Effects of transgressor, damage, and type of presentation on kindergarten children's moral judgments.

Assessed the role of cognitive conflict (damage vs respect for adults) in 64 kindergartners' moral judgments, using both verbal and videotape presentation techniques. In contrast to a previous study by C. Peterson et al (1974), the present Ss' moral judgments were not affected by the age of the transgressor. Ss in the videotape condition based their judgments on intention, while Ss in the verbal condition based their judgments on damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Separable effects of motives, consequences, and presentation order on children's moral judgments.

Examined the effects of the order of presentation of motive and consequence information on the moral judgments of 96 kindergarten, 2nd-, and 5th-grade children. Information type (motives vs consequences) was varied factorially with presentation position (1st vs 2nd), allowing application of recent models of source credibility. Recency effects were obtained at all 3 ages. Since Ss were required to repeat each story prior to judgment, verbatim memory is unlikely to be the sole cause of recency. Results also showed a developmental shift in the weights of motives and consequences. For 5th graders, evidence suggested that the weight of motives was larger than the weight of consequences, whereas for kindergartners the weight of consequences was larger than the weight of motives. These conclusions do not depend on the assumption that the scale values are developmentally static, a necessary assumption in previous research. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschool children's conceptions of transgressions: Effects of varying moral and conventional domain-related attributes.

57 38–76 mo old Ss enrolled in preschool and/or day care centers were assigned to either 6 story-stimulus conditions or to a word-evaluation condition. Ss in the 6 story-stimulus conditions either heard stories describing familiar moral or conventional transgressions or stories varying in the consistency of prohibitions regarding actions and responses to events. Some events were unspecified. Ss were asked to justify the events' wrongness and make a series of judgments on criteria previously found to be associated with the domains. Ss' judgments and justifications were reassessed 1 wk later. Results show that Ss differentiated between familiar moral and social-conventional transgressions and that they treated stories having attributes associated with each domain like prototypical moral or conventional transgressions. The presence or absence of information regarding event-unspecified consequences of actions differentiated criterion judgments. Responses to the word-evaluation condition (in which Ss' judgments were assessed in the absence of stories) revealed no response biases to the questions. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's reactions to apologies.

In 2 experiments, 221 kindergartners and 1st, 4th, and 7th graders judged actors who committed a transgression under conditions of low or high responsibility and low or high consequences. The actor's motives were good or bad and the act was intended or accidental. The actor then either did nothing or employed 1 of 3 increasingly elaborate apologies. As hypothesized, the actor's predicament was most severe, producing the harshest judgments when (a) the actor had high responsibility for committing an inadvertent act that produced high consequences, and (b) the act was the result of a bad rather than good motive or was intended rather than accidental. More elaborate apologies produced less blame and punishment and more forgiveness, liking, positive evaluations, and attributions of greater remorse. The judgments of the 7th graders were more affected by the actor's apology than those of the younger Ss. These age differences reflect the younger Ss' poorer ability to integrate social information and appreciate the implications of social conventions. However, the younger Ss' judgments were similar to those of older Ss. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of adult prohibition style on moral judgments of children.

Examined the effects of act- and outcome-oriented adult prohibitions on the moral judgments of 7- and 9-yr-old children. Moral dilemmas portraying children in hospital settings were presented to 32 Ss aged 6.0–9.11 yrs. The stimulus presentation contained an audiotaped adult prohibition directed at the portrayed target children: one prohibition condition (act oriented) emphasized a desired action, while the other (outcome oriented) emphasized a desired outcome. In line with predictions, the direction of moral judgments made by 7-yr-olds was influenced by the nature of the antecedent adult prohibition, with intentional judgments made under the act-oriented condition and consequential judgments under the outcome-oriented condition. Nine-yr-olds gave intentional judgments in both conditions. The results provide some support for a cognitive-developmental view of child discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A measure of moral values.

Presents a measure of moral values which seems to have acceptable conceptual and psychometric properties, and evidence concerning the personological correlates of mature moral judgment. Using a brief, semiprojective task, moral judgments were elicited from 3 differing groups of male undergraduates (n = 92) which could be reliably (r = .88) scored for maturity of moral judgment. Additional data from 71 Ss indicates that Ss whose moral judgments were rated as mature tended to be sensitive to injustice, well socialized, empathic, and autonomous, and based their judgments on an intuitive understanding of morality. Those whose judgments were rated as immature tended to be insensitive to injustice, less socialized, nonempathic, and conforming, and their moral reasoning had a rational as opposed to an intuitive flavor. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in information integration during moral judgment.

