Toward a Piagetian explanation of the development of prosocial behaviour in children: The force of negational thinking

The central purpose of this study was to provide additional support for interpreting the development of prosocial behaviour in children in accordance with a theoretical perspective which integrates the two micromodels Piaget used in succession to explain the child's transition from preoperational to operational thought: a cost‐gain evaluation (Piaget, 1957), and the equilibration theory (Piaget, 1974). Twenty‐four children at each of three age levels (5‐year‐olds, 7‐year‐olds, and 10‐ year‐olds) were studied. We assessed (a) children's level of negational thinking on a Piagetian task of affirmation/negation; (b) children's cost‐perception/gain‐construction conceptions on a hypothetical prosocial dilemma; and (c) children's prosocial behaviour in a contrived donating situation. Two cohorts involved in this study were also participating in a two‐year longitudinal research programme on cost‐perception/gain‐construction individual change. Consistent with predictions, (a) cross‐sectional data showed that with increasing age children become more likely to consider prosocial acts in terms of gain rather than cost; (b) longitudinal data showed that this children's tendency changes in the direction of ‘higher levels’(i.e. from cost perception to gain construction) and without regression; and (c) correlational data showed that this tendency is positively related to level of negational thinking, on the one hand, and positively associated with level of prosocial behaviour, on the other. These findings strengthen the hypothesis of explaining children's development of prosocial behaviour in accordance with the two Piagetian micromodels mentioned above.