308Google Scholar
Malm, H., May, T., Francis, L. P., Omer, S. B., Salmon, D. A., & Hood, R. (2008). Ethics, pandemics, and the duty to treat. The American Journal of Bioethics, 8, 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265160802317974CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Margoni, F., & Surian, L. (2018). Infants’ evaluation of prosocial and antisocial agents: A meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 54, 1445–1455. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000538Google Scholar
Martin, A., Lin, K., & Olson, K. R. (2016). What you want versus what’s good for you: Paternalistic motivation in children’s helping behavior. Child Development, 87, 1739–1746. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12637Google Scholar
Martinez, M. G. S., & Dahl, A. (2022). Emerging adult’s judgments about helping at home: Situational and experiential sources of variability. Social Development, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12649Google Scholar
McNamara, P. (2011). Supererogation, inside and out: Toward an adequate scheme for common sense morality. In Timmons, M. (Ed.), Oxford studies in normative ethics (Vol. 1, pp. 202–235). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meehl, P. E. (1978). Theoretical risks and tabular asterisks: Sir Karl, Sir Ronald, and the slow progress of soft psychology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 806–834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Midlarsky, E., & Hannah, M. E. (1985). Competence, reticence, and helping by children and adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 21, 534–541. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.21.3.534Google Scholar
Miller, J. G., Bersoff, D. M., & Harwood, R. L. (1990). Perceptions of social responsibilities in India and in the United States: Moral imperatives or personal decisions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 33–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nucci, L. P. (1981). Conceptions of personal issues: A domain distinct from moral or societal concepts. Child Development, 52, 114–121. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129220Google Scholar
Nucci, L. P., Creane, M. W., & Powers, D. W. (2015). Integrating moral and social development within middle school social studies: A social cognitive domain approach. Journal of Moral Education, 44, 479–496. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2015.1087391Google Scholar
Nucci, L. P., Killen, M., & Smetana, J. G. (1996). Autonomy and the personal: Negotiation and social reciprocity in adult-child social exchanges. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 73, 7–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.23219967303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nucci, L. P., & Turiel, E. (1993). God’s word, religious rules, and their relation to Christian and Jewish children’s concepts of morality. Child Development, 64, 1475. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131547Google Scholar
Nucci, L., Turiel, E., & Roded, A. D. (2017). Continuities and discontinuities in the development of moral judgments. Human Development, 60, 279–341. https://doi.org/10.1159/000484067Google Scholar
Nucci, L. P., & Weber, E. K. (1995). Social interactions in the home and the development of young children’s conceptions of the personal. Child Development, 66, 1438–1452. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131656Google Scholar
Oakley, B., Knafo, A., & McGrath, M. (2011). Pathological altruism – An introduction. In Oakley, B., Knafo, A., Madhavan, G., & Wilson, D. S. (Eds.), Pathological altruism (pp. 3–9). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Izquierdo, C. (2009). Responsibility in childhood: Three developmental trajectories. Ethos, 37(4), 391–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01066.xGoogle Scholar
Olafson, L., Schraw, G., Nadelson, L., Nadelson, S., & Kehrwald, N. (2013). Exploring the judgment–action gap: College students and academic dishonesty. Ethics & Behavior, 23, 148–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2012.714247Google Scholar
Oliner, S. P., & Oliner, P. M. (1988). The altruistic personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. Free Press.Google Scholar
Padilla-Walker, L. M., & Carlo, G. (2016). The study of prosocial behavior: Past, present, and future. In Padilla-Walker, L. M. & Carlo, G. (Eds.), Prosocial development: A multidimensional approach (pp. 3–16). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pettygrove, D. M., Hammond, S. I., Karahuta, E. L., Waugh, W. E., & Brownell, C. A. (2013). From cleaning up to helping out: Parental socialization and children’s early prosocial behavior. Infant Behavior and Development, 36, 843–846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2013.09.005Google Scholar
Popliger, M., Talwar, V., & Crossman, A. (2011). Predictors of children’s prosocial lie-telling: Motivation, socialization variables, and moral understanding. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110, 373–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.05.003Google Scholar
Rakoczy, H., Kaufmann, M., & Lohse, K. (2016). Young children understand the normative force of standards of equal resource distribution. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 150, 396–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.05.015Google Scholar
