Kahn P H
University of Houston.
Child Dev. 1992 Apr;63(2):416-30.
This study examined children's obligatory moral judgments (which reflect a moral requirement) and discretionary moral judgments (which reflect moral worthiness, but not a requirement). 72 children participated across grades 2, 5, and 8 (mean ages, 8-3, 11-0, and 13-11). Children were interviewed in response to stimulus stories that controlled for the degree of agent's cost (low and high) for performing positive moral acts (giving money for food to an impoverished, hungry person) and negative moral acts (not stealing money for food). Results showed that negative moral acts were more often conceived as obligatory than positive moral acts. In addition, the results support the proposition that children's concepts of obligation underlie judgments to codify law, that justice reasoning builds on concepts of welfare, and that with increasing age discretionary moral reasoning incorporates such character traits as benevolence, sacrifice, and supererogation. Discussion includes consideration of how the study's conceptualization and analysis can provide guidance to a moral-developmental research program.
本研究考察了儿童的义务道德判断（反映道德要求）和自由裁量道德判断（反映道德价值，但非要求）。72名来自二年级、五年级和八年级的儿童参与了研究（平均年龄分别为8岁3个月、11岁0个月和13岁11个月）。针对控制了行为主体实施积极道德行为（为贫困饥饿者提供购买食物的钱）和消极道德行为（不偷买食物的钱）的成本程度（低和高）的刺激故事，对儿童进行了访谈。结果表明，消极道德行为比积极道德行为更常被视为具有义务性。此外，结果支持以下观点：儿童的义务概念是法律编纂判断的基础，正义推理建立在福利概念之上，并且随着年龄增长，自由裁量道德推理纳入了诸如仁爱、牺牲和额外付出等性格特征。讨论内容包括考虑该研究的概念化和分析如何能够为道德发展研究项目提供指导。
