DefinePK

Abstract

Recent claims that very young children have at least an intuitive understanding of morality has been subjected to an empirical test. 42 children ranging in age from 4 years and 8 months to 6 years and 6 months were taken from a local nursery school. Each subject was presented two short stories, one involving "Promise" in an interpersonal situation and the other not involving any Promise ("No-promise") in a similar situation. The subject's judgement was invited on the happening of the stories in such a way that it could be seen whether S differentiates between Promise and No-promise stories. The findings reveal that 5-6 years old children understand the concept of "Promise" and their judgement of social events is affected by this understanding. The failure of 4-year-old in the task was attributed to the difficulty in comprehending the content of the story material. Some culture-specific reasons have been brought forward to explain unexpected responses.