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Chapter 3 - Affective social learning

From nature to culture

from Part II - On human development and affective social learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2019

By
Paul L. Harris
Edited by
Daniel Dukes  and
Fabrice Clément
Daniel Dukes
Affiliation:
Université de Fribourg, Switzerland
Fabrice Clément
Affiliation:
Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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Summary

Recent research has shown that children often learn what to believe by attending to the claims of other people. Similarly, they often learn how to act by attending to the actions of other people. Moreover, in each of these two domains, children are selective in their learning – they prefer to endorse and to emulate individuals who, as representatives of the surrounding culture, can serve as good models. I argue that this type of selective social learning also plays a major role in children’s emotional development. Although young children may encounter some situations that have a universal biological significance – for example a steep cliff or a sudden loud noise – the emotional implications of many encounters, especially with artefacts, people and foods, are likely to vary from one culture to another. Children can learn to perceive these encounters through the distinctive emotional lens of their own culture if they attend to and adopt the expressive appraisals of individuals who are representative of their culture. Such appraisals may be conveyed non-verbally, as in the classic social-referencing paradigm, but they can also be conveyed verbally.

Keywords

Affective social learningsocial referencingtestimonyappraisalinformantsimitationverbal report
Type
Chapter
Information
Foundations of Affective Social Learning
Conceptualizing the Social Transmission of Value
 , pp. 69 - 86
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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