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Research On The Development Of Cooperative Concept And Behavior Of Children In The Primary School

Posted on:2012-06-25Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:L Y CuiFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117330332467296Subject:Development and educational psychology
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Cooperation was a complex interaction which played an important role in the development of child socialization. Cooperation needed two or more independent bodies and the motivation to force them together. The study on cooperative behavior could retrospect to the late 19th century. Previous studies focused on adult cooperation mechanism through the experimental model of social dilemmas, or focused on the development of child cooperative behavior through the games and activities observation. The present research would not only describe the development state and level of cooperation of children who were studying in primary school, but also explore the effect of three factors such as cognitive factors, personality factors and situational factors on the cooperative behavior.The whole dissertation included three parts.In the first part of the dissertation, a review on the definition, theories, research methods, and the research outcome of the adult and child's cooperative behavior were presented. Based on these analyses, the theory hypothesis and the research assumption were brought forward.The second part consists of a series of studies, which focused on the mechanism s of the development of children's cooperative concepts, personality traits of children who were good at cooperation with peers, and behavioral strategy models used in the different complexion. The first four studies involved about the difference on the cooperative concepts of children from 8 to 14 years old, we hoped to learn about the developmental changes in these concepts. The next three studies explored to compare the personality traits, social traits and conflict solving strategies between the cooperative children and non-cooperative children so that we could reveal the internal mechanism which influenced on the child's cooperative level. The last three studies compared the cooperative behaviors of children in different grades in the intergroup competition and non-competitive complexion. The details were showed as following:In study 1, Sentences completion test was used to explore the definition of cooperation of children in different grades. The result indicated:the concepts on cooperation of older child were more complex than younger child, and were changed from a focus on single-component such as behavior or emotional relationships to integration and balance on the means, relationships and objectives components.In study 2, the importance order was assessed to explore the views of children in different grades on the conditions of individual and group which could foster successful cooperation. The result indicated:The most important traits of cooperative children were brave, good listener, respect for others, unselfishness. The most important characters of good cooperative group were helping each other, intimacy, self-effacing, division of labor and the same objective. But the importance of factors was significantly different between the order children and younger children.The goal in study 3 was to investigate the attribution to the peer's cooperation and noncooperation. The result indicated:in the senior grades, children tended to explain others cooperative decision with the relationship factors, and tend to explain noncooperation with the task factors.The goal in study 4 was to investigate the general attitude to the cooperative behavior of children in different grades. The result indicated:there were lots of different views between the different schools, gender and age of children.Study 5 focused on the difference between the cooperative and non-cooperative children on the achievement motivation, interpersonal trust, perspective taking and self-esteem. The result indicated:the cooperative children in grade 3 had stronger achievement motivation and self-capacity than non-cooperative children. The cooperative children in grade 4 had higher level of perspective taking than non-cooperative children. The cooperative children in grade 5 had a higher level of perspective taking and a lower level of interpersonal trust than non-cooperative children.Study 6 explored the difference between the children of higher and lower levels of cooperation on the leadership, communication skills, sense of belonging and other social characteristics evaluated by self and deskmate. The result indicated that children of all grades scored higher in all traits of cooperative children, but only children in grade 3 scored higher in friendliness, intercourse skills and initiative.Study 7 explored the difference between the cooperative children and non-cooperative children in the conflict solving strategy. The result indicated that children in different grades prefer to use different strategies in conflict things.Study 8 was designed to explore developmental changes in the influence of social situation pressure and compare the children's interaction in the small group with experiment method. Children played a game with other three peers under the intergroup competition and non-competition instructions. The research observed the developmental differences in the competitive influence on junior and senior primary school children.The goal in study 9 was to compare the influence of intergroup competition outcome on children in different grades. The result indicated that the influence was different between the junior and senior children. The winner in junior grade only increased their evaluation to the group cooperative level.Study 10 explored the cooperation styles presented in the group cooperation experiment through analyzing the interaction model in the group member. The result indicated there were six styles in the group activities:complain group, part cooperation group, friendly leader group, individual group, forced leader group and confusion group which were different in the leadership, self-orientation and relations hip dimension.The third part of the dissertation was a general discussion of the whole research.Based on the results of this research and others, the author demonstrated the mechanisms of cognition, personality and situation on the development of children's cooperative behaviors and concepts. At last, the author analyzed the value and problem of this research and pointed out the future direction of such research.
Keywords/Search Tags:cooperation, cooperative cognition, development, intergroup competition, interaction model, cooperative style
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