Sengsavang Sonia, Willemsen Kayleen, Krettenauer Tobias
Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo ON, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2015 May 6;6:552. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00552. eCollection 2015.
Recent research on young children's morality has stressed the autonomous and internal nature of children's moral motivation. However, this research has mostly focused on implicit moral motives, whereas children's explicit motives have not been investigated directly. This study examined children's explicit motives for why they want to engage in prosocial actions and avoid antisocial behavior. A total of 195 children aged 4-12 years were interviewed about their motives for everyday prosocial-moral actions, as well as reported on their relationship with their parents. Children's explicit motives to abstain from antisocial behavior were found to be more external and less other-oriented than their motives for prosocial action. Motives that reflected higher levels of internal motivation became more frequent with age. Moreover, positive parent-child relationships predicted more other-oriented motives and greater explication of moral motives. Overall, the study provides evidence that children's explicit moral motivation is far more heterogeneous than prominent theories of moral development (past and present) suggest.
近期关于幼儿道德的研究强调了儿童道德动机的自主性和内在性。然而，这项研究大多集中在隐性道德动机上，而儿童的显性动机尚未得到直接调查。本研究考察了儿童想要参与亲社会行为并避免反社会行为的显性动机。共有195名4至12岁的儿童接受了关于他们日常亲社会道德行为动机的访谈，并报告了他们与父母的关系。结果发现，与亲社会行为动机相比，儿童克制反社会行为的显性动机更具外在性且较少以他人为导向。随着年龄增长，反映出更高水平内在动机的动机变得更加频繁。此外，积极的亲子关系预示着更多以他人为导向的动机以及对道德动机更清晰的阐述。总体而言，该研究提供了证据表明，儿童的显性道德动机比（过去和现在的）突出道德发展理论所表明的要更加多样化。