Repacholi, B. M., & Gopnik, A. (1997). Early reasoning about desires: Evidence from 14-and 18-month-olds. Developmental Psychology, 33, 12–21.Google Scholar
Rheingold, H. L. (1982). Little children’s participation in the work of adults, a nascent prosocial behavior. Child Development, 53, 114–125.Google Scholar
Rizzo, M. T., & Killen, M. (2016). Children’s understanding of equity in the context of inequality. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 34, 569–581. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12150Google Scholar
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B., Mistry, J., Göncü, A., Mosier, C., & Chavajay, P. (1993). Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58, i–179. https://doi.org/10.2307/1166109Google Scholar
Saarni, C. (1984). An observational study of children’s attempts to monitor their expressive behavior. Child Development, 55, 1504–1513. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130020Google Scholar
Schmerse, D., & Hepach, R. (2021). How socialization goals and peer social climate predict young children’s concern for others: Evidence for a development shift between 2 and 4 years of age. Social Development, 30(1), 239–257. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12478Google Scholar
Schmidt, M. F. H., Rakoczy, H., & Tomasello, M. (2012). Young children enforce social norms selectively depending on the violator’s group affiliation. Cognition, 124, 325–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.06.004Google Scholar
Schmidt, M. F. H., Svetlova, M., Johe, J., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Children’s developing understanding of legitimate reasons for allocating resources unequally. Cognitive Development, 37, 42–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.11.001Google Scholar
Schmidt, M. F. H., & Tomasello, M. (2012). Young children enforce social norms. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21, 232–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412448659Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. H. (1977). Normative influences on altruism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 221–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60358-5Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60281-6Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. H., Cieciuch, J., Vecchione, M., Davidov, E., Fischer, R., Beierlein, C., Ramos, A., Verkasalo, M., Lönnqvist, J.-E., Demirutku, K., Dirilen-Gumus, O., & Konty, M. (2012). Refining the theory of basic individual values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(4), 663–688. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029393Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. H., & Fleishman, J. A. (1982). Effects of negative personal norms on helping behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 81–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616728281013Google Scholar
Smetana, J. G., Ball, C. L., Jambon, M., & Yoo, H. N. (2018). Are young children’s preferences and evaluations of moral and conventional transgressors associated with domain distinctions in judgments? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 173, 284–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.04.008Google Scholar
Smetana, J. G., Jambon, M., Conry-Murray, C., & Sturge-Apple, M. L. (2012). Reciprocal associations between young children’s developing moral judgments and theory of mind. Developmental Psychology, 48, 1144–1155. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025891CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smetana, J. G., Rote, W. M., Jambon, M., Tasopoulos-Chan, M., Villalobos, M., & Comer, J. (2012). Developmental changes and individual differences in young children’s moral judgments. Child Development, 83, 683–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01714.xGoogle Scholar
Sommerville, J. A., Schmidt, M. F. H., Yun, J. E., & Burns, M. (2013). The development of fairness expectations and prosocial behavior in the second year of life. Infancy, 18, 40–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00129.xGoogle Scholar
Srinivasan, M., Kaplan, E., & Dahl, A. (2019). Reasoning about the scope of religious norms: Evidence from Hindu and Muslim children in India. Child Development, 90, e783–e802. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13102Google Scholar
Steg, L., & Groot, J. de. (2010). Explaining prosocial intentions: Testing causal relationships in the norm activation model. British Journal of Social Psychology, 49, 725–743. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466609X477745Google Scholar
Sternberg, C. R., & Campos, J. J. (1990). The development of anger expressions in infancy. In Stein, N. L., Leventhal, B., & Trabasso, T. (Eds.), Psychological and biological approaches to emotion (pp. 247–282). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Svetlova, M., Nichols, S. R., & Brownell, C. A. (2010). Toddlers’ prosocial behavior: From instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping. Child Development, 81, 1814–1827. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01512.xGoogle Scholar
