The role of spontaneous interpersonal synchrony on helping behavior at 14 months old
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2019
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Abstract
In recent years, interest has grown in examining the prosocial effects of interpersonal synchrony in infants. Studies in this field reveal that, after a period of nonspontaneous synchronization, infants' helping behaviors improve. However, the consequences of spontaneous interpersonal synchrony have been little studied. The present thesis aimed to study the effects of spontaneous interpersonal synchrony on infant helpfulness and to compare it with nonspontaneous interpersonal synchrony. In the experiment, 84 14-month-old infants (43 boys) were randomly assigned to one of four independent groups: (1) a nonspontaneous musical interactional context, (2) a nonspontaneous and nonmusical interactional context, (3) a spontaneous musical interactional context, and (4) a spontaneous and nonmusical interactional context. In the nonspontaneous synchrony condition, infants were held by an assistant who bounced them in synchrony to the experimenter with or without music. In the spontaneous synchrony condition, infants participated in a naturalistic singing or storytime session with the experimenter in which their movements were not restricted. Afterward, we measured the infants' prosocial behaviors towards the experimenter by using Warneken and Tomasello tasks. The results show a higher degree of simultaneous synchrony in the nonspontaneous condition. Despite this finding, we found that infants were more likely to help the unknown adult after having participated in the singing and storytime sessions, compared to infants who were bounced in synchrony with the adult with or without music. The evidence presented suggests that qualities inherent to distinct forms of synchrony generate different prosocial consequences. The thesis shows that the combined study of spontaneous and nonspontaneous synchrony can afford a promising avenue for understanding the complexity of synchronous phenomena.
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Tesis (Doctor en Psicología)--Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2019