Patrick J. Leman

Representations of authority and children's moral reasoning

This study examines the relationship between alternative sources of authority which might influence a childs moral reasoning. It returns to Piagets (1932) work to explore features of a childs 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 Piagets moral ‘stories’. Those who had independently given different 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) influence through epistemic authority occurred with relative ease. When status and epistemic authority conflicted subjects took far longer to accept the legitimacy of the epistemic authority. Copyright

Gender, Gender Relations, and the Social Dynamics of Children's Conversations.

The authors investigated the effects of gender on the social dynamics and outcomes of conversations involving 120 children (mean age = 8 years 7 months). Children were taught particular values for different shaped counters and placed in same-gender or mixed-gender pairs with children who were taught different values. Pairs were asked to add the counters together to make a total of 100. Conversations were coded in terms of communication acts and simultaneous speech acts. Boys used more controlling acts overall and more negative interruptions in mixed-gender pairs. Girls used more affiliating acts. All children used more collaborative communication in same-gender pairings. Children whose perspective dominated used more controlling and comparatively fewer affiliating acts. When children reached a compromise, conversations were more collaborative.

Moral Decision-making in Real Life: Factors affecting moral orientation and behaviour justification

The study addresses two separate but related issues in connection with peoples real-life moral decisions and judgements. First, the notion of moral orientation is examined in terms of its consistency across varying contexts, its relation to gender and to gender role. Secondly, a new aspect of moral reasoning is explored--the influence on moral decision-making of considering the consequences of an action. Fifty-eight undergraduate students were asked to discuss two personal and two impersonal real-life moral dilemmas. The results reveal a significant interaction between gender role and type of dilemma. However, moral orientation was not consistent across various dilemmas and gender was not related to any particular orientation. Also the results indicate a significant difference between the reasoning of consequences of personal-antisocial conflicts and impersonal-antisocial conflicts. These findings suggest that different moral orientations may be embedded in life experience and connect with an individuals sense of his or her moral identity in real-life situations.

The Influence of Race and Gender on Children's Conversations and Playmate Choices

The present study examined the influence of race and gender on childrens conversations and friendship choices. Four hundred and twenty-eight children (M age = 7.5 years, SD = 0.34) from 2 racial minority groups (i.e., African Caribbean and South Asian) and the racial majority group (i.e., European) chose a picture of a playmate together with a peer. Race influenced the levels of assertion and affiliation in childrens conversations. The effects of race on conversation also varied according to the gender of the children involved in interaction. Same-race pairs tended to choose in-group playmates, but same-race minority pairs showed less marked in-group preference. Cross-race pairs selected a majority-group child as a playmate most often.

Children's implicit and explicit ethnic group attitudes, ethnic group identification, and self-esteem

An increasing amount of research explores how children distinguish different aspects of ethnic group attitudes. However, little work has focused on how these aspects tie in with other social and psychological processes. In the present study, 112 black and white children aged 5-, 7- and 9-years completed tests of implicit and explicit ethnic group attitudes, racial and ethnic identification, and self-esteem. Whereas all children exhibited coherent identification with ethnicity defined in terms of family ancestry, only black children identified with ethnicity as defined by racial colour terms. There were no differences in black and white childrens self-esteem. Children from both ethnic groups stereotyped only the black character. This stereotyping was stable with age. Positivity was greater towards the black than the white target on implicit and explicit tasks. Negativity towards the white target was evidenced on the implicit task. Positivity, but not stereotyping, was greater on the explicit task compared with the implicit task. Black but not white childrens in-group identification was associated with implicit in-group stereotypes. Self-esteem was related to in- and out-group stereotyping and positivity for white but not black children. The implications of these results for social identity development theory and social identity theory are discussed.

Beliefs in conspiracy theories and the need for cognitive closure.

