Lee et al

Lee et al

1. Conditions

   • Ethnicity of the child
   • Age
   • Type of story (social or physical)
   • Prosocial or anti-social setting

2. Aim

   • To see if Chinese and Canadian children would rate truth telling and lie telling differently in pro-social settings
   • To show that they would both rate lie telling the same in anti-social settings

3. Participants

   • 120 Chinese children
     • 60M, 60F
     • 40 11yr olds, 40 9yr olds, 40 7yr olds
     • From Hangzhou
   • 108 Canadian children
     • 58M, 50F
     • 32 11yr olds, 40 9yr olds, 36 7yr olds
     • From Fredericton
   • Not cities with heavy industry

4. Procedure

   • Types of story
     • Pro social setting- lying (physical and social stories)
     • Pro social setting- truth telling (physical and social stories)
     • Anti social setting- truth telling (physical and social stories)
     • Anti social setting- lying (physical and social stories)
     • Physical Stories
       • Children take pages out a book
       • No social issue just a physical act
     • Social stories
       • Someone either gets helped or hurt
   • First asked if the act was good or naughty
     • Then asked if the act of lying/truth telling was good or naughty
   • Randomly allocated to either the physical story or the social story condition
     • Each child heard all 4 social or physical stories
   • Seen individually
   • Rating chart was explained each time
   • Counterbalancing was used to alternate the order of the stories

5. Results

   • No differences were found depending on the order of the stories and the gender of the child
   • All children answered the first question similarly as to whether the act was good or bad
   • As the Chinese children gt older they saw lie telling in good-deed situations more positively
     • Rated it higher than truth telling
     • Only show by 11 year olds in the social story but shown by 9 and 11 year olds in the physical story
     • Said it was because the child was begging for praise and you shouldnt leave your name after a good deed
   • Canadian children disapproved of lie-telling in every situation/ story type/ age
   • Pro social truth telling
     • No significant difference in ratings
     • Chinese children saw this less positively as they became older
   • Pro social lie telling
     • Canadian children rated the lie telling less negatively as they became older
     • Chinese children changed from rating it negatively to positively as they got older
   • Anti social lie telling
     • Negative ratings became more negative with age in both cultures
   • Anti social truth telling
     • Always rated positively

6. Discussion

   • Children become more socialised into cultural norms as they get older
   • China is a collectivist culture so emphasis is put on telling the truth for the good of the group
   • Canada is an individualistic culture so the emphasis on truth telling is due to the belief that individuals have a duty to other individuals to be truthful

7. Evaluation

   • Validity
     • Extraneous Variables
       • Some controlled like age and gender
       • Contact with researcher and the stories translations may have been interpreted in different cultures
     • Participant Variables
       • Reduced by using similar cities
         • But this reduces generalisability of results
     • Highly controlled
     • Random allocation and counterbalancing reduced bias/response bias
   • Reliability
     • Highly standardised
     • Large samples
       • Establish consistency
     • 4 stories read to each child so the data collected reflected a consistent viewpoint not just a response to a particular story
   • Ethics
     • Gave consent
     • Fewer Canadian children shows the right to withdraw
     • Stories had helpful illustrattions
     • The stories involving people being hurt could have been distressing
     • 1 on 1 interview may have been uncomfortable
   • Data
     • Quantitative
       • Semantic differential scale
       • Easy comparison and allowed statistical testing
     • Qualititative
       • Allowed children to explain why they had rated it a certain way
   • Sample
     • All had similar backgrounds
       • Cannot be generalised to rural children
     • Equal gender splt
     • Large
     • Canadian sample was smaller
     • Canadian city was much smaller
     • Ignores other cultures
   • Ethnocentrism
     • Cross-cultural
     • Procedure may have been percieved differently by each culture
     • Didn't represent all cultures
   • Research Method
     • Cross Cultural
       • Increases representativeness of sample
       • Allows us to see if it is universal
       • Stories could have been interpreted differently in different cultures
       • 1 on 1 interviews may be unusual in some cultures and cause socially desirable answering

8. Links to area/perspective

   • Developmental
     • Looking at changes in moral development over time
   • Cognitive
     • Looks at changes in how we think
   • Social
     • Other people/culture influences our moral development
   • Social Cognition

9. Links to key theme

   • Age related changes in moral development within cultures
   • Disagrees with Kohlbergs universal stages
   • Culture changes fundamental morals
   • Doesn't explain adults
     • May reject cultural norms

10. Links to debates

    • Individual/ Situational
      • Shows how the situation and culture affects moral development
    • Free will/ Determinism
      • Deterministic as it say culture determines our moral development
      • Free will to override our morality
    • Reductionism/ Holism
      • More holistic by recognising cultural influences