Mini Communication Assignment PSYC 217 006 1. Typed "Giving leads to happiness in young children" in Google -> Clicked on the NCBI link -> Clicked on "Free PMC Article" -> Clicked on PDF version and downloaded for free 2. APA Citation: Aknin, L. B., Hamlin, J. K., & Dunn, E. W. (2012). Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children. PLoS ONE, 7(6), e39211. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039211 3. · Aknin, Lara B .; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University (Vancouver) · Hamlin, Kiley; Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia (Vancouver) · Dunn, Elizabeth W .; Professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia (Vancouver) 4. There are two studies in this article: the Preliminary Study and the Main Study. The preliminary study was a warm-up phase for the focal study, where infants either participated in giving interaction or non- giving interaction. The main study is the actual testing phase, which investigated the infants' responses when they participated in giving behaviours (giving treat to each puppet) 5. I chose this article because it sheds light on a broader, more important question: Why do people performing giving behaviour even to people they are not close with? Specifically, I am focusing on the main study of the article, where 20 toddlers were placed in an experimental situation to share treats with puppets. I decided to focus on the main study because it has a higher internal validity. The children in the preliminary study were assigned to different conditions based solely on their age. Since the children were not randomly assigned, it will be difficult for the researcher to use the findings from the study to
generalize to a larger population. Results from the main study suggest that giving is emotionally rewarding in young children; Toddlers who shared treats with puppets displayed greater happiness. 6. It is an experimental design because the researcher is testing the hypothesis that giving behaviours is emotionally rewarding in young children by reaching valid conclusions about relationships between the independent and dependent variable. 7. The focal study is an experimental design. The independent variable is the three puppets that were presented to the children. In terms of operational definition, there is only one level of the independent variable. The dependent variable is the children's response when asked to give a treat to each puppet from the bowl of additional treats. The authors operationally defined the dependent variable by whether the children hesitated in giving the treats or not. When the 8. The most important finding from the focal study is that compared to receiving the treats themselves, children were happier when they gave treats to the toddlers. 9. A take-home message to be learned from the research is that toddlers found that personal sacrifice involved in prosocial behaviour emotionally rewarding. The difference in happiness suggests that children are able to distinguish between costly and non-costly giving. The results suggests that emotional benefits from costly giving support such behaviour despite costs. This study may help answer why people