Purpose: To study the development of the concept of “good” and “bad” child among pre-adolescent and early adolescent subjects, with the purpose of clarifying the moral development from the cognitive side.
Subjects: The 3rd, 5th and the 8th grade boys and girls, approximately 100 from each grade level.
Method: Subjects are asked to think of the best child and the worst child they know. An inventory of 50 items, each describing a characteristic behavior of a child, is provided for each subject. He is to rate both the best and the worst child he has in his mind against each of these items.
Results:
1. Each item was tested whether it discriminated the “good” and the “bad” child as conceived by our subjects. Forty one out of 50 items discriminated significantly. No clear developmental trend was observed as to the number and the kind of the significant iertems.
2. Based on the difference score between the “best” and the “worst” child, the items were intercorrelated to from a 50×50 correlation matrix. This matrix was factor analyzed by the Complete Centroid Method and then rotated by the orthogonal rotation method developed by Kashiwagi (1969). Following four factors emerged.
Factor I: Integration of purposeful act, e.g., clear expression of opinion, willingness to do good things, etc.
Factor II: Adaptation to cultural norms, e.g., cleanliness, good language habit, etc.
Factor III: Adaptation to interpersonal norms among children, e.g., observing rules, playing tricks, etc.
Factor IV: Cooperativeness and friendliness, e.g., not selfish, cooperative, etc.
3. The factor scored of Factors II and III tended to decrease as age increased. Sex difference was observed in factor I score, male being larger than the female subjects. It was also to be noted that the factor 4 score tended to be much higher than other factor scores.
4. The analysis of the distribution shape of the factor scores in terms of Weibull distribution to determine the contribution of each factor in discriminating good and bad. Factor 1 increased the effectiveness as the age increased. Factor 2 was important for younger subjects. Factor 3 was also more important at younger age level. Factor 3 was more effective with older subjects.
Conclusion: As the age of the subjects increases the important discriminating criteria shifts from adaptation to outside norms to purposeful integrity and self regulation.
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