Three sets of moral judgment stories and a measure of generosity were taken from 21 middle-class girls aged 8 to 11 yr. The moral judgment stories assessed the child's conception of Piagetian intentionality, Piagetian distributive justice, and Kohlbergian principled morality. While the three sets of stories showed some degree of interrelatedness, only the measure of distributive justice showed a positive (but marginal) relationship to children's generosity. Age and IQ effects were also assessed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BanduraA.McDonaldF. J.The influence of social reinforcement and the behavior of models in shaping children's moral judgments. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963, 67, 274–281.
2.
BryanJ. H.LondonP.Altruistic behavior by children. Psychological Bulletin, 1970, 73, 200–211.
3.
EmlerN. P.RushtonJ. P.Cognitive-developmental factors in children's generosity. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1974, 13, 277–281.
4.
FayB. M.The relationships of cognitive moral judgment, generosity, and empathic behavior in 6 and 8 year old children. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1970) Dissertation Abstracts International, 1971, 31, 3951A.
5.
KohlbergL.Development of moral character and ideology. In HoffmanM. L. (Ed.), Review of child development research. Vol. 1. New York: Russell Sage Found., 1964.
6.
LeeL. C.The concomitant development of cognitive and moral modes of thought: A test of selected deductions from Piaget's theory. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 1971, 83, 93–146.
7.
PiagetJ.The moral judgment of the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1932.
8.
RubinK. H.SchneiderF. W.The relationship between moral judgment, ego-centrism, and altruistic behavior. Child Development, 1973, 44, 661–665.
9.
RushtonJ. P.Generosity in children: Immediate and delayed effects of modeling, preaching, and moral judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 31, 459–466.
10.
RushtonJ. P.Socialization and the altruistic behavior of children. Psychological Bulletin, in press.