Tested an ethical ideologies model based on relativism and idealism. 64 undergraduates judged the morality of an individual who produced a mildly or extremely positive or negative consequence by conforming to or violating a common moral norm. As predicted, an averaging model with differential weights accounted for situationists' (high relativism and idealism) and absolutists' (low relativism and high idealism) judgments; conformity to norms was discounted when the consequence was extremely negative or positive. In contrast, subjectivists' (high relativism and low idealism) judgments conformed to an averaging model; a mildly positive consequence lowered moral judgments of conforming actions, whereas a mildly negative consequence tended to raise moral judgments of nonconforming actions. Exceptionists' (low relativism and idealism) judgments were influenced equally by conformity and consequence. These Ss generally combined data in a strictly linear, additive fashion. The more positive the consequence or the greater the conformity of the action to a moral norm, the more positive was the moral judgment. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observational learning of quantity conservation and Piagetian generalization tasks.

20 1st graders who had scored 9 or less on a pretest of 8 Piagetian criterion tasks were divided into control and experimental groups. Experimental Ss underwent an observational learning phase in which a model correctly performed the 1st task used in the pretest, giving correct conservation judgments supported by justifications alternately based on identity, compensation, or reversibility considerations. All Ss were given the same 8 Piagetian tasks used in the pretest on immediate, 1-wk, and 3-mo delayed posttests. The experimental group generalized conservation to several tasks. One category of Ss behaved as rote learners and maintained conservation only for tasks closely similar to the modeled task and on immediate and 1-wk delayed posttest; a 2nd group of genuine conservers progressively generalized the conservation rule to more difficult tasks. The control group remained nonconserving throughout. Results are explained with reference to the Piagetian concept of sequential equilibration. The social experience of observation appeared to activate a cognitive restructuring of the Ss' mental operations. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral judgments, behaviour and cognitive style in young children.

Assessed level of moral maturity in 2 studies with middle-class 6-7 yr olds (n = 29), middle-class 3-4 yr olds (n = 35), and lower-class 3-4 yr olds (n = 37). For the older Ss, stories were used to elicit judgments about relative goodness or badness. Level of moral maturity was scored on the basis of S's awareness of the intentions of the actor as opposed to his reliance on consequences. For the younger Ss, a group of films depicting similar situations were shown. All Ss were then given a battery of tests (e.g., the Children's Embedded Figures Test) measuring cognitive style and rated by their teachers on behavior and personality items. In 6 yr olds, level of moral maturity was found to relate to the cognitive styles of reflection-impulsivity and field dependence-independence, but not to verbal intelligence. Ss characterized as immature in their moral judgments were more impulsive and field-dependent. Ss with higher-level moral judgments were also rated by their teachers as more attentive and reflective. In preschool samples, Ss highest on moral maturity were rated as less aggressive by their teachers, least impulsive in cognitive style and in the lower-class sample, more field-independent. (French summary) (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of experimenter modeling, demands for honesty, and initial level of suggestibility on response to "hypnotic" suggestions.

Pretested 180 college students on behavioral (objective) and experiential (subjective) responses to the test suggestions of the Barber Suggestibility Scale. After being exposed to 1 of 3 treatments--E modeling, hypnotic induction, or control--each S was retested on the same scale. Strong demands to give honest experiential reports were administered to 1/2 of the Ss under each treatment. Ss who were exposed to E modeling manifested a greater enhancement in objective responsiveness to test suggestions than control Ss and as much enhancement as Ss who were exposed to hypnotic induction. E modeling was as effective as hypnotic induction in enhancing sujective responsiveness to test suggestions with and without demands for honest reports. Under both the E modeling and hypnotic induction treatments, Ss who had initially manifested a high level of suggestibility (pretest) showed as much enhancement in subjective responsiveness to test suggestions as medium- or low-suggestible Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imitation et conflit cognitif dans un contexte d'apprentissage par observation de la notion de conservation.

