Beißert Hanna M, Hasselhorn Marcus
Department of Education and Human Development, German Institute for International Educational Research Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2016 Dec 20;7:1961. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01961. eCollection 2016.
This study investigates the relationship between intelligence and individual differences in children's moral development across a range of different moral transgressions. Taking up prior research that showed morality and intelligence to be related in adolescents and adults, the current study wants to test if these findings can be extended to younger children. The study was designed to address some of the shortcomings in prior research by examining young children aged between 6 years; 4 months and 8 years; 10 months, using a broad concept of moral development including emotional aspects and applying an approach that is closely connected to children's daily lives. Participants ( = 129) completed a standardized intelligence test and were presented four moral transgression stories to assess moral development. Results demonstrated that findings from prior research with adolescents or adults cannot simply be extended to younger participants. No significant correlations of moral development and intelligence were found for any of the presented stories. This provides first evidence that - at least in middle childhood - moral developmental status seems to be independent from children's general intelligence assessed by figural inductive reasoning tests.
本研究调查了在一系列不同的道德违规行为中，儿童智力与道德发展个体差异之间的关系。鉴于先前研究表明道德与智力在青少年和成年人中存在关联，本研究旨在检验这些发现是否能扩展至年幼儿童。该研究旨在通过考察年龄在6岁4个月至8岁10个月之间的幼儿，运用包括情感方面在内的广泛道德发展概念，并采用与儿童日常生活紧密相关的方法，来解决先前研究中的一些不足之处。129名参与者完成了一项标准化智力测试，并被呈现四个道德违规故事以评估道德发展。结果表明，先前针对青少年或成年人的研究结果不能简单地扩展至年幼儿童。对于所呈现的任何故事，均未发现道德发展与智力之间存在显著相关性。这首次证明，至少在童年中期，道德发展状况似乎独立于通过图形归纳推理测试评估的儿童一般智力。
