Described are techniques teachers can use to help children learn the language and strategies important to positive peer interaction. These techniques include observation of students, building classroom order from rules formulated by students, teacher intervention to teach alternative ways of solving disputes, and dramatization of problematic…

An extensive literature review of helping behavior revealed research showing that sex differences in helping behavior were probably due to the sex of the person receiving help rather than to that of the person giving help and that volunteers' personality characteristics vary. This study compared differences in self-esteem between males and females…

Discussion focuses on ways in which Dodge's (1986) five-step model of social information processing, which has previously been used in organizing knowledge about the cognitive mediators of aggression among children, can be used to enhance the understanding of prosocial behavior. The model describes cognitive steps thought necessary to children's…

The extent to which television can be used to promote prosocial behavior is examined in this study. A total of 132 boys and girls (age range 8 to 18 years) with behavior problems serious enough to require institutional care participated in the study. The average IQ (WISC) was approximately 88. In the course of a year each of four treatments was…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the methodological problems in using a content analysis of slave folk tales as a source for incidences of prosocial behaviors. Forty tales taken from four collections of black folktales will be included in this study. The categories for scoring prosocial behavior include cooperativeness, altruism,…

Time sampled observations of the cooperative behavior of two samples of 31 preschool children were analyzed for stability (that is, short term reliability of behavior) over a 2-month period using Cronbach's generalizability coefficient. Observations were made during free play periods on nursery school settings. The observation schedule required…

Reports a study exploring the relative effects of three model variables (exhortations, practices and demands) and subjects' sex, on donation behaviors and evaluations of the model by 96 junior high school students. (BD/BR)

This study assessed, under various conditions, prosocial behaviors (sharing, donating) in 8- to 10-year-old emotionally disturbed boys. (SB)

The article discusses skills necessary for the development of friendships by the retarded and others including a positive interaction style, sharing and providing support, and conflict resolution. A coaching procedure is presented as a possible means to foster the acquisition and maintenance of friendship skills. (Author/DB)

Arguing that peace education is constrained by adherence to technical reason, the author underscores the need for peace educators and their students to cultivate "moral imagination." Her view of moral imagination is grounded in an understanding of human intersubjectivity and in the ways in which the poor "read" the world.…

Contrasts the demographic properties--gender, race, and age--of the perpetrators and receivers of antisocial and prosocial acts on prime-time network television. Concludes that antisocial activity has declined and that a White, middle-class male is now most likely to be the perpetrator or recipient. (MM)

Interrelationship of different categories of prosocial behavior different assessment procedures, and role of empathy and perspective taking were examined. Prosocial behavior in preschool children was assessed using three different approaches: naturalistic observation, structured measures, and teacher ratings. Results indicated preschool children…

Tested notion that observed sex differences in children's altruistic reputations that favor girls are due to sex-biased items found in peer-assessment measures. Gender-fair assessment of altruistic reputation was attempted through the use of empirically derived examples of masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral prosocial behaviors. (Author/DST)

Reports a study which compared the play of nine four-year-old girls with baby dolls and with Barbie dolls. Nonfacilitative play behavior was observed much more frequently in the baby doll sessions than in the Barbie sessions. Suggests that Barbie dolls could be used as an alternative doll activity in preschool classrooms. (CB)

Although educators are frequently faced with the challenges of politics, hostility, selfishness, and violence, this book demonstrates that these obstacles can be overcome through vision, teamwork, motivation, empowerment, and communication. By using love as a guiding force in the daily interactions with others, the way one conducts business is…