儿童社会价值取向的发展及其对合作行为的影响

Cooperation is a typical prosocial behavior, and social psychologists have traditionally used sociometric methods to measure cooperation. This research is aimed to explore the development of children’s social value orientation and its impact on cooperation. Study 1 used two-choice decomposed games to measure the social value orientation of 9- , 11-, to 14-year-old children and adults. Results indicated that most 9-, 11-, 14-year-old children are classified as proselfs, and most adults are classified as prosocials. Compared to 9 years, there are more prosocial orientations and less competitive orientations among 11 years. But compared to 11 years, there are less prosocial orientations and more competitive orientations among 14 years. Study 2 used prisoner’s dilemma to assess cooperative behavior, thus investigated the impact of social value orientation on cooperative decision-making. Results indicated that, on one hand, children of prosocial orientation expected no more cooperation from others, but adults of prosocial orientation expected more cooperation from others. On the other hand, prosocials make more cooperative choices than proselfs, and they show more reciprocity towards cooperative others and more altruism towards non-cooperative others.