{"id":570,"date":"2023-03-03T19:13:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T19:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/chapter\/psych-in-real-life-moral-reasoning\/"},"modified":"2023-07-13T21:42:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T21:42:00","slug":"psych-in-real-life-moral-reasoning","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/chapter\/psych-in-real-life-moral-reasoning\/","title":{"raw":"Adolescent Development: Learn It 4\u2014Moral Reasoning in Infants","rendered":"Adolescent Development: Learn It 4\u2014Moral Reasoning in Infants"},"content":{"raw":"

Moral Reasoning in Infants<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3952\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"433\"]\"Young<\/a> Figure 1<\/strong>. Maybe babies know more than we think they do![\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe work of Lawrence Kohlberg was an important start to modern research on moral development and reasoning. However, Kohlberg relied on a specific method: he presented moral dilemmas (like the Heinz problem) and asked children and adults to explain what they would do and\u2014more importantly\u2014why they would act in that particular way. Kohlberg found that children tended to make choices based on avoiding punishment and gaining praise. But children are at a disadvantage compared to adults when they must rely on language to convey their inner thoughts and emotional reactions, so what they say may not adequately capture the complexity of their thinking.\r\n\r\nStarting in the 1980s, developmental psychologists created new methods for studying the thought processes of children, even of infants long before they acquire language. One particularly effective method is to present children with puppet shows, which grab their attention, and then record nonverbal behaviors, such as looking and choosing, to identify children\u2019s preferences or interests.\r\n\r\nA research group at Yale University has been using the puppet show technique to study moral thinking of children for much of the past decade. What they have discovered has given us a glimpse of surprisingly complex thought processes that may serve as the foundation of moral reasoning.\r\n

EXPERIMENT 1: Do children prefer givers or takers?<\/h2>\r\nIn 2011, J. Kiley Hamlin and Karen Wynn put on puppet shows for very young children: 5-month-old infants. The infants watch a puppet bouncing a ball. We\u2019ll call this puppet the \u201cbouncer puppet.\u201d Two other puppets stand at the back of the stage, one to left and the other to the right. After a few bounces, the ball gets away from the bouncer puppet and rolls to the side of the stage toward one of the other puppets. This puppet grabs the ball. The bouncer puppet turns toward the ball and opens its arms, as if asking for the ball back.\r\n\r\nThis is where the puppet show gets interesting (for a young infant, anyway!). \u00a0Sometimes, the puppet with the ball rolls it back to the bouncer puppet. This is the \u201cgiver puppet\u201d condition. Other times, the infant sees a different ending. As the bouncer puppet opens its arms to ask for the ball, the puppet with the ball turns and runs away with it. This is the \u201ctaker puppet\u201d condition. Although the giver and taker puppets are two copies of the same animal doll, they are easily distinguished because they are wearing different colored shirts, and color is a quality that infants easily distinguish and remember.\r\n\r\n
The bouncer puppet and taker puppet video looks like this:\r\n\r\n[video width=\"320\" height=\"240\" mp4=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/855\/2017\/03\/02150836\/Bouncerhelper-2.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n\r\nText alternative for the bouncer puppet and taker puppet video available here (opens in new window)<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/section>Each infant sees both conditions: the giver condition and the taker condition. Just after the end of the second puppet show (i.e., the second condition), a new researcher, who doesn\u2019t know which puppet was the giver and which was the taker, sits in front of the infant with the giver puppet in one hand and the taker puppet in the other. The 5-month-old infants are allowed to reach for a puppet. The one the child reaches out to touch is considered the preferred puppet.\r\n\r\n
[ohm2_question height=\"575\"]4341[\/ohm2_question]<\/section>Remember that Lawrence Kohlberg thought that children at this age\u2014and, in fact, through 9 years of age\u2014are primarily motivated to avoid punishment and seek rewards. Neither Kohlberg nor Carol Gilligan nor Jean Piaget was likely to predict that infants would develop preferences based on the type of behavior shown by other individuals.\r\n\r\n
The puppet show is over and the experimenter is holding the two dolls\u2014the giver puppet and the taker puppet\u2014in front of the infant. The reaching behavior of the infant is being videotaped for later analysis.What do you think? Make a prediction about the results of this study\u2014which should reflect your own \u201ctheory\u201d of children\u2019s ability to judge and care about the types of behavior others display. Do you think infants will choose the taker or the giver puppet? Do you expect the results to be significant?INSTRUCTIONS: Adjust the pink\u00a0bar on the left to show the percentage of infants who reached for the giver puppet. The yellow\u00a0bar on the right will automatically adjust to make the total (sum of both bars) equal 100%.