Judgments of Intentionality in Response to Videotaped and Verbally Presented Moral Dilemmas: The Medium Is the Message

The results suggest that previously published findings indicating that young children are unresponsive to issues of intentionality are methodological artifacts of the verbal assessment procedures employed.

Abstract

CHANDLER, MICHAEL J.; GREENSPAN, STEPHEN; & BARENBOIM, CARL. Judgments of Intentionality in Response to Videotaped and Verbally Presented Moral Dilemmas: The Medium Is the Message. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 315-320. 80 7-year-olds were presented 2 moral dilemmas, both of which were prepared in the traditional verbal format and also produced on videotape using children as actors. Each S was exposed to 1 verbal and 1 videotaped story. Moral judgments made in response to the verbal dilemmas were largely based on consequences, supporting previous studies using similar methods. Responses to the videotaped dilemmas were, however, largely based on intentions, suggesting that the actual age of onset of intentional judgments is considerably earlier than had been previously assumed. These results suggest that previously published findings indicating that young children are unresponsive to issues of intentionality are methodological artifacts of the verbal assessment procedures employed.