title: [The effects of role playing on prosocial behavior in preschool children].
abstract: The purpose was to examine the effects of two types of role-playing experience on prosocial behavior in preschool children. Subjects were 72 6-year-olds. In the Empathy role-playing (E), each pair of children enacted alternately a victim and an eyewitness using a glove puppet, in which the emphasis was only on empathizing with the victim. In the Empathy and Helping role-playing (EH), they enacted alternately a victim and a helper, in which the emphasis was on empathizing and helping a victim. In the Control role-playing (C), they played roles alternately of a customer and a salesman in a grocery store. All children were assessed as for helping and sharing behaviors for a real victim before and after the role playing session. In the comparison between pre- and post-tests for helping behavior. All groups (C, E, EH) increased helping tendency, but only in EH group the proportion of subjects, whose attitude changed from helper to non-helper. As for sharing behavior, all three groups increased the number of sharing significantly in the post-test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Psychology, Hiroshima University.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hamazaki
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012381:Role Playing; D012919:Social Behavior