The development of future-oriented prudence and altruism in preschoolers

Abstract

This research tested the hypothesis that prudence and altruism, in situations involving future desires, follow a similar developmental course between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Using a modified delay of gratification paradigm, 3-to 5-year-olds were tested on their ability to forgo a current opportunity to obtain some stickers in order to gratify their own future desires-or the current or future desires of a research assistant. Results showed that in choices involving current desires, altruistic behavior was unrelated to age. However, prudence and altruism involving future situations were correlated with one another and with age. Children under 4 years of age demonstrated significantly less futureoriented prudence than the older children (F(1,49) = 15.75; px.001) and significantly less altruism involving future situations (F( 1,49) = 33.24; p<.OOl). The data for the 3-year-olds, but not for the older children, also showed agepartialled correlations between the two future-oriented choice situations. These results suggest that between 3 and 4 years, children acquire the ability to deal with future-oriented situations through the development of some common mechanism which affects both future-oriented prudence and altruism.

Currency value moderates equity preference among young children

“…This trajectory could reflect a maturing ability to inhibit the desire to take all of the stickers present. However, in the current DG, 5-and 6-year olds are far more likely to resist this temptation for immediate gratification than same age children in classic delay of gratification tasks (Mischel & Metzner, 1962;Thompson, Barresi & Moore, 1997). Thus, any effects of developing inhibitory control must be supplemented by a process of socialization as children adopt social norms for giving (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998).…”

My future self: Young children's ability to anticipate and explain future states

“…Children are told that they can have the smaller reward immediately, or that they can wait to obtain the larger reward. In general, the ability to delay gratification in this context, as well as similar ones, increases with age (Mischel et al, 1989;Moore, Barresi, & Thompson, 1998;Thompson, Barresi, & Moore, 1997). For instance, Moore and his colleagues found that 4-and 5-year-olds delay choosing one sticker immediately, in favor of two stickers later, significantly more often than 3-yearolds.…”

The self-regulating brain: Cortical-subcortical feedback and the development of intelligent action

“…The role of coordination in emotional development is even more clear, as epitomized by the concept of emotion regulation. The classic capacity to explicitly and effortfully inhibit emotional impulses, appearing at about age 3-4 years, seems to involve the coordination of one's own wishes with those of others (Eisenberg et al, 1996) or representations of immediate gain with those of longterm losses (Prencipe & Zelazo, 2005;Thompson, Barresi, & Moore, 1997). Thus, the theme of coordination as regulation helps integrate some fairly heterogeneous notions of what changes with development in a language that most developmentalists find convenient.…”

“…Although there is little direct data on the neural correlates of effortful control in very young children, the development of effortful self-regulation processes is thought to be mediated by dorsal ACC networks that come on line between the ages of 3 and 6 (Posner & Rothbart, 2000). During this period children become better able to delay gratification (Prencipe & Zelazo, 2005;Thompson et al, 1997), deliberately control impulsive behaviour (Jones, Rothbart, & Posner, 2003), use higher-order rule systems for decision-making (Zelazo & Mueller, 2002), and achieve higher levels of explicit emotional awareness (Lane & McRae, 2004). All of these skills may depend on the action-monitoring functions associated with the ACC.…”