The journal article selected for assessment is “Theory of mind and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review.”
The topical area of psychology represented in the journal is about prosocial behavior. The authors argue that children with advanced theory of mind (ToM) are highly likely to act in a prosocial manner.
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The target population of the study was children between the ages of 2 and 12 years old.
The researchers referred to 76 studies that included 6,432 participants to conduct the study. The sample was inclusive of subjects from 12 countries who were from working middle as well as upper-class families. However, a majority of the participants were from middle-class families.
The type of research being conducted could be described as a meta-analysis. This type of research involves the statistical combination of data from different studies. The researchers use this study to identify the common effect that exists in the different study in order to determine the validity of the conclusions in the analyzed studies.
Unlike the traditional approach to the review process, the researchers focused on the quantitative approach that involves the statistical integration of the results. The different constructs being assessed were pulled to obtain the mean, with each of the effects being weighted for the sample size in order to correct the sampling error. In this regard, the researchers used the random effects model than the fixed effects model to generalize the parameter estimates.
Even though the effect is insignificant, the study concludes that ToM is related to prosocial behavior in children between 2 and 12 years.
Reference
Imuta, K., Henry, J., Slaughter, V., Selcuk, B., & Ruffman, T. (2016). Theory of mind and prosocial behavior in childhood: A meta-analytic review. Developmental Psychology , 52 (8), 1192-1205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000140
