ERIC Number: ED165884
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1978-Apr
Pages: 20
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Effect of Modeled Rationales on Moral Behavior, Moral Choice, and Level of Moral Judgment in Children.
Toner, Ignatius J.; Potts, C. Richard
The impact of adult models on the moralities of seventy-two 5- to 7-year-old boys was assessed in this study. Each subject was exposed to a televised adult model and was then administered tests of moral behavior (resistance to deviation in a laboratory situation), moral choice (in a hypothetical situation) and moral judgment level (on an intentionality scale). Boys exposed to a model who said he would resist deviating from a prohibition and who supported this statement with a morally immature justification (based on reward/punishment) were subsequently more likely to use that model's statements to guide their own moral behavior and moral choice than were boys exposed to a model advocating resistance to deviation with a morally mature justification (based on reciprocity). Immature models expressing a deviating moral choice led to more deviating moral decisions in observers than did mature deviating models. The moral judgment levels of the subjects were not significantly affected by the models. The subjects' moral behavior was predictive of their moral choice while moral judgment level was not significantly related to the other two indices of morality. (Author/MP)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Portions of this paper were presented at the Biennial Southeastern Conference on Human Development (5th, Atlanta, Georgia, April 27-29, 1978)