Celia A Brownell
Biographic Data
| ID | 5757708 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Celia A Brownell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Celia A |
| FAMILY NAME | Brownell |
| SIGNATURE | BROWNELL C A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pittsburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5826-8745 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
I Feel, You Feel, We Feel: The Role of Emotion in Early Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior emerges in the second year of life. This chapter reviews recent empirical evidence showing that both negative and positive emotion relate to emerging prosocial behavior and that their associations with prosocial behavior differ, suggesting that negative and positive emotion serve different functions. Moderators (recipient emotion, type of prosocial behavior, age) of associations between the young child’s emotional and prosocial…
Scaffolding the emergence of infant helping: A longitudinal experiment
Early social experiences, such as caregiver scaffolding, play a crucial but disputed role in the emergence of prosociality. A longitudinal experiment examined how explicit scaffolding—such as encouragement or praise—influences helping late in the first year, when helping emerges. Eighty-three infants (40 female, 6–9 months, 54% White, 17% Hispanic/Latinx, 16% Asian) participated in up to 10-weekly home visits in which they could help an experimen…
Help Yourself!” What Can Toddlers' Helping Failures Tell Us About the Development of Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior emerges in the second year of life, yet it is typical for children in this period not to share, comfort, or help. We compared toddlers (18, 30 months) who helped with those who did not help on two tasks (instrumental helping; empathic helping). More than half of children failed to help on one or both tasks. Nonhelpers engaged in more hypothesis testing on the instrumental helping task, but more security‐seeking, wariness, and p…
Explicit scaffolding increases simple helping in younger infants
Infants become increasingly helpful during the second year. We investigated experimentally whether adults' explicit scaffolding influences this development. Infants (N = 69, 13-18 months old) participated in a series of simple helping tasks. Half of infants received explicit scaffolding (encouragement and praise), whereas the other half did not. Among younger infants (below 15 months), infants who received explicit scaffolding helped twice as oft…
Prosocial Behavior during Infancy and Early Childhood: Developmental Patterns and Cultural Variations
Prosocial Behavior during Childhood and Cultural Variations
Toddlers’ Responses to Infants’ Negative Emotions
Early developments in toddlers’ responses to adults’ distress have been extensively examined, but less work has been directed to young children's responses to other children in distress. In the current study, we examined 12‐, 18‐, and 24‐month‐old children's ( N = 71) behavioral and affective responses to a crying infant (doll) present in the room with the child. A comparison condition included a contented, neutral infant to contrast with the cry…
Socialization of Early Prosocial Behavior: Parents’ Talk About Emotions is Associated With Sharing and Helping in Toddlers
What role does socialization play in the origins of prosocial behavior? We examined one potential socialization mechanism – parents’ discourse about others’ emotions with very young children in whom prosocial behavior is still nascent. Two studies are reported, one of sharing in 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds ( n = 29) and one of instrumental and empathy‐based helping in 18‐ and 30‐month‐olds ( n = 62). In both studies, parents read age‐appropriate pictur…
Early Development of Prosocial Behavior: Current Perspectives
Prosocial behavior first appears in the second year of life. How can prosociality so early in life be explained? One possibility is that infants possess specialized cognitive and/or social capacities that drive its emergence. A second possibility is that prosocial behavior emerges out of infants' shared activities and relationships with others. These possibilities have motivated a number of current explanatory efforts, with a focus on two complem…
Preschoolers’ cooperative problem solving: Integrating play and problem solving
Cooperative problem solving with peers plays a central role in promoting children’s cognitive and social development. This article reviews research on cooperative problem solving among preschool-age children in experimental settings and social play contexts. Studies suggest that cooperative interactions with peers in experimental settings are not as consistently beneficial to young children’s cognitive growth as they are for school-age children. …
Toddlers’ Prosocial Behavior: From Instrumental to Empathic to Altruistic Helping
The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more difficult than instrumental helping and required greater communication from the adult about her need…
To Share or Not to Share: When Do Toddlers Respond to Another's Needs
The developmental origins of sharing remain little understood. Using procedures adapted from research on prosocial behavior in chimpanzees, we presented 18‐ and 25‐month‐old children with a sharing task in which they could choose to deliver food to themselves only, or to both themselves and another person, thereby making it possible for them to share without personal sacrifice. The potential recipient, a friendly adult, was either silent about he…
Childhood peer relationships: Social acceptance, friendships, and peer networks
Common threads, diverse solutions: Concluding commentary
Cognitive certainty in children: Effects of concept, developmental level, and method of assessment
Explicit scaffolding increases simple helping in younger infants
Infants become increasingly helpful during the second year. We investigated experimentally whether adults' explicit scaffolding influences this development. Infants (N = 69, 13-18 months old) participated in a series of simple helping tasks. Half of infants received explicit scaffolding (encouragement and praise), whereas the other half did not. Among younger infants (below 15 months), infants who received explicit scaffolding helped twice as oft…
