Dahl Audun, Gross Rebekkah L, Siefert Catherine
Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Cogn Dev. 2020 Jul-Sep;55. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100908. Epub 2020 Jun 9.
In deciding when to help, individuals reason about whether prosocial acts are impermissible, suberogatory, obligatory, or supererogatory. This research examined judgments and reasoning about prosocial actions at three to five years of age, when explicit moral judgments and reasoning are emerging. Three-to five-year-olds ( = 52) were interviewed about prosocial actions that varied in costs/benefits to agents/recipients, agent-recipient relationship, and recipient goal valence. Children were also interviewed about their own prosocial acts. Adults ( = 56) were interviewed for comparison. Children commonly judged prosocial actions as obligatory. Overall, children were more likely than adults to say that agents should help. Children's judgments and reasoning reflected concerns with welfare as well as agent and recipient intent. The findings indicate that 3-to 5-year-olds make distinct moral judgments about prosocial actions, and that judgments and reasoning about prosocial acts subsequently undergo major developments.
在决定何时提供帮助时，个体需要思考亲社会行为是不被允许的、次善的、义务性的还是超义务性的。本研究考察了3至5岁儿童对亲社会行为的判断和推理，这个年龄段正是明确的道德判断和推理开始出现的时候。研究人员对52名3至5岁儿童进行了访谈，内容涉及对行为主体/受助者的成本/收益、行为主体与受助者的关系以及受助者目标效价各不相同的亲社会行为。研究人员还询问了儿童自己的亲社会行为。作为对比，研究人员对56名成年人进行了访谈。儿童通常将亲社会行为判断为义务性的。总体而言，儿童比成年人更倾向于认为行为主体应该提供帮助。儿童的判断和推理反映出他们对福利以及行为主体和受助者意图的关注。研究结果表明，3至5岁的儿童对亲社会行为会做出不同的道德判断，并且随后对亲社会行为的判断和推理会经历重大发展。
