About this session

Thursday, 11:50 AM - 1:20 PM

Early Concepts of Protection

Given their physical vulnerability and imperfect knowledge of the world, children are in particular need of protection. Thus, there is substantial pressure for children to develop an understanding of protection, including who will provide it and what affordances it offers, as well as an appreciation of protective social partners. However, central aspects of protection present challenges for children: Protection can involve actions that, at first blush, do not appear prosocial, such as hindering dangerous behaviors or taking away unsafe objects. Protection can also be implied by the mere presence of a caregiver, even in the absence of any overt behavior. The three abstracts in this symposium investigate young children’s ability to reason about these complex and abstract aspects of protection.

Paper 1 investigates whether children expect parents to incur greater costs to provide care, as well as if parents are more likely to enact protection. Paper 2 examines children’s moral evaluations of parental helping and hindering in the context of safe vs. dangerous goals. Paper 3 explores whether children understand that parental presence and protection confers the opportunity to explore new, risky experiences.

These three papers, each presented by an early career researcher, provide groundbreaking evidence that expectations about the sources and utility of protection, as well as praise for those who provide it, emerge by early childhood. Our discussant, an expert on children’s sociomoral reasoning, will cover implications, limitations, and future directions for the early emergence of concepts of protection.

Paper #1
Title	5- to 8-year-olds Expect Parents to Protect Children from Harm
Presenting author	Brandon Carrillo, Department of Psychology, Yale University, United States

Paper #2
Title	The Origins of Moral Evaluations of Protection
Presenting author	Mr. Rodney Tompkins, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, United States

Paper #3
Title	Caregiver Presence Promotes Judgments of Exploration
Presenting author	Annya Dahmani, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Rodney Tompkins, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, United States

Discussant
Dr. Julia Marshall, Ph.D., Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, United States

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