Social Value Acquisition in Preschool Aged Children I. Institutionalized Value Expectations and their Perception

Abstract

Abstract : The article is the first of a series of three concerned with studying the acquisition of social values in three-to-five year old children, in an underprivileged area, some of whom were reared under the dual influence of primary (mothers) and secondary (nursery teachers) socializing agents, and some of whom were reared under the influence of primary agents only. Guttman scale analysis techniques were used to establish the cultural expectations for these children for the values of self-reliance, cooperation and compliance. The respondents were the mothers of the children studied, and a group of nursery school teachers. Both mothers and teachers were found to subscribe to roughly the same expectations, but the teachers had significantly higher expectations for self-reliance and cooperation. The children's perceptions of the expectations were measured through a semi-projective, story-telling technique. Nursery school children in the sample displayed more accurate perceptions of the expectations for self-reliance and cooperation than did non-nursery children; no significant difference was observed in the case of compliance. (Author)