moral development: lee et al Flashcards
lee et al method?
lab expt, imd (except rmd for story setting)
mix of quasi and true expt
cross-sectional, snapshot, cross-cultural
lee ivs?
ethnicity (canadian/chinese)
age (7, 9, 11)
story type (physical/social)
story setting (pro/anti-social)
lee dvs?
child’s rating of character’s actions and rating of character’s speech
lee sample?
120 children from hangzhou, china
40 for each 7, 9, 11
half m, half f
108 children from fredericton, canada 36 for 7, 40 for 9, 32 for 11 20 m and 16 f for 7 24 m and 16 f for 9 14 m and 18 f for 11
lee stories?
all stories designed to be familiar to both cultures and read to children in their own language and had illustrations
each child heard 4 stories, 2 pro and 2 anti-social, 2 lie, 2 truth-telling
all stories ended with the teacher quizzing the character who did the deed
lee procedure?
half of each ethnic group had social and other half had physical stories
each child was tested individually and used a 7-point rating scale
two orders of delivery randomly determined and half ps had one and half had other
ps asked two questions after story:
is the character good or naughty?
is what the character said to their teacher good or naughty?
child responded on rating scale, verbally or physically
lee results similarities between ethnicities?
little difference in rating of good and bad deeds by canadian and chinese children
for anti-social stories, both voted negatively for lying and positively for truth-telling
lee results differences between ethnicities?
canadian children’s rating for truth-telling remained similar throughout the age groups, but for chinese children, this got decreasingly positive over time
even more dramatic differences for lying in pro-social stories, canadian children rating this negatively becoming slightly more positive with age and chinese children going from slightly negative to positive
this due to chinese children seeing this as begging for the teachers approval and one should not leave their name after doing a good deed
lee conclusions?
moral reasoning can be influenced by the culture/society one lives in
the influence of socio-cultural factors becomes stronger with age
some aspects of moral reasoning such as lying in anti-social situations may be universally seen as bad
lee method evaluation?
use of different nationalities as ivs (quasi nature) adds ecological validity
allowed lee to determine what was culturally determined and what was universal
lee data collected evaluation?
both quantitative and qualitative
converting 7-point ratings allowed for easy comparisons
post-experiment interviews added detail, giving insight into why different rating were given
lee ethicality evaluation?
few ethical issues
however unsure if parents gave informed consent or if children could withdraw
stories were age appropriate and unlikely to distress
lee validity evaluation?
controls extraneous variables through age, gender and urban matching
same easily understood stories read in child’s own language
however stories written in the west so may not have had the same context for the chinese children and translations may not have retained meaning
stories randomly allocated and alternation of use of good and naughty add to controls
however ecological validity is suspect due to stories not being real
lee sampling bias?
samples large and mixed males and females so should be generalisable to their country
however may have problems with rural children
lee link to theme?
link to moral development as shows cultural values have a big impact on moral development, and this influence only grows stronger over time
