Lee

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

How do children view lie telling? Do their views change as they grow older? Are their views about lie-telling affected by their culture or are they universal?

Chinese culture- communist-collective society (collectivist culture) that promotes personal sacrifice for the social good. Requires schools to incorporate promotion of honesty and modesty. Taught to not brag about personal achievements.

Canada (western cultures)- More individualistic culture where lies or deception to avoid embarrassment or hurt are tolerated. Self-promotion is not considered a character flaw.

Question 2

Cross cultural research

Answer 2

Research which investigates psychological concepts in people from different cultures.

Question 3

Aims

Answer 3

To see if Chinese and Canadian children would differ in how they rated truth and lie telling in pro social situations and antisocial situations.

Question 4

Strengths and weaknesses of cross cultural research

Answer 4

Strengths:

• quicker than longitudinal as looking at different ages at the same time.
• less risk of attrition/ low retention rate.

Weaknesses:

• individual differences/ participant variables between age groups
• snapshots of development
• larger sample needed?

Question 5

IV’s

Answer 5

Nationality of child (Chinese or Canadian)
Age of child: 7, 9 or 11
How the character behaved in the story: pro-social or antisocial
What was affected by the behaviour of the child in the story: physical or social

Question 6

Sample

Answer 6

120 Chinese children from the city of Hangzhou (60 females 60 males)
108 Canadian children from the city of Fredericton (58 males 50 females)

Question 7

Procedure and seven point rating chart

Answer 7

Children were allocated on a random basis to either the social story condition or physical story condition.
They were seen individually.
The point rating was explained to them.
When the children had to answer the questions they could use words, symbols or both.
Each child listened to all four social stories or all four physical stories.
The words “good” and “naughty” were alternated each time they were used with each child so the researchers knew the child wasn’t just saying the first option each time.
The researchers also used counterbalancing by randomly allocating stories to one of two orders and then giving about half of the children one order and the rest of the children the other order.

The seven point rating chart was labelled very very good, very good, good, neither, naughty, very naughty, and very very naughty.
Very very good was 3 stars, neither was a circle and very very naughty was 3 crosses.

Question 8

Story one (pro-social behaviour and telling the truth about it)

Answer 8

No significant difference
Canada had consistent ratings over age groups
China viewed truth telling less positively as age increased.

Question 9

Story 2 (pro social behaviour and telling a lie about it)

Answer 9

Canadian children viewed lie telling as negative but less negative as age increased.
Chinese children aged 7 rated the lie negatively but age 11 rated it positively.

Question 10

Story 3 (anti-social behaviour and telling the truth about it)

Answer 10

No significant difference

All rated truth telling in an anti-social situation positive.

Question 11

Story 4 (anti social behaviour and telling a lie about it)

Answer 11

Culture is less important

Negative ratings increase with age in both cultures.

Question 12

Qualitative data

Answer 12

Nearly 1/2 of Chinese children who’d rated truth telling negatively for pro-social behaviour (story 1) as the person is “begging” or “wanting” praise.
Around 1/3 of Chinese children believed the person shouldn’t leave their name when doing a good deed (explains their positive rating for story 2)

Question 13

Conclusion

Answer 13

Moral development differs in different cultures as a result of socio-cultural norms and practices- not just a result of cognitive development.

Question 14

Ethics upheld and broken

Answer 14

Upheld:
Informed consent from parents and schools
Presume they had the right to withdraw (fewer participants in Canadian group)
Stories not upsetting, protection from harm

Broken:
May have been uncomfortable being alone in a room with researcher (particularly for story where child was pushed to the ground).

Question 15

Reliability internal and external

Answer 15

Internal:
Standardised procedure
Same instructions given to all children and each read 4 stories

External reliability:
120-China
108-Canada
Fairly large and suggests consistent effect.

Question 16

Internal (construct) validity (demand characteristics), internal (construct) validity (measuring something else?), external (ecological) validity?

Answer 16

Construct:
Social desirability bias to fit with their cultures expectations.
Demand characteristics- children worked out they were supposed to say the truth is good and lying is bad.

The issue of translating stories into Chinese, the children may not understand. Personality differences affecting moral judgements between groups (participant variables).

Ecological:
They were given scenarios- they weren’t actually living the scenarios.
Realistic situations they’re familiar with so high ecological validity but what they say is right/ wrong may not actually be what they would do in real life.

Question 17

Ethnocentrism

Answer 17

Only carried out in Canada and China
But they compared two very different cultures.
There could be a cultural bias in the stories used, a bias towards Canadian children.

Question 18

Nature/ nurture

Answer 18

Nurture because it’s how children from different cultures differ in moral reasonings.

Question 19

Individual/ situational

Answer 19

Situational because it’s about how the culture effects the child’s moral development.

Question 20

Free will/ determinism

Answer 20

Determinism because morality is determined by where we grew up

Question 21

Reductionism/holism

Answer 21

Holistic because it suggests age and culture both have an impact on our judgments of lying being right or wrong.

Question 22

Area

Answer 22

Developmental

Question 23

How physical stories are different from social stories

Answer 23

Physical: the child carrying out a deed that involved only physical objects e.g. the child picking up all the litter in the school playground and putting it in the bin.
Social: the child carrying out a deed that directly affected another child e.g. a boy went over to another child who he didn’t like and pushed him to the ground and made him cry.