Lee

• Outline the background research that led to Lees study into lying and truth telling in children (4)

  •Outline Piagets research and theory of when he believes children begin to use the protagonist’s intention when judging morals•Explain why Wimmer disagrees with Piagets theory linking to the behaviour of young children•Explain how Sweetser argues that lying in influenced by culture•How this led to Lee wanting to investigating lying and truth telling, outlining who he wanted to studyPrevious research byPiagetsuggests that children’s moral judgements about lying and truth telling primarily rely whether or not the lie is punished. He suggests that children do not begin to use the protagonist’s intention as the key factor of their moral judgements until around 11 years of age.Wimmeret al.(1984) disagreed with Piaget’s claim and suggested that even preschool children are capable of distinguishing lying from behavioural misdeeds.Sweetser (1987)further argued that the understanding of lying is greatly influenced by the cultural norms and moral values in which individuals are socialised. However, one of the limitations is that nearly all research was conducted with children in Western countries.Lee et al.’sstudy was conducted to bridge the gap between this previous research by directly testing the effect of culture on children’s moral evaluations of lying and truth telling.
• What is the aim of Lee's study?

  The aim was toinvestigate cross-cultural differencesin children's understanding andmoral evaluations of lying.The study aimed tocompare the responsesofChinese and Canadian participantsto stories that involve lying in truth-telling, pro social and antisocial situations.
• What is the research method in Lee's study?

  The Research method used in the study is aLaboratory experimentusing across-cultural method, as children from China and Canada were used.The study also used across-sectionaldesign, meaning that participants in the different conditions were ofdifferent ages, allowing for further analysis.
• IV's in Lee's study (2)

  -whether the participant heard thesocial storyor thephysical story

  -Whether the participant heard (prosocial) stories involving a child who intentionally carried out a good deed (a deed valued by adults in both countries) or (antisocial) stories involving a child who intentionally carried out a bad deed (a deed viewed negatively in both cultures).
• What were the four conditions of the independent variables in Lee's study?

  -Pro social behaviour/truth-telling stories

  -antisocial behaviour/truth-telling stories

  -pro social behaviour/lie-telling stories

  -antisocial behaviour/lie-telling stories
• DV's in Lee's study (2)

  -Therating given to the story character'sdeed(bridging between very, very good and very, very naughty).-Therating given to what the charactersaid(verbal statement)( raising between very, very good and very, very naughty)
• Chinese participants in Lee's study sample

  -120children aged7,9,11(equal numbers in each group).-recruited from elementary schools in a medium sized city called Hangzhou(provincial capital) inPeople's republic of China (PRC).-social class not knownasnot encouraged by the government.
• Canadian participants in Lee's study sample

  -108children aged7,9,11year olds roughly equal numbers in each group-They were recruited from elementary schools inFredericton,Canada,also a provincial capital but its population is considerably smaller than Hangzhou.-Most of the Canadian children were frommiddle classfamilies.
• Procedure of Lee's study (8)

  1. Of the Chinese participants,children were randomly allocated, in equal numbers, to either thesocial or physical storyconditions.2. Children wereread four scenarios individually.Children were readeither four physicalstoriesor four social stories, depending on which group they had been allocated to.3. They were firstinstructed about the meaning of the words and symbols on a 7-point chart, these being (image)4. A story’s“deed” sectionwas first read to children, which is the part of the story that contained the information regarding thecharacters pro- or antisocial behaviours.5. Children were then asked,“Was what she (he) didgood or naughty?”They were then asked to give their rating (based on the above scale) either verbally, nonverbally, or both.6. The children were then read the second section of the story, where the character in the story was always asked who carried out the deed, and they either lied or told the truth.7. The participants were again asked,“Was what she (he) didgood or naughty?”8. Again, the symbols on the chart were used to make the judgement.

  
• Results for Lee's study

  Cross cultural similarity-children from both cultures rated the anti-social behaviours similarly. Truth telling in an anti-social situation is very positive. Lying in an anti-social situation is negative.

  Cross cultural difference-Canadian children rated pro-social lie telling negatively, whereas Chinese children rated pro-social lie telling positively.

  Cross-sectional difference-Chinese children’s ratings of pro social lie telling changed from negative to positive as age increased whereas Canadian children ratings of pro-social lie telling was negative, becoming less negative as they aged.
• Conclusions of Lee's study (4)

  1.Moral reasoning can be influenced by culture and the society we live in and this is emphasised as we develop through biological stages (age)

  
  

  2.Chinese children rate truth telling in pro-social situations less positively than the Canadian children, illustrating that they believe that boasting about one's good deeds is bad behaviour, due to their cultural upbringing.

  
  

  3.Both cultures show similar moral evaluation of lie telling and truth telling in anti-social situations

  
  

  4.The emphasis on modesty and not boasting in Chinese children increases with age, as these moral standards are more firmly imbedded as they age.
• Research method: Strengths (2) Lee's study

  -Used a lab experiment so high levels of control

  -Cross-cultural: the culture (individualistic and collectivist) was studied, as was age and gender. Demonstrating how a range of variables were tested.
• Research method: Weakness Lee's study

  -Self-report method used & hypothetical moral dilemmas may have causedbias/demand characteristics.
• Sample: Strength in Lee's study

  -Large sample size- Moregeneralisableand any anomalies have less impact on overall scores.
• Sample: Weaknesses in Lee's study (2)

  -The samples tested were notrepresentativeof all communities. All children came from urban backgrounds (not rural).-Little understanding of the sociocultural background of all children. The class of the Chinese children was not known, which limits the extent to which we can be sure that other variables such as their class could impact on the results.
• How is Lee's study ethical?

  All other ethics upheld.
• How is Lee's study unethical?

  Protection of participants- The children may have felt pressured to give the ‘right’ answer, but felt uncertain what the right answer was. This may have caused anxiety and reduced confidence.
• Type of data: Strength Lee's study

  Quantitative data in the form of a 7-point scale used to assess their judgement of lie and truth telling. Allowing easy comparisons across the two cultural groups.
• Type of data: Weakness Lee's study


  -Ratings offer little insight into the reasons why the children chose the number they did
• How is validity high in Lee's study?

  Many controls in place- such as the deed that was selected to be used was judged the same, either prosocial or anti-social by all children, regardless of culture. Also, the researcher varied the 'good' and 'naughty' in the question that asked 'if what she/he did good or naughty?'.
• How is reliability high in Lee's study? (2)

  -Highly standardised procedure- Other than the group that they were assigned which was social or physical, the children all experienced the same procedure.

  -Quantitative data gathered - allows us to check consistency in children's ratings at different ages in both cultures
• How is Lee's study ethnocentric?

  The research leaves a question unanswered, it may have been that the differences between groups of children were not due to cultural variations but due to specific socialisation practices in schools.
• How does Lee's study illustrate the situational debate?

  Lee offers great support for a situational explanation of moral development because the research emphasises social and cultural influences.
• How does Lee's study illustrate the deterministic debate?

  Lee emphasises that social and cultural factors determine how moral development progresses.
• How is Lee's study useful?


  This new knowledge allows us to further understand the seriousness we should take when using children as witnesses is court.

  For example, understanding that some cultures deem lie telling to be more preferable in certain circumstances allows us to question whether or not a child would be a credible witness in court.
• How does Lee's study have limited usefulness?

  We can question the usefulness of the research by discussing the extent to which the hypothetical stories really measured the judgements they would show in real life. Questioning how far we can trust the results.