认知与发展心理学研究室知识库

社会权力关系普遍存在于儿童的日常生活中，同时社会权力的认知在儿童与他人的社会互动中起重要作用。获得权力的途径一般有两种:基于支配(自己夺取获得权力)和基于声望(他人授予获得权力)的权力获得策略。本研究在两种权力获得情境中考察儿童对高低权力者的信念和态度随年龄的变化趋势，揭示儿童社会权力的早期认知发展。另外，社会权力减少成人的亲社会行为己被许多研究所证实，然而权力对儿童亲社会行为的影响还知之甚少。因此，本研究还考察了社会权力高低对儿童分享行为的影响。

研究一考察儿童对高低权力者信念的发展。实验la和实验1b分别探究4-8岁儿童(N=116在两种权力情境中对高低权力者的行为预期及其影响因素。实验la发现儿童对高低权力者行为预期从学前期不区分权力获得方式到学龄期区分不同权力获得方式的发展变化模式:学前儿童(4-6岁)预期基于声望的和基于支配的高权力者均比低权力者更可能占有资源;学龄早期儿童(7-8岁)预期基于支配的高权力者比低权力者更可能占有资源，更不可能分享资源，但对声望J情境中的高低权力者的占有资源和分享资源行为没有预期偏好。实验1b的结果表明儿童心理理论和共情能力对儿童对高低权力者行为预期的预测作用，未发现母亲养育方式及家庭社会经济地位的影响。

研究二考察儿童对高低权力者态度的偏好。三个实验探究了4-8岁儿童(N=315)在两种权力情境中对高低权力者的资源分配偏好。结果发现4-8岁儿童在权力情境中的资源分配从开始偏好高权力者到后来偏好低权力者转变，并且6岁开始出现权力获得情境之间的差异。具体表现为他们对高低权力者的资源分配在声望情境中比支配情境中更多地偏好高权力者。同时进一步的实验也表明了儿童认知资源的有限性和儿童公平认知的发展对儿童在权力情境中资源分配的影响。

研究三通过操纵4-7岁儿童(N=70)的社会权力位置，探究社会权力位置的高低对儿童分享行为的影响以及心理理论的中介作用。结果表明权力减少了幼儿的分享行为，降低了幼儿在心理理论任务中的表现，但是没有发现心理理论在权力与幼儿分享行为之间的中介作用。

总体而言，本研究的结果表明，儿童对高低权力者的信念和态度的发展从学前期不区分权力获得方式到学龄早期区分基于支配和基于声望的权力获得方式转变。儿童在不同权力获得方式情境中对高低权力者的态度受到儿童认知资源有限性和公平认知发展的影响，对高低权力者的信念受到自身心理理论及共情能力发展的影响。同时，高权力减少儿童的分享行为以及儿童在心理理论任务中的表现，但是没有发现心理理论中介权力和分享行为之间的关系。

The social power structure is pervasive in children's social interaction, and the cognition of social power plays an important role in navigating children's behavior in their social interaction with others. There are two ways for power acquisition: the dominance-based strategy (coercive approach to grab power by themselves) and the prestige-based strategy (prosocial approach to acquire power that was granted by ingroup members). In this research, firstly, two studies were conducted to investigate the development of children's beliefs and attitudes towards powerholder and subordinate with age in the two situations of power acquisition to fully reveal children's early cognitive development on social power. And, it has been demonstrated by many studies with an adult sample that power reduces the prosocial behavior, but the influence of power on children's prosocial behavior is still little known. Therefore, this study also examined the influence of social power on children's sharing behavior.

Study 1 examined the development of children's belief about the powerholder and the subordinate. Experiment 1a and experiment 1b examined the behavioral expectations of the 4- to 8-year-old children (N=116) in two different power situations and their influencing factors. Experiment la has found that the development pattern of children's behavioral expectations to powerholder and subordinate changed from non-discrimination of power situations during the preschool period to discrimination of power situations during the early primary school age. That is, preschool children (4-6 years old) expected powerholders were more likely to control resources and held no expectation preference for sharing resources in both situations. However, the early school-age children (7-8 years old) expected powerholders controlling resources and subordinates sharing resources in the dominance-based situation, while expected the powerholder and subordinates were equally likely to control or share resources in the prestige-based situation. The results of experiment 1b showed that children's theory of mind and empathy could predict children's expectation to the behavior of powerholder and subordinates, but the effects of maternal parenting style and family socio-economic status were not found.

Study 2 examined children's attitude to the dominant and subordinate. Three experiments explored the resource allocation preferences of high- and low-powered children in 4-8 years of age (N=315) in dominance-based and prestige-based power situations. Experiment 2a found that with age, the resource allocation of children aged 4-8 years in the power situation changed from favoring the dominant to favoring the subordinate, and the favor difference between these two power situations emerged when children were 6 years old. Specifically, their resource allocation to high and low powers favors higher powers in prestige situations than in dominant situations. Further experiment 2b and experiment 2c have also shown the impacts of children's cognitive resources and the development of children's fair cognition on children's resource allocation in power situations.

Study 3 explored the influence of the position of social power on children's sharing behavior and the mediating role of theory of mind by manipulating the position of social power of children aged 4-7 (N=70). The results showed that power reduced the sharing behavior of young children and reduced the performance of young children in theory of mind tasks, but does not find the mediating role of theory of mind in the relation between the social power and children's sharing behavior.

Overall, this research suggests that the development of children's beliefs and attitudes towards the powerholder and the subordinate changed from the preschool non-discrimination of power situations to the early school-aged distinction of power situation based on dominance or prestige. Children's beliefs towards the powerholder and the subordinate may be influenced by the development of the Theory of Mind and empathy, and their attitudes to the powerholder and the subordinate are influenced by the limited cognitive resources and the development of their fair cognition. Meanwhile, power reduced children's sharing behavior and performance in the Theory of Mind task, and theory of mind did not mediate the relationship between power and children's sharing behavior.