The effects of peer modeling and adult presence on the donations of three age groups of children.
Item
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Title
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The effects of peer modeling and adult presence on the donations of three age groups of children.
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Identifier
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AAI8820892
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identifier
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8820892
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Creator
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Resnikoff, AnnaMarie DiIorio.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Barry J. Zimmerman
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Education, Educational Psychology
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Abstract
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This study sought to clarify the effects of modeling, rationales, and children's age upon their donations and accompanying justifications. Although the social learning researchers have studied modeling and preaching influences on children's donation, questions about how specific rationales affect prosocial behavior remain unanswered. In addition, little attention has been given to the issue of a child's developmental stage on their observational learning of prosocial behavior. Recently Zimmerman (1982) has proposed a three stage developmental model that seeks to explain children's behavioral functioning as well as their cognitive and affective processes. The present investigation sought to examine the validity of selected parts of this formulation. A factorial design was employed with 3 age groups, 4 modeling conditions and 2 levels of experimenter presence. A monetary donation task was used as a measure of prosocial behavior of 120 boys and girls. A young female model's type of reasoning was studied along with her donation of money as dimensions of social learning. The results indicated age related increases in children's donating. It was found that the donations of children in 8-10 year old age groups were most influenced by models who gave social rules. The effects of the presence of the experimenter was greater for the 8- to 10-year-old children than for the 4- to 6-year-old or 12- to 14-year-old youngsters. As predicted, 4- to 6-year-old children's prosocial reasoning was hedonistic, 8- to 10-year-olds was approval oriented and 12- to 14-year-olds was concerned with mutual benefit. These results were interpreted as providing support for Zimmerman's model.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
