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Perception and moral evaluation in young children
Author(s) -
Fincham F. D.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1981.tb00496.x
Subject(s) - blame , attribution , psychology , judgement , perception , social psychology , moral character , developmental psychology , character (mathematics) , moral responsibility , epistemology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , neuroscience
Heider's model of responsibility attribution is used to investigate young children's sensitivity to several moral judgement criteria. Forty 6‐year‐olds responded to stories representing Heider's responsibility levels under one of two conditions: the actor was either the self or a hypothetical other. A highly significant levels effect was found as children made clear distinctions between the attribution criteria in their ratings of blame. Story character had no effect on this measure. However, an unfolding analysis revealed some support for self/other differences in the perception of stories. Moreover, the latent structures recovered successfully predicted blame judgements. The utility of several distinctions which are not made in Piagetian research is emphasized.