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Lee et al - Evaluation - Coggle Diagram
Lee et al - Evaluation
Tell a Story
Background
Limitations of previous research is that it used children in only Western countries
Method
Design: Lab experiment, independent measures. IVs were whether story was physical/social and whether story was pro/antisocial. DVs were rating given to deed, rating to what was said
Sample: 120 Chinese children [40 7 year olds (20m, 20f), 40 9 year olds, 40 11 year olds] 108 Canadian children [36 7 year olds (20m, 16f), 40 9 year olds (24m, 16f), 32 11 year olds (14m, 18f)]
Procedure: Half Chinese children social, others physical. Randomly assigned. Canadian -> 19 7 year olds, 20 9 year olds, 17 11 year olds social, others physical
Results
Prosocial/truth -> Chinese less positive as age increased, Canadian similar all ages
Prosocial/lie -> Canadian less negative as age increased. Chinese more positive as age increased
Antisocial/truth -> both positive
Antisocial/lie -> both negative
Conclusions
Moral development affected by culture
Modesty in Chinese culture shown in judgements
Both show similar moral evaluations of lie/truth telling relating to antisocial behaviours
How does the study relate to the area
A cross-cultural study which challenges Kohlberg's suggestion that the development of moral thinking is unaffected by the culture a child grows up in. Lee et al show the impact of culture through Chinese and Canadian children's evaluations of lying and truth-telling, and its use of a cross-sectional approach contrasts nicely with Kohlberg's longitudinal approach
Core studies in their pairs
How does the contemporary study change our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity
Individual: Lee et al was able to study females and males and explain how both genders develop morally, based on cultural factors. This was an improvement to the classic study as Kohlberg only studied males
No social diversity
Lee et al reinforce Kohlberg's idea that morality is developed over time as they found both Canadian and Chinese children shifted their attitudes to truth-telling as they got older
How the studies differ
One difference between the studies is that Kohlberg's study was longitudinal while Lee's was a snapshot. Kohlberg studied the participants over 12 years whilst Lee's study took much less time and did not follow participants
How the studies are similar
One similarity between Kohlberg and Lee is that they both have cross cultural aspects, meaning they compare results from different cultures. Kohlberg used children from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Mexico and Turkey. Similarly, Lee used Canadian and Chinese children from the People's Republic of China
Research methods/techniques
One strength of carrying out a lab experiment is that the experiment is highly standardised and controlled. This means that the chances of extraneous variables affecting the experiment is low and the experiment can be replicated easily. In Lee's study, the stories used for the children were the same for each child in the four conditions
A weakness of using independent measures design is that it makes results harder to compare. This is due to individual differences, meaning results may not be down to the IV but the participant's differences with others. In Lee's study, children of various ages were asked the same questions but results cannot be proven to be down to the condition but because each child is different sand are not being compared with someone exactly the same as themselves