Children 6-10 Years Old Commitment To The Psychological Response Characteristics

Promise-keeping, as the core of contents of the morals quality, was not so easy for peopleto realize all the time. On the one hand, people knew what moral choice was, on the otherhand, they were stung with desire. It was not surprising that such a view had led to veryconsiderable mental conflict and reluctance to conform to moral rules.It was necessary to educate children to keep moral promise, let children learn what thepromises are, learn to differentiate between moral promise and immoral promise, and acceptthe moral promise-keeping as their own character, until finally they begin to behave well.However, the cognition of promise-keeping was not sure to transform into personal quality,more importantly, how the sense of promise-keeping changed into daily routine, which wasthe key in assessing the anticipated effects. This dissertation, therefore, was targeted atexamining the developmental characteristics of children's psychological reaction to moralpromise, and whether they showed consistency of behavior in hypothetical situation and realsituation, and thus served as a theoretical reference for moral education in the schools.90 children aged from 6 to 10 year-old were interviewed individually about threepromise-keeping dilemmas which each involved different objects of authority and peers.Participants were required to give reactions involving cognitive judgment,affective-experience and acting-incline in two different project situations. A real situationabout"moral promise"was also designed as well to examine participants'promise-keepingbehaviors.The results were as follows:1. The staring points of all psychological reactions were found between 6 and 8 years oldin unethical promise situation while at 6 years old in ethical promise situation and ordinarypromise situation. In ethical promise situation and unethical promise situation, the turningpoints of cognitive-judgment and acting- incline were found between 6 and 8 years old, andthe turning points of affective-experience were found between 8 and 10 years old. In ordinarypromise situation, the turning points of all psychological reactions were found between 8 and10 years old. 2. Comparing the two different project situations, no differences were found incognitive-judgment and affective-experience while there were differences in acting-incline.3. Comparing the two different objects, significant differences were found in allpsychological reactions. Subjects had more positive reactions as the objects were authoritiesthan their peers.4. Significant differences were found in cognitive judgment among ethical promisesituation, unethical promise situation and ordinary promise situation. Significant differenceswere found in acting-incline and affective-experience between ethical promise situation andunethical promise situation, between unethical promise situation and ordinary promisesituation.5. No significant sex differences were found in all psychological reactions.6. There were significant correlations among cognitive judgment, affective-experienceand acting-incline in ethical promise situation and ordinary promise situation, while therewere significant correlations between cognitive-judgment and acting-incline in unethicalpromise situation.7. The number of children who kept promises increased with the age increasing insituation simulation. No significant sex differences were found in situation simulation.Significant age differences were found in situation simulation.8. The concept of promise-keeping and the behaviors of promise-keeping of 6-10year-old children showed a growing consistency with the growth of the age.