Carleton Author

Galotti, Kathleen M.

Department

Cognitive Science

Journal Title

Social Development

Publication Date

2006

Volume No.

15

Issue No.

3

First Page

345

Last Page

372

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

File Name

069_Galotti-Kathleen_ChildrensMoralReasoningRegardingPhysicalAndRelationalAgression.pdf

Keywords

moral reasoning, aggression, gender

Abstract

Elementary school children’s moral reasoning concerning physical and relational aggression was explored. Fourth and fifth graders rated physical aggression as more wrong and harmful than relational aggression but tended to adopt a moral orientation about both forms of aggression. Gender differences in moral judgments of aggression were observed, with girls rating physical and relational aggression as more wrong and relational aggression as more harmful than boys. In addition, girls were more likely to adopt a moral orientation when judging physical and relational aggression and girls more often judged relational aggression than physical aggression from the moral domain. Finally, moral reasoning about aggression was associated with physically and relationally aggressive behavior. Considered together, the results indicate that children tend to adopt a moral orientation about aggression, but that they nonetheless differentiate between physical and relational aggression in their moral judgments.

Rights Management

Carleton College does not own the copyright to this work and the work is available through the Carleton College Library following the original publisher's policies regarding self-archiving. For more information on the copyright status of this work, refer to the current copyright holder.

RoMEO Color

Yellow

Preprint Archiving

Yes

Postprint Archiving

Yes (with publisher permission, 0-24 month embaro depending on journal)

Publisher PDF Archiving

No

Contributing Organization

Carleton College

Type

Article

Format

application/pdf

Language

English

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