Korean Journal of Child Studies (아동학회지)

Korean Association of Child Studies (한국아동학회)
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The Moral Judgment and Justification Reasoning in terms of Aggressive Behavior by 3, 4 and 5 Year Olds : The Relationship to Children's False Belief Understanding

3, 4, 5세 유아의 공격행동에 대한 도덕 판단 및 정당화 추론과 틀린믿음 이해와의 관계

  • Kim, Yu Mi (Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University) ;
  • Yi, Soon Hyung (Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University)
  • 김유미 (서울대학교 생활과학대학 아동가족학과) ;
  • 이순형 (서울대학교 생활과학대학 아동가족학과, 서울대학교 생활과학연구소)
  • Received : 2014.02.28
  • Accepted : 2014.05.20
  • Published : 2014.06.30
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Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate children's moral judgment, justification reasoning in terms of aggressive behavior, and (2) it examined the relationship to false belief understanding. Children aged between 3 to 5 years(N = 120) participated in this study. Each child was interviewed individually and responded questions designed to measure his/her moral judgment and justification reasoning and false belief understanding. The 12 pictorial tasks consisted of selfish and altruistic intentions and three different types of acts (physical, verbal, relational) as responses to aggressive behavior. The results indicated that the kind of moral judgment used was different according to the intention and the types of acts. There were significant differences in children's justification reasoning according to the age and the types of acts. There was a positive relationship between false belief understanding and moral judgment, justification reasoning. This paper also provided a detailed discussion of the results and recommendations in the context of more general cognitive developmental changes.

Keywords

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