Using Moral Identity as a Strategy to Increase Sharing Behaviors in Children
by Ana L. Martinez
Faculty Thesis Advisor: Catharine Echols
Sharing behaviors are actions where individuals sacrifice something valuable, such as time or resources, to benefit someone else. Those sacrifices decrease the likeliness of individuals to engage in sharing behaviors, especially for young children. A number of factors may account for the scarceness of these sharing behaviors in children, such as, age and theory of mind. Theory of mind is an ability that develops through age and helps individuals understand what others might think or believe. The present study will investigate the influence of the two former factors discussed. Also, it will use two moral identity strategies to increase sharing behaviors because moral identity, how important is being a moral person to an individual’s identity, has shown to influence prosocial behaviors in children. I hypothesize that differences in children’s behaviors will be influenced by theory of mind and the moral identity strategies.