Generosity towards a friend, an unknown person and an enemy: moral judgments of children and adolescents

Authors

  • Liana Gama do Vale Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo
  • Heloisa Moulin de Alencar Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v13i2.8238

Keywords:

moral judgment, generosity, friendship, enmity, bonds

Abstract

In this case study, we researched, in a psychogenetic context, if children and adolescents, when judging if a person must be generous or not towards another, are influenced by the kind of Bond (friendship or enmity) existing between those two people or by an absence of a bond (unknown). We individually interviewed, thirty students (aged 7, 10 and 13) from a public school in Vitória-ES. As na instrument, we administered a story-dilemma that used a daily school situation in which generosity could be manifested towards a character, initially introduced as a friend, as an unknown person and, afterwards, as an enemy. We verified that the majority of the participants make decisions regarding generosity based on friendship and absence of a bond. The 7 and 10 year olds, however, had a more intense generous action towards a friend than that towards an unknown person. In an enmity situation, the majority of the participants in all three age group showed an absence of generosity. In view of the results, we can affirm that the absence of a bond influences the judgment of the majority of participants in the two first age group. Enmity, on the other hand, influences the judgment of most of those interviewed from all three age groups.

 

Keywords: moral judgment; generosity; friendship; enmity; bonds.

Author Biographies

Liana Gama do Vale, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

Liana Gama do Vale possui graduação em Psicologia pela Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (2004) e mestrado em Psicologia pela Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (2006). Foi professora substituta da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo em 2006 e tem experiência na área de Psicologia, com ênfase em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento Humano, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: construtivismo, inteligência, afetividade e moralidade.

Heloisa Moulin de Alencar, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

Heloisa Moulin de Alencar possui graduação em Psicologia pela Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (1988), mestrado em Psicossociologia de Comunidades e Ecologia Social pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (1993) e doutorado em Psicologia Escolar e do Desenvolvimento Humano pela Universidade de São Paulo (2003). Atualmente, é professor adjunto da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo. Tem experiência na área de Psicologia, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: psicologia do desenvolvimento afetivo e cognitivo, psicogênese e moralidade.

Downloads

How to Cite

do Vale, L. G., & de Alencar, H. M. (2009). Generosity towards a friend, an unknown person and an enemy: moral judgments of children and adolescents. Interação Em Psicologia, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v13i2.8238

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Articles

License

The approval of articles implies the immediate acceptance, with no imposition, that the journal Interação em Psicologia will have the exclusivity of the first publication of the article. The authors will, notwithstanding, keep the copyrights for future publications. In case of republication of the articles in other media, it is demanded the mention to the first publication in the journal Interação em Psicologia. The authors also authorize their articles to be available in all the indexes of which the journal is included. 

The Editorial Board is not responsible for the concepts or statements expressed in the published works, which are the sole responsibility of their authors.

The journal Interação em Psicologia offers immediate open access to all its content, following the rationale that offering gratuitous scientific knowledge to the public promotes the democracy of knowledge and published works tend to produce higher impact. The published articles in the journal are available under the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). According to this license, the access, distribution, reusing of the articles for non-commercial sources are allowed, provided that the authors and the source is referenced. When submitting articles to the journal Interação em Psicologia, authors agree with making their texts legally available based on this license.