Children's Understanding of Right and Wrong

Question 1

what is the british social attitudes survey evidence of?

Answer 1

how moral reasoning is always changing over time and between cultures

Question 2

morality

Answer 2

framework for how a particular culture and time decide what is right and wrong

Question 3

moral reasoning

Answer 3

process of judgement about whether something is right, good, and deserving of reward

Question 4

what did piaget dispute in the 1930s?

Answer 4

freudian or skinnerian claims of moral reasoning being internalised from surroundings

Question 5

what did piaget find in ‘the moral judgement of the child’ (1932)?

Answer 5

younger children ‘adhered to the letter of the law’ and would not be challenged- they conformed based on consequences of breaking the rules

Question 6

when piaget administered different stories to children, what did he find in younger children (7y)?

Answer 6

they focused on objective responsibility

Question 7

objective responsibility

Answer 7

evaluation in terms of material consequences rather than motive

Question 8

when piaget administered different stories to children, what did he find in older children (9y)?

Answer 8

began to engage in subjective responsibility

Question 9

subjective responsibility

Answer 9

evaluation in terms of motive rather than material consequence

Question 10

moral ________ was replaced with moral ___________

Answer 10

realism, subjectivism

(preoperational stage to concrete operations)

Question 11

when piaget administered different stories to children, what did he find in children by 12y?

Answer 11

entered autonomous morality

Question 12

autonomous morality

Answer 12

recognition that rules can be negotiated, challenged, and discussed

Question 13

what did piaget see moral reasoning as a wider part of?

Answer 13

domain general cognitive development, as children suffer with egocentrism and cannot shift their own perspectives

constructivist moral development- rules appear by adaptation through interactions with others

Question 14

how did parsons (1976) challenge piaget’s research?

Answer 14

when the order was reversed (information about the consequences typically followed the information about intention), evaluations were affected

Question 15

what did parsons’ research show?

Answer 15

order effects can influence children’s decisions regarding reward and punishment

Question 16

what did kohlberg conduct in the mid-20th century?

Answer 16

several large-scale studies to build on piaget’s theory, but go more in-depth on moral reasonings of right and wrong

Question 17

what did kohlberg agree with?

Answer 17

constructivist theory: people are not born with an ability to reason about problems, instead this is built through understandings of moral code and behaviours from interactions

Question 18

what did kohlberg believe in?

Answer 18

the stage theory of moral development as an invariant, universal approach

Question 19

how did kohlberg conduct longitudinal and cross-sectional studies?

Answer 19

by researching moral dilemmas to present conflict between rules and happiness, e.g., the heinz dilemma

Question 20

what did kohlberg find?

Answer 20

explanations of answers revealed developmental trends, which fell into different categories
- preconventional reasoning
- conventional reasoning
- postconventional reasoning

Question 21

preconventional reasoning

Answer 21

avoiding punishment by deferring to power and satisfying own needs

Question 22

conventional reasoning

Answer 22

following rules and fixed social order, as good behaviour is something that pleases others

Question 23

postconventional reasoning

Answer 23

engaging in abstract complex reasoning that challenges and negotiates laws as things that may be good or bad

Question 24

how did these answers occur in a developmental sequence?

Answer 24

younger children provided preconventional answers and middle childhood reaches conventional reasoning

in recognising ambiguity, adolescent teens and adults reaches postconventional reasoning

Question 25

how does kohlberg’s work fit with piaget’s underlying cognitive changes?

Answer 25

preconventional (4-7y) aligns with preoperational

conventional (7-12y) aligns with concrete operations

postconventional (12y+) aligns with formal operations

Question 26

what do kohlberg’s stages show?

Answer 26

an interactionist view of moral development (they are sequential, fixed in order, and universal)

Question 27

longitudinal evidence to support kohlberg’s theory

Answer 27

94% of participants adhered to this stage sequence- showing relative stability within adult moral reasoning

Question 28

how are early social experiences linked to moral development?

Answer 28

morality can be internalised by parental strategies where explanations are provided rather than punishments

this should lead to higher advanced moral reasoning

Question 29

hamlin & warneken’s account of moral reasoning

Answer 29

believe moral reasoning is based on innate tendencies to help and interact socially

argue this innate ‘moral sense’ guides moral development

Question 30

dahl & brownell’s account of moral reasoning

Answer 30

morality is learned through social interactions with others, but there are predispositions to these learnings

Question 31

what do nativist accounts of moral reasoning argue?

Answer 31

infants have an innate ‘moral sense’ as they make basic evaluations about helping behaviour, and exhibit these helping behaviours early in life

Question 32

moral sense

Answer 32

making moral evaluations about certain actions and individuals as good, right, and deserving of reward

Question 33

hamlin (2007)

Answer 33

all 6-month-olds and the majority of 10-month-olds chose the helper toy over the hinderer, but there are research concerns over whether this is a genuine moral evaluation

Question 34

what is evidence unclear towards?

Answer 34

whether infant preference to helpers reflects simple association, rather than social evaluation

Question 35

lee et al (1997)

Answer 35

wanted to compare how lying and truth telling are regarded in pro- and anti- social situations across different cultures

found that chinese children rated lying more positively in prosocial situations, suggesting a close relationship between sociocultural practice and moral judgement

Question 36

what did eisenberg (2015) believe that?

Answer 36

prosocial behaviour in early childhood was voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another person

Question 37

what did warneken & tomasello (2009) find?

Answer 37

prosocial behaviours emerged in preverbal infants and toddlers, and these behaviours occured in the absence of encouragement

they argue that a desire to help people is an innate behaviour, and that moral development is not trained

Question 38

what did knafo’s twin studies in 2006-2018 find?

Answer 38

a strong genetic influence (heritability) which increases as children get older

Question 39

split between nativist views

Answer 39

• natural tendency
• social-interactionist view

Question 40

natural tendency

Answer 40

tendency to help evolved due to fitness value. infants do not require praise or encouragement to hep- felix warneken.

Question 41

social-interactionist view

Answer 41

predispositions to help (socialisation) may be present at birth, but social experiences contribute to emergence of helping.

encouragement and praise are replaced with implicit encouragement as praise becomes internalised by the child- dahl & brownell

Question 42

what are two strong challenges to nativist accounts of moral development?

Answer 42

toddlers may perceive ‘helping’ as interacting- this behaviour could also be interpreted as enjoyment of interacting with adults, and reading cues about whether these interactions are welcome

carpendale and hammond (2016) recognise that helping is not always morally good- morality can depend on cultural attitudes

Question 43

what is it impossible for research to be sure?

Answer 43

that adult-eyes do not misinterpret children’s behaviour