Abstract
This study examined the developmental changes of young children's understanding of adversary's malice in a situation where they were provocated. 88 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children were asked to select a strategy from 6 strategies which they would behave and estimate the degree of the adversary's malice. The following significant results were obtained. Whether the adversary 's intention was malicious or not, 6-year-old girls would assert their opinions positively. On the other hand, 6-year-old boys would avoid interpersonal troubles. In addition, when adversary's intention was not malicious, 6-year-old children estimated adversary's malice lower than 4- and 5-year-old children. These results suggest that 6-year-old children can understand the degree of adversary's malice exactly, but they cannot select different strategies according to his/her intention.
