Developmental: Lee Flashcards
Why were Chinese children chosen in specific for Lee’s study?
Because they come from a communist-collectivist country which encourages communitarianism and are encourage to report misdeeds and also avoid self-aggrandisement
Why were Canadian children chosen for Lee’s study?
Because they come from an individualistic society whereby self promotion is not considered a character flaw
What is an individualistic culture?
Societies that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group as a whole
What is a collectivist culture?
Societies that emphasise where the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and wishes of the individual
What is cross-cultural research?
Psychologists attempting to look at both universal behaviours and the unique behaviours to identify the ways in which culture impacts our behaviour
What was the aim of the study?
To see if Chinese and Canadian children would differ in how they rated truth telling and lie telling in pro social settings and in anti social settings
What is a pro social setting?
Where someone has done something good
What is an anti social setting?
Where someone has done something bad
How were the Chinese children predicted to rate the truth telling in pro social situations?
Less positively than the Canadian children
How were the Chinese children predicted to rate the lie telling in pro social situations?
Less negatively than the Canadian children
How were the Canadian and Chinese children predicted to rate truth telling in the anti social situations?
Both cultures were expected to show similar moral evaluations of lie telling and truth telling
How many stories were the children presented with?
4
What were the 4 types of story?
Pro-social behaviour then truth telling
Pro-social behaviour then lie telling
Anti-social behaviour then truth telling
Anti-social behaviour and then lie telling
What were the two types of story condition?
Physical or social
What did the social stories depict?
A child conducting a deed directly affecting another child
How were the children split in terms of the physical/social stories?
in half
What did the physical stories depict?
A child carrying out a deed involving only physical objects which later had social impications
What is a cross sectional study?
Collect together a sample of participants of different ages and see what the different age groups are/aren’t capable of
What are 2 advantages of cross sectional studies?
Quicker than longitudinal studies as can access a variety of ages at the same time
Less risk of participant attrition
What are 2 disadvantages of cross sectional studies?
Individual differences between P’s at different ages
Only get a snapshot and cannot analyse development or changes over time (within individuals)
How many IV’s were there in Lee’s study?
4
How was nationality of the child an IV?
As they were Chinese or Canadian
How was age an IV?
The children were either 7, 9 or 11 years old
What was the IV involving how the character behaved in the story?
Pro social or anti social
What was the IV in terms of what was affected by the child’s behaviour?
Social or physical
For the Chinese sample, how many male and female children were there for each age group?
20m and 20f
For the Chinese sample, how many males and females were used in total?
60m and 60f
In the Canadian sample how many males and females were in the aged 7 group?
20m and 16f
In the Canadian sample, how many males and females were there in the aged 9 group?
24m and 16f
In the Canadian sample how many males and females were there in the aged 11 group?
14m and 18f
What was the overall total of Chinese children?
120 children
What was the overall total of the Canadian children?
108 children
How were children allocated to the social or physical story condition?
On a random basis
How were the children seen?
Individually
What was explained first of all during the procedure?
The rating scale
When the children had to answer the questions, what could they use to answer the questions?
Words, symbols or sometimes both
How many stories did each child listen to and of what kind?
The child either listened to 4 social stories or 4 physical stories
How did Lee control that the children weren’t just saying the first answer option each time?
By alternating the meaning of good and naughty
How did the researchers in Lee’s study counterbalance?
By randomly allocating stores to one of two orders so half the children had one order and the other half had the other order
What scale did Lee use for the study?
From -3 to 3 where 3 was very very good and -3 was very very naughty
Summarise what the pro-social - truth telling section was testing
Whether it was good or bad to tell the truth about doing something good
Summarise what the pro-social - lie telling section was testing
Whether is was good or bad to tell a lie about doing something good
Summarise what the anti-social - truth telling section was testing
Whether is was good or bad to tell the truth about doing something bad
Summarise what the anti-social - lie telling section was testing
Whether it was good or bad to lie about doing something bad
What were the results from story one (pro social truth telling) in terms of how the children rated the pro social behaviours?
There were no significant differences in how the children rated these behaviours
What were the results from story one (pro social truth telling) in terms of how consistent the cultures were across age in their ratings?
Canadian children were consistent across their ratings at each age
Chinese children rated truth telling less positively as age increased
What were the results from story two (pro social lie telling) in terms of Canadian children?
They rated lie telling negatively although this became less negative with age
What were the results from story two (pro social lie telling) in terms of the Chinese children?
At aged 7 they rated lie telling negatively by at age 11 they rated lie telling positively
What were the results from story three (anti social truth telling)?
There were no significant differences - both cultures rated this positively
What variable did Lee find was less important when it came to the results from story four (anti social lie telling)?
Culture was less important as age differences were found among the children
What were the results in terms of age from story four (anti social lie telling)?
Negative ratings increased with age in both cultures
Describe how the older Chinese and older Canadian children were different in terms of rating pro social truth telling
Older Chinese children rated pro social truth telling less positively than the older Canadian children
Describe how the Chinese and Canadian children differed in terms of rating pro social lie telling
Canadian children were slightly negative in their ratings compared to Chinese children who were positive in their ratings
How did children from both cultures rate anti social lie telling?
Both rated this negatively
How did children from both cultures rate anti social truth telling?
Both rated this positively
How did 1/2 of the Chinese children justify their reasons for rating pro social truth telling negatively?
They said it was because the child was ‘begging for’ or ‘wanting’ praise
What reasons did a 1/3 of the Chinese children give for rating the pro social lie telling as positive?
Because you shouldn’t tell your teacher or leave your home after doing a good deed
What does Lee’s study suggest about moral development in relation to socio-cultural practices?
That moral development is different in different cultures as a result of socio-cultural norms and practices and not only as a result of cognitive development
Which ethical guidelines did Lee uphold?
Consent, withdrawal and confidentiality
How might we argue that Lee upheld withdrawal?
The unequal numbers in the Canadian sample maybe possible evidence for withdrawn children?
Which ethical guidelines did Lee break?
Slight emotional harm may have been cause if the story upset the child and there was minor deception
Was the procedure standardised and replicable? (internal reliability)
Yes, all 8 stories were standardised and could be repeated
Was the sample large enough to suggest a consistent effect? (external reliability)
Yes, large sample size allowed for consistent effects to be shown across age, culture and story type
How far was there a risk of demand characteristics? (construct validity)
Unlikely that the children would guess the purpose of the experiment and what Lee was trying to find from the results
Could the researchers have been measuring something other than moral development? (construct validity)
How comfortable the children were with the researcher or familiarity with rating scales
Did the stories presented to the children resemble real life? (ecological validity)
Whilst they are potentially everyday activities, what a child says they would do may be different to what they would actually do
In what ways could Lee’s study be argued to be ethnocentric?
Because Canada cannot represent all individualistic cultures and China cannot represent all collectivist cultures
