One hundred and twentyHispanicandEuro-American (Anglo) 5th, 8th, and 11th graders were individually interviewed to determine their judgments and reasoning in response to a dilemma in which a student from one ethnic group (Hispanic or Anglo) wished to join an exclusive club of the other ethnic group. Three-quarters of the participants made judgments to include the student, but a small number judged to exclude or switched judgments from include to exclude. Reasons used to support inclusion focused on individual welfare, social principles, and fairness. Reasons supporting exclusion stressed rules, the right to choose one 'sfriends, and cultural barriers. Ethnicity, grade, and gender were unrelated to judgments but were related to types of reasons given. Anglo students referred more to rights and rules, and Hispanics to cultural barriers. Older participants more often cited social principles.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Billig, M.
, Condon, S., Edwards, D., Gane, M., Middleton, D., & Radley, A. (1988). Ideological dilemmas. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
2.
Colby, A.
, & Kohlberg, L. (1987). The measurement of moral judgment, Vol. 1. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Davidson, P.
, Turiel, E., & Black, A. (1983). The effect of stimulus familiarity on the use of criteria and justifications in children's social reasoning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1, 49-65.
4.
Eisenberg, N.
, & Mussen, P. (1989). The roots of prosocial behavior in children. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Gilligan, C.
(1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6.
Glasser, I.
(1988). Affirmative action and the legacy of racial injustice. In P. Katz & D. Taylor (Eds.), Eliminating racism: Profiles in controversy (pp. 341-357). New York: Plenum.
7.
Johnston, K.
(1988). Adolescents' solutions to dilemmas in fables: Two moral orientations-two problem solving strategies. In C. Gilligan, J. Ward, & J. Taylor (Eds.), Mapping the moral domain. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
Madsen, M.
(1971). Development and cross-cultural differences in the cooperative and competitive behavior of young children. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2, 365-371.
9.
Marin, G.
, & Marin, B. (1991). Research with Hispanic populations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
10.
Markus, H.
, & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
11.
Messick, D.
, & Mackie, D. (1989). Intergroup relations. In M. Rosenzweig & L. Porter (Eds.), Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 40 (pp. 45-81). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
12.
Miller, J.
, Bersoff, D., & Harwood, R. (1990). Perceptions of social responsibilities in India and in the United States: Moral imperatives or personal decisions?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 33-47.
13.
Nucci, L.
, & Turiel, E. (1993). God's word, religious rules, and their relation to Christian and Jewish children's concepts of morality. Child Development, 64, 1475-1491.
14.
Patchen, M.
(1982). Black-White contact in schools. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.
15.
Phinney, J.
(1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34-49.
16.
Ramirez, M., III
(1984). Assessing and understanding biculturalism-multiculturalism in Mexican-American adults. In J. Martinez & R. Mendoza (Eds.), Chicano psychology (2nd ed.; pp. 77-94). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
17.
Ramirez, A.
, & Soriano, F. (1993). Differential patterns of intra-and interethnic interaction in social power systems. Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 307-316.
18.
Schofield, J.
(1982). Blackand White in school: Trust, tension, or tolerance?New York: Praeger.
19.
Schweder, R.
, Mahapatra, M., & Miller, J. (1987). Culture and moral development. In J. Kagan & S. Lamb (Eds.), The emergence of morality in young children (pp. 1-83). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
Selman, R.
(1980). The growth of interpersonal understanding. New York: Academic Press.
21.
Shrum, W.
, Cheek, N., & Hunter, S. (1988). Friendship in school: Gender and racial homophily. Sociology of Education, 61, 227-239.
22.
Smetana, J.
, Killen, M., & Turiel, E. (1991). Children's reasoning about interpersonal and moral conflicts. Child Development, 62, 629-644.
23.
Triandis, H.
(1990). Cross-cultural studies of individualism and collectivism. In J. Berman (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 41-133). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
24.
Triandis, H.
, Marin, C., Lisansky, J., & Betancourt, H. (1984). Simpatia as a cultural script of Hispanics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1363-1375.
25.
Wainryb, C.
(1991). Understanding differences in moral judgments: The role of informational assumptions. Child Development, 62, 840-851.
26.
Wainryb, C.
, & Turiel, E. (1994). Dominance, subordination, and concepts of personal entitlements in cultural contexts. Child Development, 65, 1701-1722.
27.
Ward, S.
, & Overton, W. (1990). Semantic familiarity, relevance, and the development of deductive reasoning. Developmental Psychology, 26, 488-493.
