Production deficiency in children's moral judgments

Attempted to determine why children at the transitional stage of operational development base their moral judgments on the objective consequences of another's act rather than on the other's intentions. 45 middle-class children (mean age, 6 yrs 9 mo) were tested on 4 pairs of moral judgment stories. 2 story pairs were of the standard Piaget type, while the other 2 varied relative to 3 treatment conditions. In the 1st condition the intentions of the story characters were made explicit, in the 2nd, Ss were questioned about the characters' intentions, and in the 3rd (a control condition) intentions had to be spontaneously inferred from the narrative descriptions. Results confirm the existence of a production deficiency as opposed to a mediational deficiency. Although Ss did not spontaneously infer another's intentions in constructing moral judgments, they were capable of making such an inference when prompted to do so, and their knowledge of another's intentions mediated their judgment of moral responsibility. (23 ref)