Factors Influencing Young Children's Use of Motives and Outcomes as Moral Criteria

Abstract

19^80, 51, 823-829. Young children's use of motives and outcomes as moral criteria was measured under 3 modes of story presentation (verbal only, verbal plus pictures with the motive merely implied, and verbal plus pictures with the motive portrayed explicitly). 4 stories combining positive and negative motives and outcomes were presented to the children in each of the 3 groups. Recall for the critical story information was also assessed. Results supported these hypotheses: (1) that children as young as 3 years of age can and do use motive information for making moral judgments when this information is explicit, salient, and available; (2) that when motive and outcome have opposite valences, children tend to recall the story so as to make them congruent. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of the young child's comprehension processes on recall and moral judgments. Piaget (1932) found a developmental trend in the preferred basis of moral judgments made by 6-10-year-old children in response to hypothetical situations. In children under 9—10 years he found no clear preference for motives as the basis for judgments. After the age of 10 years, judgments were consistently based on motive. However, in the same work, he pointed out that young children's tendency to base their judgments more on consequence information need not imply that they are unaware of intentions. In fact, Piaget (1926, 1932) has observed that the concepts of intention and motive emerge at about the same time as the first whys, that is, around the age of 3—4 years. The present research was undertaken to determine the conditions under which the moral judgments of 3-4-year-old children would reflect their consideration and use of motives as well as outcomes.