Lee

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

Kohlberg claimed that as we get older, we follow six stages of moral development in an unchangeable order and that this is not affected by culture

Question 2

Aims

Answer 2

• To find out if the culture a child grows up in (individualist or collectivist) affects their views about truth-telling and lying
• To find out if the views of children about truth-telling and lying change as they grow older

Question 3

Key Terms

Collectivist Culture

Answer 3

Societies which emphasise the group, its decisions and needs and the duties of the individual to that group

Question 4

Key Terms

Individualist Culture

Answer 4

Societies which emphasise the individual, their rights, attitudes and needs

Question 5

Sample

Answer 5

120 children aged 7, 9 and 11 from Hangzhou, China (collectivist culture)
108 children aged 7, 9 and 11 from Fredericton, Canada (individualist culture)

Question 6

Procedure

Answer 6

Children were individually read 4 stories and asked using a rating scale (3 to -3) whether the character in the story was “good or naughty”. Each story contained an example of one of the four:
* Pro-social truth - Doing something good and then tell the truth about it
* Pro-social lie - The character would show pro-social behaviour and then not tell the truth about it.
* Anti-social truth - The character would do something bad and then tell the truth about it.
* Anti-social lie - The character would show anti social behaviour and then not tell the truth about it
The children were also split into two groups. One where the characters in the stories directly affected another child, and one where the characters affected physical objects

Question 7

Findings

Quantitative Results

Answer 7

Pro-social truth = Children in China came to view this less positively as they got older
Pro-social lie = Children in China came to view this positively as they got older
There was no difference between cultures for the anti-social stories, both cultures viewed lying about anti-social behaviour negatively (more negative as they got older) and bot hcultures viewed telling the truth about anti-social behaviours positively

Question 8

Findings

Qualitative Results

Answer 8

When asked why they rated lie telling as positive in the pro-social situation, many Chinese children said that the child was ‘begging for’ or ‘wanting’ praise. A common Chinese phrase that is taught to children is “one should not leave one’s name after doing a good deed”. When asked why they rated lying as positive, 54% of the children quoted this phrase as an explanation

Question 9

Conclusion

Answer 9

There are differences in moral development between different cultures, which is not just due to cognitive development but also because of social and cultural rules