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The age at which young children begin to make moral discriminations about harmful actions committed against themselves or others

admin2014-05-20  51
问题     The age at which young children begin to make moral discriminations about harmful actions committed against themselves or others has been the focus of recent research into the moral development of children. Until recently, child psychologists supported pioneer developmentalist Jean Piaget in his hypothesis that because of their immaturity, children under age seven do not take into account the intentions of a person committing accidental or deliberate harm, but rather simply assign punishment for transgressions on the basis of the magnitude of the negative consequences caused. According to Piaget, children under age seven occupy the first stage of moral development, which is characterized by moral absolutism(rules made by authorities must be obeyed)and imminent justice(if rules are broken, punishment will be meted out). Until young children mature, their moral judgments are based entirely on the effect rather than the cause of a transgression. However, in recent research, Keasey found that six-year-old children not only distinguish between accidental and intentional harm, but also judge intentional harm as naughtier, regardless of the amount of damage produced. Both of these findings seem to indicate that children, at an earlier age than Piaget claimed, advance into the second stage of moral development, moral autonomy, in which they accept social rules but view them as more arbitrary than do children in the first stage.
    Keasey’s research raises two key questions for developmental psychologists about children under age seven; do thev recognize justifications for harmful actions, and do they make distinctions between harmful acts that are preventable and those acts that have unforeseen harmful consequences? Studies indicate that justifications excusing harmful actions might include public duty, self-defense, and provocation. For example, Nesdale and Rule concluded that children were capable of considering whether or not an aggressor’s action was justified by public duty: five-year-olds reacted very differently to "Bonnie wrecks Ann’s pretend house" depending on whether Bonnie did it "so somebody won’t fall over it" or because Bonnie wanted "to make Ann feel bad". Thus, a child of five begins to understand that certain harmful actions, though intentional, can be justified; the constraints of moral absolutism no longer solely guide their judgments.
    Psychologists have determined that during kindergarten children learn to make subtle distinctions involving harm. Darley observed that among acts involving unintentional harm, six-year-old children just entering kindergarten could not differentiate between foreseeable, and thus preventable, harm and unforeseeable harm for which the perpetrator cannot be blamed. Seven months later, however, Darley found that these same children could make both distinctions, thus demonstrating that they had become morally autonomous.
According to the passage, which of the following about five-year-old children does the research of Nesdale and Rule suggest?
选项 A、Their reactions to intentional and accidental harm determine the severity of the punishments they assign.
B、They, as perpetrators of harmful acts, disregard the feelings of the children they harm.
C、They view public duty as a justification for accidental, but not intention harm.
D、They take into account the motivations of actions when judging the behavior of other children.
答案D
解析 推理题。由题干关键词：Nesdale and Rule定位至第二段：For example，Nesdale and Ruleconcluded that…Thus， a child of five begins to understand that certain harmful actions，though intentional， can be justified； the constraints of moral absolutism no longer solely guide their jud
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