Children’s moral development

Do 5-year-old children share more with members of their own group compared to members of another group*?
Do 5-year-old children judge impersonal moral dilemmas to be more inappropriate than personal moral
dilemmas?
*Here, group could be were based on natural characteristics such as gender, age, race, language, food
preferences or experimentally created distinctions, such as shirt color
Then, design an experiment that can test this research question in the lab setting (i.e., where children are
brought into a quiet room). When designing your experiment, please answer the following questions:
Question 1. Please write down the research question that you choose (1 point).
Question 2. Describe your study (7 points).
In your answer, please try your best to be specific and make sure that your description includes the following
aspects:
Describe the participants (sample size, other important details of participants such as SES, race/ethnicity, etc,
1 point)
Describe the type of design (experimental, correlational or descriptive) and why (1 point)
Describe the type of measures you will use (2 points)
Describe the procedure of your study (e.g., What kind of materials that the experimenter will use - If you
choose the first question, what kind of things will children share? If you choose the second question, what type
of moral dilemmas will the experimenter present children? What specific steps will children go through? What
will the experimenter do/say in the study?, 2 points)
Use key vocabulary terms from our lectures in your description (1 point)
Question 3. What is one thing that you did in your procedure that makes your study age-appropriate (2 points)?
Question 4. Based on one of the moral development theories (e.g., Piaget, Kohlberg, Social Domain Theory)
we discussed this week, how do you predict the 5-year-old children will respond? (5 points)
In your answer,
Please describe the theory in your own words (2 points), and be mindful of the age of the participants
Discuss how this theory would predict the child’s behavior (1.5 points), and explain why (1.5 points)