Moral and Personal Value Judgments of Preschool Children

Abstract

LYONS-RUTH, KARLEN. Moral and Personal Value Judgments of Preschool Children. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 1197-1207. 160 children aged 2%,-5 gave moral evaluations, attributions of parental affect and personal (liking) evaluations of both standard (motive and outcome) moral episodes and simplified (motive only) episodes. Though motive valence did influence children's evaluations of simple episodes, moral evaluations were influenced much more strongly by the perceived valence of the acts. Consistent evaluation of the acts developed between 2% and 3% years of age and continued to influence moral and parental-affect judgments of both simple and complex episodes through age 5. By contrast, personal judgments were not influenced by act information but became increasingly consistent with motive information over the age range studied. Both the pattern of judgments to simple and complex episodes and the content of children's justifications suggested that judgments based on the act and judgments based on outcome occur at different points in development. Results are discussed in relation to previous moral judgment research and to theories of early moral and social cognition.