Lee's study

Question 1

What is an individualistic culture?

Answer 1

A society which emphasises the individual, their rights, attitudes and needs

Question 2

What is a collectivist culture?

Answer 2

A society which emphasises the group, it’s decisions and needs and the duties of the individual to the group

Question 3

What were the aims of Lee’s study?

Answer 3

To see if Chinese and Canadian children would differ in how they rated truth-telling and lie-telling in prosocial settings and antisocial situations

Question 4

What were the hypotheses of Lee’s study?

Answer 4

Chinese children were predicted to rate truth telling in pro-social situations less positively and lie telling in the same situations less negatively than Canadian children.
Children of both cultures were expected to show similar moral evaluations of lie telling and truth telling related to anti-social behaviours.

Question 5

What area is Lee’s study from?

Answer 5

developmental

Question 6

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 6

A study where the sample is followed over time, revisiting them every so often to collect data from them

Question 7

What is a cross sectional study?

Answer 7

A study where a sample of children of different ages is collected and it is found out what the different age groups are/aren’t capable of

Question 8

What are two weaknesses of cross sectional studies?

Answer 8

Finding participants who are similar enough for it to work is difficult as even small differences can influence the findings.
You need a large number of participants

Question 9

What are four strengths of cross sectional studies?

Answer 9

Usually relatively inexpensive
Allow researchers o collect a great deal of information quite quickly
Can be a useful springboard for future research
can investigate different variables

Question 10

What were the independent variables of Lee’s study?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What was the Chinese sample in Lee’s study like?

Answer 11

20 males and females of each age group from the city of Hangzhou - 120 in total

Question 12

What was the Canadian sample in Lee’s study like?

Answer 12

108 children from New Brunswick, 58 males and 50 females

Question 13

What was the procedure of Lee’s study?

Answer 13

Children were allocated on a random basis to either the physical or social story condition. They were seen individually. Each child listened to all four stories and had to fill out a likert rating scale for each

Question 14

what steps were taken in Lee’s study to ensure the results were as valid as possible?

Answer 14

The children had the rating chart explained to them
There was counterbalancing used
The words good and naughty were alternated in the questions they were asked.

Question 15

What were the conclusions from Lee’s study?

Answer 15

There are differences in moral development between different cultures, which is not due just to cognitive development
Results support lee’s predictions

Question 16

In what way does the study by Lee provide a challenge to Kohlberg’s classic study?

Answer 16

In contradiction to Kohlberg’s study, Lee found that culture does play a significant role in a child’s moral development so future studies need to examine this factor.

Question 17

What were the key quantitative findings from Lee’s study?

Answer 17

70% of Chinese 11 year olds rated lying positively in prosocial stories, compared to just 25% of Chinese 7 year olds.

Question 18

What were the key qualitative findings from Lee’s study?

Answer 18

Interviews done with the children - They were asked they they gave the ratings they did and their responses were recorded. The Chinese children said they rated truth telling as negative in the pro social condition because the child in the story was “begging for” or “wanting” praise they also said “one should not leave one’s name after doing a good deed

Question 19

What were the findings from Lee’s study in regards to story 3 (anti-social behaviour/tell the truth about it)?

Answer 19

No significant difference between the two cultures - both rated truth telling as positive

Question 20

What were the findings from Lee’s study in regards to story 1 (pro-social behaviour/tell the truth about it)?

Answer 20

Children of both cultures rated the pro-social behaviour positively overall. Canadian children gave similar ratings at all ages, but Chinese rated truth telling less positively as they got older.

Question 21

What were the findings from Lee’s study in regards to story 2 (pro-social behaviour/tell a lie about it)?

Answer 21

Canadian children rated this lie telling negatively at all ages
Chinese children rated lie telling negatively at the age of 7 but positively at age 11

Question 22

What were the findings from Lee’s study in regards to story 4 (anti-social behaviour/tell the truth about it)?

Answer 22

Both Chinese and Canadian children rated lie telling negatively
Significant differences between age groups - both cultures got more negative as they got older.

Question 23

Which ethical guidelines did Lee uphold?

Answer 23

Parental consent - fully informed
Debrief
Fully confidential

Question 24

Which ethical guidelines did Lee breach?

Answer 24

Potentially protection from harm - might have been led by the story or the questions
as they were children they might not have been aware that they could withdraw

Question 25

Is Lee’s study ethnocentric?

Answer 25

most definitely - it was only done in two countries

Question 26

What are two examples of similarities between Lee and Kohlberg’s studies?

Answer 26

They both used children of a variety of ages

They both used hypothetical self report stories

Question 27

What are two examples of differences between Lee and Kohlberg’s studies?

Answer 27

They used different cultures and were different lengths

Question 28

How has Lee’s study changed our understanding of moral development?

Answer 28

It reinforced Kohlberg’s idea that morality is developmental over time but also found both Canadian and Chinese children shifted their attitudes to truth telling as they got older - so culture is important

Question 29

How has Lee’s study changed our understanding of individual diversity?

Answer 29

Lee was able to study females and males and explain how both genders, develop morality, based on cultural factors (Kohlberg no females)

Question 30

How has Lee’s study changed our understanding of cultural diversity?

Answer 30

Lee did show that moral development is not purely down to age and progression through moral stages but also due to cultural factors.