Cooperation and Social Reasoning in Children
Jan Engelmann, Professor
Psychology
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
We address questions about the evolution and development of socio-cognitive skills by comparing humans to other animals (mostly chimpanzees, our closest living relatives) and by studying how children develop.
How do children reason? How strongly is reasoning embedded in social, cognitive processes? The goal of this project is to investigate how children’s tendencies for reasoning and cooperation inform one another. We aim to understand how the interplay of these processes develops and how these behaviors differ from non-human primates. The subset of ongoing developmental studies involved in this project focus on children's reasoning, beliefs, and interactions with others.
Research assistants will be hired to work on one of these studies and may additionally help with the comparative research. Please visit our website for recent publications and more information on our work.
Role: Research assistants will be involved in data collection, coding video data, and assisting with administrative tasks. Students should expect to be heavily involved in multiple aspects of the research projects and gain a well-rounded understanding of the research process.
Qualifications: Students must be reliable, dedicated, and have strong communication skills.
Students are expected to be able to work independently to meet project deadlines.
Must have a desire to work with children and be comfortable interacting with children (previous experience with children a plus)
Must be able to travel to research sites (schools, parks, museums).
Weekend work is often required.
Required time commitment is approximately 9hrs/wk for at least two semesters.
Previous research experience beneficial but not required.
When applying, please specify if you are interested in comparative research (primate-focused), developmental research (child-focused), or both. Any questions may directed to socialoriginsmanager@berkeley.edu.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Harriet Caplin, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Related website: https://socialoriginslab.com
Education, Cognition & Psychology Social Sciences