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Dissertation Information for Peter H. Kahn Jr.

NAME:
- Peter H. Kahn Jr.

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Education

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Berkeley (USA) (1988)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Children's conceptions of obligatory and discretionary morality

Abstract: This study examined relations between children's obligatory and discretionary moral judgments, and whether such judgments are sensitive to the degree of cost to the agent and the type of situation, positive or negative. Positive situations entail those where moral action can be performed, negative where immoral action can be refrained from. Seventy-two subjects participated in this study, comprised of 12 males and 12 females in each of three grade levels: 2nd, 5th, and 8th. Subjects were individually administered a semistructured interview consisting of three brief stories, each with two conditions. Two of the stories entailed positive morality. In the first condition, obligation was promoted by highlighting the welfare needs of a destitute family and showing that the family's situation could be improved at small personal cost to the agent. In each story, the condition was then changed such that the personal cost increased. The third story entailed negative morality. In the first condition, obligation was promoted by highlighting a minor case of stealing where the cost to the agent for not stealing was minimal. This condition was then changed such that the personal cost for not stealing increased.

Results showed that children less often conceived as obligatory performing the two positive acts at minimal personal cost to the agent than the negative act. In addition, children who affirmed both the positive and negative obligations more frequently changed to discretionary judgments for the positive acts as opposed to the negative act when the agent's cost increased. These results suggest that children conceive of negative morality more stringently than positive morality. Other results provide evidence that children's conceptions of law build on conceptions of obligation; children's justice reasoning builds on conceptions of welfare; the degree to which children accord praise varies as a function of obligation and type of situation; and, with increasing age, children's reasoning about justice, welfare, and praise can be characterized in terms of compensatory relations. Finally, the proposition was not supported that males are primarily oriented toward justice and females an ethic of care.

MPACT Scores for Peter H. Kahn Jr.

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-05-16 23:51:20

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