Tan, E., Mikami, A. Y., & Hamlin, J. K. (2018). Do infant sociomoral evaluation and action studies predict preschool social and behavioral adjustment? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.07.003Google Scholar
Tisak, M. S. (1993). Preschool children’s judgments of moral and personal events involving physical harm and property damage. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 39, 375–390.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2016). A natural history of human morality. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Turiel, E. (2003). Morals, motives and actions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology Monograph Series, 2, 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1348/0000000024426958Google Scholar
Turiel, E. (2008). The development of children’s orientations toward moral, social, and personal orders: More than a sequence in development. Human Development, 51, 21–39. https://doi.org/10.1159/000113154Google Scholar
Turiel, E. (2015a). Moral development. In Lerner, R. M. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (Vol. 1, pp. 484–522). John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Turiel, E. (2015b). Morality and prosocial judgments and behavior. In Schroeder, D. A. & Graziano, W. G. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of prosocial behavior (pp. 137–152). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Uzefovsky, F., Paz, Y., & Davidov, M. (2020). Young infants are pro-victims, but it depends on the context. British Journal of Psychology, 111, 322–334. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12402Google Scholar
Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2010). Young children selectively avoid helping people with harmful intentions. Child Development, 81, 1661–1669.Google Scholar
Vaish, A., Missana, M., & Tomasello, M. (2011). Three-year-old children intervene in third-party moral transgressions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 29, 124–130. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151010X532888Google Scholar
Van de Vondervoort, J. W., & Hamlin, J. K. (2017). Preschoolers’ social and moral judgments of third-party helpers and hinderers align with infants’ social evaluations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 164, 136–151.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.07.004Google Scholar
Wainryb, C., & Brehl, B. A. (2006). I thought she knew that would hurt my feelings: Developing psychological knowledge and moral thinking. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior (Vol. 34, pp. 131–171). Elsevier Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wainryb, C., Brehl, B. A., & Matwin, S. (2005). Being hurt and hurting others: Children’s narrative accounts and moral judgments of their own interpersonal conflicts. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 70(3), 1–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5834.2005.00350.xGoogle Scholar
Warneken, F. (2013). Young children proactively remedy unnoticed accidents. Cognition, 126, 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.09.011Google Scholar
Warneken, F. (2016). Insights into the biological foundation of human altruistic sentiments. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 51–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.07.013Google Scholar
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. Science, 311, 1301–1303.Google Scholar
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2007). Helping and cooperation at 14 months of age. Infancy, 11, 271–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2007.tb00227.xGoogle Scholar
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Varieties of altruism in children and chimpanzees. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(9), 397–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.06.008Google Scholar
Weller, D., & Lagattuta, K. H. (2014). Children’s judgments about prosocial decisions and emotions: Gender of the helper and recipient matters. Child Development, 85, 2011–2028. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12238Google Scholar
Williams, C., & Bybee, J. (1994). What do children feel guilty about? Developmental and gender differences. Developmental Psychology, 30, 617–623. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.30.5.617Google Scholar
Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(83)90004-5Google Scholar
Wörle, M., & Paulus, M. (2018). Normative expectations about fairness: The development of a charity norm in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 165, 66–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.016Google Scholar
Worchel, S. (1984). The darker side of helping: The social dynamics of helping and cooperation. In Staub, E., Bar-Tal, D., Karylowski, J., & Reykowski, J. (Eds.), Development and maintenance of prosocial behavior (pp. 379–395). Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E., & Chapman, M. (1992). Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology, 28, 126–136.Google Scholar
Zaki, J., & Cikara, M. (2015). Addressing empathic failures. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24, 471–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415599978Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×