THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL CONTEXT TO MORAL AND SOCIAL CONVENTIONAL REASONING: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY.
Item
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Title
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THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL CONTEXT TO MORAL AND SOCIAL CONVENTIONAL REASONING: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY.
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Identifier
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AAI8319808
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identifier
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8319808
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Creator
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TOPP, LEONARD FREDERICK.
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Contributor
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David Bearison
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Date
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1983
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social
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Abstract
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This study investigated the relation of cultural context to children's moral and social conventional reasoning. It was hypothesized that the structural properties of a social system affect the cognitive behavior of individuals developing within that system. Delays in the development of advanced levels of moral reasoning were hypothesized to be a function of social context. Children from traditional cultures were hypothesized to judge social conventional violations more severely than children from less ethnocentric social backgrounds.;One hundred fifty-seven children, representative of three different levels of ethnocentrism were interviewed.;The results of the analyses of variance supported the hypothesis that high ethnocentric children were less likely to use intentions in making moral judgments than were low and middle ethnocentric children. No social context by agent (ingroup, outgroup member) interaction in judging moral transgressions was found.;Chi-square analyses of responses to questions regarding the distinction between moral and social conventional rule violations supported the hypothesis that low and middle ethnocentric children would distinguish between moral and social conventional rules, by judging a moral rule violation as more serious than a social conventional rule violation, to a greater extent than high ethnocentric children. Results of the three (levels of social context) x two (moral and social conventional rules) repeated measures ANOVA, on the importance children attributed to particular moral and social conventional rules, were counter to expectation. High ethnocentric children judged all rules (moral and social conventional) as more important than did the other two groups. All groups, however, judged moral rules as more important than social conventional rules. The results of chi-square analyses of responses to the questions regarding the changeability and cultural universality of moral and social conventional rules indicated that high ethnocentric children, relative to low and middle ethnocentric children, tended to judge particular moral and social conventional rules as unchangeable, and culturally universal.;These results supported the hypothesized relation of cultural influences on moral and social conventional reasoning, and questioned the use of individual importance ratings in assessing children's knowledge of moral and social conventional rules.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Educational Psychology
