학령전 아동의 사회역할 개념 발달

This paper investigated children's learning process concerning age and gender, two of the most apparent social roles. The subjects of the study were 72 Korean preschool children between three to five years of age. The Study was designed to examine problems of developmental sequence and horizontal decalage in understanding of these social roles. Two five-step knowledge sequences of age growth and sex constancy were administered utilizing skill theory (Fischer, 1980). Each step in a sequence had different stories of age or sex role with increasing cognitive complexity, but the two sequences were equivalent in complexity. The children were tested under two different assessment conditions:high support condition of elicited imitation and low support condition of free play and the best story. The findings show that, the understanding of age and sex roles develops through the predicted five-step sequences. The understanding of age role seems to develop earlier than that of sex role although the developmental patterns of the two roles are similar. Variations in the children's performances under different conditions were dramatic, especially for the older children.