Cross-sectional Research On Cognitive Development Of School Child's Perception Of Human Nature

Research examining developmental changes in school child of Perception of Human Nature initially focused on analyzing children's person descriptions. Adopting a constructivist approach, individual constructions of the concept of human nature were investigated by using a semistructured interview about adulthood and two dilemma stories followed by semistructured interviews. Subjects were children including primary school students (7- and 8-year-olds, and 11- and 12-years-oIds) and high school students (15- and 16-year-olds) from Shanghai, China. Descriptions were analyzed to structure of children's person impressions and assess the phrase of social-cogniitive development of different ages children..The central hypothesis that structures of understanding person at different levels of complexity was clearly confirmed by analyzing the interview materials and dilemma stories, a developmental sequence emerged in the understanding of person .a shift from an emphasis on the self to an emphasis on the other, (b) a shift from the use of descriptive statements to the use of dispositional statements, and (c) a shift from a reliance on global evaluations to a reliance on personality characteristics. It is this shift in the use of person concepts that represented direct evidence for age changes in children's person understanding.Developmental stages of the concept of human nature (CHN) and development of personality showed some positive relations. The level of the complexity of social thought can interpret the positive relations between the stages.By engaging in a more detailed analysis of person descriptions, this research provided new information regarding children's person impressions and the development of person perception. In addition, this kind of analysis allowed for a re-examination of existing developmental issues and provided a link between the developmental and social psychological literatures.