The Development of Children's Reasoning about Group Interdependence and Obligation

Summary

Forty boys and girls from the first, third, fifth, and eighth grades were interviewed about the meaning of group interdependence in a hypothetical team situation. It was possible to code 37 of these interviews into four stage categories. The stages, which were designed to parallel Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, involved different levels of understanding of an individual's obligation to conform and his right to expect others to conform in an interdependent group. Stage was translated into numerical score and found to correlate positively with age. Stage scores were also positively associated with the parents' occupational and educational status, but not with the children's IQ. Stage scores for a second hypothetical team situation correlated positively with the scores for the first situation and with subject's age. The stages are discussed in terms of developmental theory.