Are Children Intrinsicly Motivated

Question The goal of this experiment was to find the answer to the question, ‘Are young children intrinsically motivated to see others be helped?’. The broad question gathered from this experiment is, ‘Do humans have an innate, genuine concern for the well-being of others?’. These questions are meaningful as this investigation could prove the existence of a distinctly human, nurture characteristic, that all share.
Alternatives
The experiment will likely have one of two outcomes, either young children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped or they are not. It is probable that young children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped as they tend to do so without instruction and rely on instinct to help people. It is also
possible that young children are not intrinsically motivated to see others being helped and just do so through observing adults help others. Another possible outcome is that young children offer to help others for personal reward. This is plausible because the development of concern for others could occur at an older age.
Logic
If young children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped, then the change in pupil dilation will be about equal for both the help and third-person help situations. If young children are not intrinsically motivated to see others helped, then the children will not be effected by the no-help situation. If young children are extrinsically motivated by personal gain or reward when helping others, then they will be in a state of arousal in the no-help and third-person help situation.
Method
The independent variable in this study was the situation presented to the children. The dependent variable was the change in the child’s pupil diameter. The subjects were 36 2-year-old children, with an equal number of female and male participants. A house apparatus was used, equipped with a window. An eye-tracking machine was placed in a slit below the window to measure pupil diameter. The stimuli were shown to the participants on a 24-inch computer screen with a monitor resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The first stage was familiarization, where the subjects were presented with and could explore the apparatus. Next was a switch stage, the computer monitor was placed in the window to present the stimuli. Finally, the test phases commenced. The participant’s eyes were calibrated before the test phase. Parents were instructed to keep their eyes shut throughout the process to avoid pupil mix-ups. The children were arbitrarily assigned to one of the following situations: help, no-help or third-person help. The first trial of the test stage was an introductory trial where a video showed an adult putting a dolphin to bed. Then, a neutral video was played and the child’s pupil diameter was measured. Next, the parent brought the participant into the house for 15 seconds where they saw the adult from the video. They went back to the window to view the same neutral stimuli from earlier and pupil diameter was measured again. 2 test trials were used, one showed an adult reaching for a stacking can to finish building a tower and in the other the adult reached for a crayon to finish a picture. Each trial was followed by a neutral video and the pupil diameter of the subject was measured. The children were then taken inside the house and placed 2m away from the adult. In the help situation, parents allowed their children to gather the object and give it to the adult. In the no help condition, parents held onto their children, stopping them from assisting the adult. In the third-person help situation, children could move freely, but a secondary experimenter retrieved the object and gave it to the adult, not the child. After the experimental phase, subjects were taken back to the window, showed the neutral stimuli and their pupil diameter was measured once again.
Results
Definite differences were discovered in pupil diameter between each experimental condition. In the help situation, 10 of 12 children retrieved the object for the adult. Those who helped took 6s to do so on the first trial and only 4s on the second trial. Change in pupil dilation was extremely similar in the help and third-person help trials, with the rate being slightly lower in the third-person condition. The average relative increase in pupil dilation was considerably greater in the no-help situation, demonstrating sympathetic arousal after being unable to assist the other person. In the other situations, lower arousal levels were displayed because the adult was helped. It can be concluded that young children are motivated to help to see others be helped. This experiment provided physiological evidence to support the hypothesis that children help people because they are genuinely concerned for them.
Inferences
The results demonstrate that young children show about equal rates of change in pupil dilation when they are able to help others and when they witness others being helped.
Therefore, children are intrinsically motivated to see others be helped. The findings of this experiment could still lead to some other possible conclusions. The children could have been reacting to positive or negative valence or the body language of the experimenter and this also elicit the same rates of pupil diameter measurement. A potential confounding variable could be the presence of the subject’s parent. It is a known phenomenon that children act more correctly while they are being watched. Thus, the children could have had a physiological response that reflects the correct action to carry out, and not what they wanted to do. The same results could have been gathered if children are not intrinsically motivated to see others helped, as sympathetic arousal could occur when one is experiencing any sort of strong feeling. The internal drive to help others is developed once humans can understand the repercussions of not helping and the positives of taking action. Future studies should focus on emotional response, as the behaviour of helping is brought about by
feeling.