Lee et al Flashcards
Background of Lee
Piaget though young children didn’t consider the motives of characters in the stories when making moral judgments (differences between good lie+bad lie)
Kolberg = ethnocentric as applied american cultures to other cultures
Aim of Lee
to investigate the cross-cultural differences in children’s moral judgments of lying by looking at chinese + canadian children
Research method of Lee
Quasi experiment
Didn’t manipulate IV - who Chinese children were and who Canadian children were
Cross-sectional study
different ages compared at one point in time to see how age affects moral judgments
Experimental design of Lee
Independent measures design
= two groups - chinese and canadian children divided into 3 age groups
Sample of Lee
120 m+f chinese children aged 7, 9 or 11 from medium sized city
108 m+f candaian children aged 7, 9 or 11 from smaller city
China = children taught consider wider community above individual needs (collectivist)
Canada - western culture which emphasis individual needs and competition (individualist)
Procedure of Lee
Each child randomly assigned to read 4 physical or 4 social stories
Physical = involved physical objects
Social = involved actions of main child character affecting other people.
Also had either prosocial or antisocial stories
Prosocial - child intentionally carrying out good deed
Antisocial- child intentionally carrying out a bad deed. At end child character lied and in others they told the truth
Children asked to decide whether the character in stories had been good or naughty on a 7-point rating chart + whether what the character said was good or bad
Stories presented in randomised order and researchers alternated words ‘good’ and ‘naughty’ in questions
Each child was involved in post-experimental discussion about why they made their decisions
Variables in Lee
IV - whether the participant heard social story or physical story
- whether participant heard prosocial or antisocial stories
conditions
+ prosocial / truth-telling stories
+ prosocial / lie-telling stories
- antisocial / truth-telling stories
- antisocial / lie-telling stories
DV - rating on 7 point scale of goof or naughty
- verbal statement of rating given to what character said
Results of Lee
Both Canadian + Chinese children viewed lying after a bad deed as negative but Chinese children more likely to rate lying after a good deed as positive
70% Chinese 11yr olds rated lying +vly in prosocial stories, compared to 25% of 7yr olds
Conclusions of Lee
Social + cultural norms affect children’s moral judgments
Chinese rate truth telling in prosocial situations less positively due to Chinese cultural value of modesty
Both Chinese + Canadian children show similar moral evaluation of lie+truth telling related to antisocial behaviuors
Generalisability of Lee
Males + females
Ethnocentrism minimised by conducting cross-cultural study
Children from china not representitive of all collectivist cultures
Children from canada not representitve of all individualist cultures
Reliability of Lee
Standardised procedure
=children given same 7-point rating scale + asked how good/naught they though characters were
= all children given same instructions + four stories
Applications of Lee
shows how cultural values can affect children’s moral judgements
suggests children can understand difference between good+bad deeds. suggest child witnesses can be used in court
Validity of Lee
Lacks ecological validity
= make moral judgments about character in story than in real life
High Internal validity
= researchers randomised the order in which children were given stories,
=matched age + gender,
=randomly allocated participants to groups
Ethics of Lee
Stories were age appropriate so no ethical issues
informed consent needed from parents + assent from children
Evaluate type of data in Lee
Quantitive data = 7 point scale
Qualititive data = verbal comments on if character was good or naughty
+ quantitve data allowed easy comparison of chinese vs candaian judjements
+ qualititve informed lee’s conclusions about underlying reason for differences in rating of lying in prosocial situations
Individual, Social, Cultural Diversity in Lee
INDIVIDUAL - foucused more on how culture affects moral development
SOCIAL - studies boys+girls + founf similarities in moral development so improves understanding of moral development in females
CULTURAL - showed moral development is due to cultural factors that affect whether lies should be told. Chinese more likely to think lying is positive in prosocial stories due to modesty values
Lee relates to Developmetal Area
developmental area looks at how people change and develop over time
looked at how children’s moral judgments changed with age. Compared 7,9,11 yr olds in terms of moral judgments to lying+truth telling in prosocial + antisocial situations
Lee improve understanding of key theme :moral development
Cross-cultural study shows how children’s moral judgments are different in Chinese + Canadian culture. Chinese children more likely to think lying in prosocial situations was good as they believe in modestly
suggests judgments isn’t just downt to age and progression through moral stages but are also affected by cross cultural
