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Young children's representations of peers' distress: Associations to children's social functioning and acceptance of distressed peers

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Author

  • Hans Bengtsson
  • Gun Persson

Summary, in English

Children's mental representations of situations involving another child's distress were examined in two studies. Study 1 examined 3- to 7-year-old children's (n = 44) ideas about what victims and bystanders would think, feel and do in hypothetical situations. In Study 2, 7- to 8-year-olds (n = 40) described their own cognitive response to situations in which they were confronted with another's distress. In both studies, representational bias was examined in relation to children's display of prosocial and aggressive behavior and in relation to their acceptance of distressed peers. Although not entirely consistent, findings indicate that three types of representational biases are associated with low levels of considerate behavior and with relatively low acceptance of distressed peers: (a) mentally representing the victim's problem without giving thought to its implications for the victim, (b) significantly reducing the emotional significance of the problem and (c) exaggerating negative aspects of the problem.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

203-213

Publication/Series

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology

Volume

48

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Psychology

Keywords

  • empathy
  • aggressive behavior
  • prosocial behavior
  • representational bias

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1467-9450