Eighteen-Month-Old Infants Show Increased Helping Following Priming with Affiliation

Patrick Deichert
ID: 20210811398
PSY 4331
Dr. Ackerman
Over, H. (2009). Eighteen-Month-Old Infants Show Increased Helping Following

Priming With Affiliation. Psychological Science, Vol. 20 Issue 10, p1189-1193

Eighteen-Month-Old Infants Show Increased Helping Following Priming With Affiliation

This study explains attempts to explain how certain images can predict the way an infant positively or negatively interacts with the world, in terms of prosocial engagement. The purpose of this study is explicit, in that it is trying to convey that infants personality can be shaped by positive or negative influences, and ultimately discovering why infants differ in social skills. Much research has been done on child development and what specifically drives their development, whether it is environmental factors or simple genetic inheritance, this field of study is an essential tool in understanding the mechanisms in which shape our personalities throughout life. This particular experiment proposed a design that aimed to find a correlation between “a sense of affiliation to a group and the tendency to adopt a prosocial orientation” (1189). The hypothesis stated that: when infants were “primed” with images evoking affiliation, these images would shape the way an infant would affiliate with different social groups or social behaviors. The authors of this study proposed a simple method of studying infant affiliation. The participants comprised of 60 18 month old infants including 27 boys and 33 girls. The infants were recruited for this study using a database in which parents had volunteered their children to be a part of child development studies. In total 15 infants were placed in each condition, and 7 were thrown out due to interference from parents. The two conditions tested were: Crying during the test and refusal to observe images. To test their hypothesis the researchers presented the infants with 8 color photographs and a prime such as a wooden doll. To measure the infant’s reaction to the different photographs and primes the experimenter would observe the infants behavior following their unique interpretation of the photograph paired with the prime. A child would play with the experimenter and thus a behavioral parameter would be observed. In conclusion, about 3 times as many infants were spontaneously stimulated in accordance with photographs and primes, however there were no differences in the infants mood in response to the stimuli provided. The affiliation with the “primes” generally increased in the infant’s spontaneity as well as the stimulus of the photographs presented. The researchers found that “subtle changes to the social environment can promote proscoial behavior in children” (1189). In other words the results of the study confirmed that environmental stimuli does in-fact promote affiliation with certain prosocial behaviors. The meaning of these results provides further insight into the broad range of child development theories. These results may prove informational in further studies of how certain children develop certain social patterns. In addition to understanding child development, this study proves that not only can an infant’s development be influenced by genetic inheritance; it may be influenced by extraneous environmental associations such as images or social interaction. I thought this study provided concrete evidence into various mechanisms of child development. The questions asked in this study were generally well formed, and appropriate in associating child development with social behavior. Not only were the questions well formed, they pointed out key aspects of development that are not fully understood in this field of study. Researching unknown subject mater, that is extremely important to child development, greatly increases the possibility to reach a point of full understanding, in turn completely validating the purpose of this research. I am enrolled in child development this semester, so this study provides further insight into the vast array of developmental processes that are involved in adolescence. In addition I believe it is important to understand key developmental stages in life, especially when it comes to determining certain psychological function later on in life. I learned that infants have the ability to interpret sensory information in many different fashions and that human beings are unique in the ways they develop. One question that I have about theses research findings would be: Which influences play the most important role in development? Genetic Inheritance or environmental influences? An alternative to studying increased helping following priming with affiliation would have to be using infants as well as adolescents to determine the long term affects, thus creating a concrete measure of how accurate correlating stimuli is in determining social interaction in the future.