An important component of conspiracy theories is how they influence, and are influenced by, the evaluation of potential evidence. Some individuals may be more open minded regarding certain explanations for events whereas others may seek closure and thus cut off a conspiracy explanation. Two studies examined the relationship between the need for cognitive closure (NFCC), levels of belief in real world conspiracy theories, and the attribution of conspiracy theories to explain events. A first, small (N = 30) and preliminary study found no relationship between NFCC and beliefs in conspiracy theories, suggesting that both advocates and opponents of conspiracy explanations do not differ on this dimension. A second study (N = 86) revealed that evidence for and against conspiracy theories had an influence on attributions of the likelihood of a conspiracy to explain a novel event. Specifically, after reading evidence individuals with high levels of belief in conspiracy theories tended to rate a conspiracy explanation as more likely whereas those with low levels of belief rated it as less likely. However, when the need for cognitive closure (NFCC) was experimentally lowered the effects of prior beliefs in conspiracy theories diminished.

Gender identity, social influence and children's arguments

This paper explores the relationship between gender, processes of argumentation and cognitive change in children’s social interaction. Hundredandtwenty children (average age, 9.5 years) discussed a moral dilemma with a same age peer. The style of children’s conversations differed between same sex (boy-boy and girl-girl) pairs and boy-girl pairs. These stylistic differences suggest that the social organisational factors or status relations that stem from a child’s gender group membership can act to obstruct the effective communication and acceptance of certain arguments (or more epistemic aspects of influence) in conversation. Further analysis of conversations points to the importance of addressing differences in perspectives when reaching agreement. Results are discussed with reference to children’s representations and resolutions of socio-cognitive conflict.

The influence of gender and ethnicity on children's peer collaborations

Gender and ethnicity are important aspects of childrens everyday social relationships, yet little is known about how these social categories influence childrens collaborative interactions. In the present study, 322 White (Caucasian) and South Asian boys and girls (mean age, 7.5 years) collaborated in pairs on easy and difficult versions of a model completion task. As expected, girls were less assertive than boys in conversation, yet this relation held only for all-Asian pairs (i.e., an Asian boy and girl in conversation). Also consistent with expectations, levels of conversational affiliation were lowest in cross-ethnic interaction. The influence of gender and ethnicity on conversations did not vary in light of contrasting cognitive demands of the tasks. Results are discussed in relation to work on effective peer collaboration and the potential role of contact in promoting positive ethnic and gender group attitudes.

Authority and moral reasons: Parenting style and children's perceptions of adult rule justifications

The style of parenting of 100 children (mean age 11 years, 5 months) was established according to Baumrinds typology. Children were asked to indicate what they thought an adult would say to justify a moral rule in five different scenarios. Results indicated that parenting style did not relate to the number of justifications that children thought adults would produce but did affect the types of justifications they thought adults would give. Children of authoritative parents thought that adults would use more justifications based on reciprocity or equality in social relations than children of authoritarian parents. The results suggest that children of authoritative parents do not perceive adults to offer a more discursive moral atmosphere than children of other parents do; rather these children are more likely than others to think that adults will justify moral rules specifically in terms of equality in social relations. An unexpected finding was that children of permissive parents tended to judge that adults would legitimise judgments by pointing to the consequences of action for other people.

Practising gender: Children's relationships and the development of gendered behaviour and beliefs

Gender, as a topic of study in psychology, can sometimes be treated as a messy inconvenience for researchers who would rather focus on illuminating universal laws of human behaviour.Developmentalists have been no less guilty of this approach than many others. Yet, gender is a topic thatwill not go away, and it will not disappear because it is a ubiquitous and fundamental part of any child’s development. As such, it is hard to imagine how a child can ever develop without gender influencing her behaviour, thinking, or social relationships. Therefore, developmental psychologists should be interested in gender because research demonstrates that from a young age children react to their own and others’ gender and think about gender in complex, subtle, and nuanced ways. By understanding how gender links with relationships across development, we can also come to understand and possibly begin to address an enduring source of inequality in adult social relationships and roles. This Special Issue explores how gender influences children’s and adolescents’ behaviour, communication, and thinking across contexts.