Some effects of nurturance modeling on affectionate behavior in young children

Some determinants of affectionate behavior in young, children were explored in two experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that children who imitated a male model who was nurturant toward a toy teddy bear were nurturant in kind in a subsequent free-play testing period. Experiment 2 replicated the above finding and demonstrated that mere participation without imitation of nurturance and imitation of neutral physical contact was not effective in inducing affectionate behavior.