Prosocial development and conflict behavior

A central research topic of the Lab group is the development of prosocial behavior, for instance, helping others, sharing with others, or comforting others. More recently, we also focus on the development of other-oriented conflict behavior. In addition to studying the development in different cultures, we are particularly interested in social influences on prosocial and conflict behavior and the associated psychological processes such as the motivation underlying the behavior. To investigate this, we use a variety of methods: We look at the behavior of children and their primary caregivers in the laboratory and in everyday situations, we let children and their caregivers evaluate hypothetical situations, and we assess key socialization goals and strategies in interviews or by questionnaire.

• Current projects

  ImPro (DFG) – Imitation of early prosocial behavior

  RePro (DFG) – Others’ requests may dampen the desire to do good

  PeCo – Conflict behavior in peer context

• Selected Publications

  Kärtner, J. (2023). The motives of prosocial behavior. In T. Malti & M. Davidov (Eds.), Handbook of Prosociality: Development, Mechanisms, Promotion, (pp. 209–232). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Giner Torréns, M., Dreizler, K., & Kärtner, J. (2021). Insight into toddlers’ motivation to help: From social participants to prosocial contributors. Infant Behavior and Development, 64, 101603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101603

  Kärtner, J., Giner Torréns, M. & Schuhmacher, N. (2021). Parental structuring during shared chores and the development of helping across the second year. Social Development, 30, 374–395. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12490

  Giner Torréns M. & Kärtner J. (2019). Affiliation motivates children’s prosocial behaviors: Relating helping and comforting to imitation. Social Development, 28, 501–513. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12357

  Köster, M. & Kärtner, J. (2019) Why do infants help? A simple action reveals a complex phenomenon. Developmental Review, 51, 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.11.004

  Köster, M., Itakura, S., Omori, M. & Kärtner, J. (2019). From understanding others’ needs to prosocial action: Motor and social abilities promote infants’ helping. Developmental Science, 22, e12804. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12804

  Schuhmacher, N., Köster, M., & Kärtner, J. (2019). Modeling prosocial behavior increases helping in 16-month-olds. Child Development, 90, 1789–1801. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13054

  Kärtner, J. (2018). Beyond dichotomies – (M)others’ structuring and the development of toddlers’ prosocial behavior across cultures. Current Opinion in Psychology, 20, 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.040

  Giner Torréns, M., & Kärtner, J. (2017). The influence of socialization on early helping from a cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48, 353–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117690451

  Kärtner, J., Keller, H., & Chaudhary, N. (2010). Cognitive and social influences on early prosocial behavior in two socio-cultural contexts. Developmental Psychology, 46(4), 905–914. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019718