Representations of authority and children's moral reasoning

✍ Scribed by Patrick J. Leman; Gerard Duveen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 231 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0046-2772
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199908/09)29:5/6<557::aid-ejsp946>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

This study examines the relationship between alternative sources of authority which might in¯uence a child's moral reasoning. It returns to Piaget's (1932) work to explore features of a child's social relations which may act either to promote or constrain the communication and acceptance of moral knowledge. Children were asked to judge which of two boys was naughtier in one of Piaget's moral `stories'. Those who had independently given dierent responses were placed in a pair and asked to agree a response together. An authority of status was introduced into some pairs by varying the gender composition of the dyad and contrasted with epistemic authority derived from the arguments more closely associated with moral autonomy. In the absence of an authority of status (in same-sex pairs) in¯uence through epistemic authority occurred with relative ease. When status and epistemic authority con¯icted subjects took far longer to accept the legitimacy of the epistemic authority.