The Development Of Primary School Children’s Ability Of Fairness Cognition And The Influence Of Fairness Experience On Their Helping Behavior

With the development of the times, people’s awareness of seeking fairness has gradually increased. Many research show that people are not only concerned about the fairness of the result of an event, but also the fairness of the course of it. As the two major dimensions of fairness cognition, psychologists pay great attention to distributive and procedural fairness cognition. Fairness cognition development is an important part of children’s moral development, and has an important impact on the social development of children. In this research, developmental characteristics of primary school children’s distributive fairness and procedural fairness cognition understanding and the influence of fairness experience on their helping behavior are investigated.A comprehensive literature review was made on the concept of fairness cognition,fairness cognition related research, and the research between fairness experience and helping behavior at home and abroad.On the basis of analysis on previous studies, two studies were presented.Study 1, the development of fairness cognition studies in primary school children.This study research contains both development of distributive fairness and procedural fairness cognition. In test 1 of study 1, experimental material used is allocation task adapted from Thomson’s experimental paradigm(2005), for 150 elementary school children1,3,5 grade of the development of the distributive fairness cognition characteristics are studied. The results show that:(1) overall, primary school children’ distribution fairness behavior were affected by the principle of distribution fairness and role characters.Children in grade 1 rarely affected by role characters, and they prefer to principle of equality. Children in grade 3 affected more by productive role, and they prefer to principle of productivity. Children in grade 5 affected more by productive role and hungry role, and they prefer to principle of productivity and need.(2) There was significant interactiveanalysis in grade and gender, students in grade 5 has gender difference, but students in grade 1 and grade 3 didn’t have gender difference.(3) Subjects’ behavior intentions in distributive fairness situation could be classified as five categories: equality cognition,achievement cognition empathy cognition, internalization cognition and others. Equality cognition is the main cognition of children’s distributive fairness cooperation in grade 1,likewise, achievement cognition is the main cognition in grade 3, Although grade 5 student’main cognition is also achievement cognition, gradually transition to empathy cognition and internalization cognition. Along with the growth of the grade, equality cognition showed a trend of gradually reduce. empathy cognition and internalization cognition showed a trend of gradually increase, achievement cognition showed a trend of gradually increase at first and then gradually reduce. Primary school children in grade 3 and 5 are two critical period of distribution fairness cognition development.(4)There were no significant gender differences in distribution fairness cognition.In test 2 of study 1, we used procedural fairness situations with the child’s real life story as experimental material,for 150 elementary school children 1,3,5 grade of the development of the procedural fairness cognition characteristics are studied. The results show that:(1) Children’ procedural fairness judgments are affected by the results of the information, the judgment of the positive results of the program information is more higher than the negative judgment result information.(2) There were significant interactive analysis in grade, result and process information. In terms of 1 and 5 grade students, the score of having equal voting rights yet unfair procedural justice perception is higher than that of having no vote. For 3 grade students, the score of having equal voting rights as well as fair procedural justice perception is higher than that of having the former but the latter is unfair, which is,however, higher than having no vote. For grade and result information,significant differences under different results were observed only for first grade students,yet for third and fifth grade students it’s indistinctive. As result information and process information are concerned, under positive result, having voting rights as well as fair procedural justice perception scores dramatically higher having the former but the latter unfair and having no vote; while under negative result, having voting rights yet unfair procedural justice perception scores markedly higher than equal vote with fair procedural justice perception and having no vote.(3)Subjects’ behavior intentions in procedural fairness situation could be classified as five categories: result-orientation,authority-orientation, ability-orientation, process-oientation and others. Result-orientation and authority-orientation are the main cognition in grade 1, process-orientation is the main cognition both in grade 3 and grade 5. Along with the growth of the grade,result-orientation, authority-orientation and others showed a trend of gradually reduce,process-orientation showed a trend of gradually increase, ability-orientation showed a trend of gradually increase at first and then gradually reduce. Primary school children in grade 1 is the infancy period of procedural fairness cognition development, in grade 3 is the critical period of procedural fairness cognition development.(4) There were no significant gender differences in procedural fairness cognition.In study 2, primary school children’s fairness experience effects on their helping behavior.Using computer game task and feedbace to triggered experimental group’different experiences of fairness cognition,and set up a control group.The gender and group were independent variables, and to explore the influence of fairness cognition on helping behavior with 100 grade 5 primary school children of different.Results show that:(1)primary school children’s fairness experience had an effect on their helping behavior. The higher the fairness experience, the higher the level of helping behavior.(2) There were significant gender differences in helping behavior, girls are more likely to help others than boys.