Development processes in social inference: Averaging of intentions and consequences in moral judgment

• Published in: Developmental psychology 1977-11, Vol.13 (6), p.654-665
• Main Author: Surber, Colleen F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Differences; Cognitive Development; Consequence; Human; Mathematical Modeling; Moral Development
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.13.6.654

Conducted 2 experiments wih 53 kindergartners, 33 1st graders, 12 5th and 6th graders, and 19 adults to test the applicability of N. H. Anderson's relative-weight averaging model to children's judgments based on intentions and consequences. Exp I provided support for the model over a wide age range (kindergarten through adult) using stimuli similar to J. Piaget's (1965) in which the intentions ranged from positive to negative and the consequences ranged from neutral to negative. Exp II extended Exp I by including consequences ranging from positive to negative. In Exp II, intentions and consequences interacted suggesting that some modification of the assumptions of the averaging model is necessary to fully account for the data. Data from the 2 experiments suggest that both intentions and consequences influence judgments at all ages examined and that developmental changes in moral judgments are continuous rather than stagelike. These developmental differences can best be described by changes in the weights of intentions and consequences. The major developmental change appears to be a decrease in the weight of consequences with increasing age. The possibility of using algebraic models to describe the results of studies that have attempted to influence the relative importance of intentions and consequences in children's moral judgments is discussed. (16 ref)