Is Helping Always Morally Good? Study with Toddlers and Preschool Children

Autor/inn/en	Myslinska Szarek, Katarzyna; Baryla, Wieslaw; Wojciszke, Bogdan
Titel	Is Helping Always Morally Good? Study with Toddlers and Preschool Children
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 59 (2023) 5, S.918-927 (10 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Myslinska Szarek, Katarzyna)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0001521
Schlagwörter	Preschool Children; Childrens Attitudes; Helping Relationship; Antisocial Behavior; Moral Issues; Moral Values; Objectives; Age Differences; Foreign Countries; Decision Making; Toddlers; Europe + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Helfende Beziehung; Moraltheorie; Moral value; Ethischer Wert; Goal definition; Zielsetzung; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Ausland; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Infant; Infants; Toddler; Kleinkind; Europa
Abstract	Young children from a very early age not only prefer those who help others but also those who engage in altruistic helping. This study aims to test how children assess helping when the goal of the helping behavior is immoral. We argue that younger children consider only the helping versus hindering behavior, but older children distinguish their judgments depending on the goal to which the helping leads. In the study involving 727 European children aged 2-7 years (354 girls, M = 53.82 months, SD = 18.76), we found that children aged 2-4 years assessed helping as always morally good and hindering as morally bad, no matter the recipient's intention. Only children aged 4.5-7 years assessed helping in an immoral act as immoral and hindering in an immoral act as moral. We also found that younger children liked the helper regardless of the goal that their helping behavior led to, but from the age of 5, children preferred characters who hindered in an immoral act rather than those who helped. Our study extends the previous research, showing how children's moral judgments of helping behavior develop and become more complex as children get older. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01