Contrasted the view that conservation learning requires the initial imitative adoption of modeled conservation with the constructivist view that such learning is based on cognitive conflict. Nonconservers were selected during a pretest; half succeeded and half failed an anticipation task. One-third of the Ss were then exposed to an adult and a child model whose imitation could prove beneficial since, in a conservation task, they agreed over conservation judgments and compensation arguments. One-third were exposed to the same models, whose imitation might not be beneficial since they provided contradictory nonconservation judgments and conflicting justifications. No demonstration took place for the final third of the Ss. Posttesting was conducted immediately after demonstration and 4 wks later. Progress was restricted to those Ss (mainly anticipators) exposed to the correct models, and their achievement improved from immediate to delayed posttesting. This result was accounted for by a sequence of imitation and comprehension processes. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Volitional control of marijuana intoxication: A study of the ability to "come down" on command.

Studied the ability of experienced marihuana users to offset the behavioral consequences of marihuana smoking, using objective and subjective indices of intoxication. In a repeated test design, 10 Ss smoked placebo and 10 marihuana containing 1.2% tetrahydrocannabinol. The dependent variables were subjective rating of intoxication, pulse rate, and several performance measures. In a high-motivation condition, Ss were instructed to try and overcome the effects of the drug; in a low-motivation condition no special instructions were given. High-motivation Ss compensated for intoxication more than low-motivation Ss in a time-estimation task but not in short-term memory. Subjective intoxication and pulse rate were not differentially affected. Although compensation was task specific, the results demonstrate that in principle the ability to come down exists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of inferential set, outcome severity, and basis for responsibility on children's evaluations of aggressive acts.

49 boys and 58 girls in Grades 2 and 8 made moral judgments about stories describing a same-sexed child expressing aggression. Each child, under either a situation-matching or a value-maintenance set, judged 8 behaviors that represented 4 of F. Heider's (1958) responsibility levels and had mild or serious consequences. Moral judgments of older Ss were sensitive to Heider's differing levels of responsibility, whereas younger Ss' judgments were more sensitive to outcome severity. The aggression was viewed as less reprehensible by older than by younger Ss; this difference was especially pronounced for girls. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of organizational disequilibrium training on structural elaboration.

100 53-78-mo old children who displayed pretest structural profiles of varying levels of structural elaboration participated in a training condition, based on the organizational disequilibrium model that predicts that the successively alternating application of different partial structures should lead to cognitive advance. Findings show that (a) training was more effective within and between concepts for Ss with structural mix than for those who had no measured structural mix; (b) the number of Ss acquiring an ontogenetically later concept increased as a function of increasing pretest structural elaboration of ontogenetically earlier concepts; (c) structural application disruption for earlier concepts impeded acquisition of later concepts; and (d) acquisition of later developing concepts influenced structural elaboration of earlier developing concepts. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modification of concept identification performance in older adults.

A sequential training procedure combining operant and cumulative learning hierarchy principles was found effective in reducing the decrement in concept identification performance typically observed in older adults. 20 male and 20 female Ss aged 63-83 yrs were given a pretest and posttest, each involving a 3-category unidimensional concept identification problem. The training and reinforced-training Ss were given 3 training sessions between pretest and posttest. Training involved a programmed learning sequence designed to facilitate the development of an effective solution strategy. Control Ss were given only the pretest and posttest, while practice Ss were given 3 additional practice sessions. Substantial improvement was found in both the training and reinforced training groups, but only slight improvement obtained in the practice and control groups. Results are consistent with recent conceptions of cognitive and intellectual development in the older adults in which performance deficits are largely attributed to experiential factors. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotypic personality inferences following objective versus subjective judgments of beauty.

In 2 experiments, 120 male college students were led to believe either that their judgments of female targets' attractiveness were caused by the women's physical characteristics (objective judgments) or that these judgments were the result of their own personal preferences (subjected judgments). It was hypothesized that if the attractiveness stereotype rests on perceiver's implicit assumption that beauty constitutes a reliable and unbiased criterion from which to infer other characteristics (personality traits), then stereotyping would be less extreme when attractiveness was seen as subjective. Although manipulation checks showed that objectivity–subjectivity was effectively manipulated, Ss in all conditions made personality inferences that were consistent with the attractiveness stereotype (i.e., significantly more favorable for attractive than unattractive targets). Results suggest that utilization of the attractiveness stereotype to generate personality predictions is covert and not amenable to influence by perceivers' conscious attributions about the cause of their attractiveness judgments. (French abstract) (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)