ABSTRACT

In order to explore the development mechanism of construction theory in the field of moral judgment, this study investigated the influence of age and social distance on such moral expectations in positive moral context and negative moral context. In both positive and negative moral contexts, 5–6-year-old children had the highest moral expectations of people who are socially closest to them. In negative moral contexts, 3–4-year-old children had significantly higher moral expectations of people who are socially closest to them, whereas in positive moral contexts, no significant difference was noted in their moral expectations of others for various degrees of social distance. These findings suggest that children have lower moral expectations of strangers and exhibit a preference for familiar person in moral expectations as they grow older. And this preference was first observed in contexts which the child thought that someone close to him or her was less likely to do immoral things in negative moral context than to do moral things in positive moral contexts. In conclusion, our study provides empirical evidence for construction theory in the field of moral judgment, proving that social distance, age and moral context strongly affect children’s moral expectations of others.

摘要

为探索建构论在道德判断领域的发展机制，本研究考察了年龄和社会距离对积极道德情境和消极道德情境下的道德期望的影响。在积极和消极的道德背景下，5-6 岁儿童对社会上最接近他们的人的道德期望最高。在消极的道德背景下，3-4岁儿童对社会上最亲近的人的道德期望明显更高，而在积极的道德背景下，他们对不同程度社会距离的他人的道德期望没有显着差异. 这些发现表明，随着年龄的增长，儿童对陌生人的道德期望较低，并且在道德期望中表现出对熟悉的人的偏好。这种偏好首先是在孩子认为与他或她亲近的人在消极的道德背景下做不道德的事情的可能性低于在积极的道德背景下做道德事情的情况下观察到的。总之，我们的研究为道德判断领域的建构理论提供了经验证据，证明社会距离、年龄和道德背景强烈影响儿童对他人的道德期望。