Cognitive certainty in children: Effects of concept, developmental level, and method of assessment
Preschoolers’ cooperative problem solving: Integrating play and problem solving
Cooperative problem solving with peers plays a central role in promoting children’s cognitive and social development. This article reviews research on cooperative problem solving among preschool-age children in experimental settings and social play contexts. Studies suggest that cooperative interactions with peers in experimental settings are not as consistently beneficial to young children’s cognitive growth as they are for school-age children. …
Cognitive certainty in children: Effects of concept, developmental level, and method of assessment
Common threads, diverse solutions: Concluding commentary
Childhood peer relationships: Social acceptance, friendships, and peer networks
To Share or Not to Share: When Do Toddlers Respond to Another's Needs
The developmental origins of sharing remain little understood. Using procedures adapted from research on prosocial behavior in chimpanzees, we presented 18‐ and 25‐month‐old children with a sharing task in which they could choose to deliver food to themselves only, or to both themselves and another person, thereby making it possible for them to share without personal sacrifice. The potential recipient, a friendly adult, was either silent about he…
Toddlers’ Prosocial Behavior: From Instrumental to Empathic to Altruistic Helping
The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more difficult than instrumental helping and required greater communication from the adult about her need…
Socialization of Early Prosocial Behavior: Parents’ Talk About Emotions is Associated With Sharing and Helping in Toddlers
What role does socialization play in the origins of prosocial behavior? We examined one potential socialization mechanism – parents’ discourse about others’ emotions with very young children in whom prosocial behavior is still nascent. Two studies are reported, one of sharing in 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds ( n = 29) and one of instrumental and empathy‐based helping in 18‐ and 30‐month‐olds ( n = 62). In both studies, parents read age‐appropriate pictur…
Early Development of Prosocial Behavior: Current Perspectives
Prosocial behavior first appears in the second year of life. How can prosociality so early in life be explained? One possibility is that infants possess specialized cognitive and/or social capacities that drive its emergence. A second possibility is that prosocial behavior emerges out of infants' shared activities and relationships with others. These possibilities have motivated a number of current explanatory efforts, with a focus on two complem…
Preschoolers’ cooperative problem solving: Integrating play and problem solving
Cooperative problem solving with peers plays a central role in promoting children’s cognitive and social development. This article reviews research on cooperative problem solving among preschool-age children in experimental settings and social play contexts. Studies suggest that cooperative interactions with peers in experimental settings are not as consistently beneficial to young children’s cognitive growth as they are for school-age children. …
Prosocial Behavior during Infancy and Early Childhood: Developmental Patterns and Cultural Variations
Prosocial Behavior during Childhood and Cultural Variations
Toddlers’ Responses to Infants’ Negative Emotions
Early developments in toddlers’ responses to adults’ distress have been extensively examined, but less work has been directed to young children's responses to other children in distress. In the current study, we examined 12‐, 18‐, and 24‐month‐old children's ( N = 71) behavioral and affective responses to a crying infant (doll) present in the room with the child. A comparison condition included a contented, neutral infant to contrast with the cry…
Help Yourself!” What Can Toddlers' Helping Failures Tell Us About the Development of Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior emerges in the second year of life, yet it is typical for children in this period not to share, comfort, or help. We compared toddlers (18, 30 months) who helped with those who did not help on two tasks (instrumental helping; empathic helping). More than half of children failed to help on one or both tasks. Nonhelpers engaged in more hypothesis testing on the instrumental helping task, but more security‐seeking, wariness, and p…
Explicit scaffolding increases simple helping in younger infants
Infants become increasingly helpful during the second year. We investigated experimentally whether adults' explicit scaffolding influences this development. Infants (N = 69, 13-18 months old) participated in a series of simple helping tasks. Half of infants received explicit scaffolding (encouragement and praise), whereas the other half did not. Among younger infants (below 15 months), infants who received explicit scaffolding helped twice as oft…
I Feel, You Feel, We Feel: The Role of Emotion in Early Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior emerges in the second year of life. This chapter reviews recent empirical evidence showing that both negative and positive emotion relate to emerging prosocial behavior and that their associations with prosocial behavior differ, suggesting that negative and positive emotion serve different functions. Moderators (recipient emotion, type of prosocial behavior, age) of associations between the young child’s emotional and prosocial…
Scaffolding the emergence of infant helping: A longitudinal experiment
Early social experiences, such as caregiver scaffolding, play a crucial but disputed role in the emergence of prosociality. A longitudinal experiment examined how explicit scaffolding—such as encouragement or praise—influences helping late in the first year, when helping emerges. Eighty-three infants (40 female, 6–9 months, 54% White, 17% Hispanic/Latinx, 16% Asian) participated in up to 10-weekly home visits in which they could help an experimen…
Psychology (15 works) · Developmental psychology (14 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (9 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (7 works) · Prosocial behavior (7 works) · Helping behavior (6 works) · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior (6 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works)