Evaluating Factors Related to Differences in Children's Distributive Justice Público

Abstract

A growing body of research provides a detailed picture of children's developing concern for fairness, which seems to emerge reliably around 5 years of age. Two questions nonetheless remain largely unaddressed. First, children's tendencies toward fair distributions have been measured by two different game paradigms, the Dictator Game and the Prosocial Game. It is unclear that these games are comparable measures of children's preferences for fairness, or that the preferences they measure are stable over time. Second, it is not clear whether a child's behavior on such tasks might be related to child temperament or parental attitudes. The present study compares the relative stability of children's generous, fair, or self-maximizing behavioral patterns across these two different coin-distribution games, and at two different time points. Additionally, we investigated possible relationships between children's behavior, temperament, maternal Mind-Mindedness, and parental attitudes toward fairness and generosity. Our findings indicate that 7 year-olds, but not 5 year-olds, are fairly stable in their behavior in these games over time, with significant correlations between their distributions during session 1 and 2. In contrast, we found a correlation between parent's other-regarding motivations and their children's token distribution that was significant for children aged 5, but not 7, years. Our data did not support the hypothesis that two games measure equivalent constructs, as children's behavior in one had no significant relationship to their behavior in the other. Finally, contra hypotheses, we found no clear evidence that temperament or Mind-Mindedness correlated with children's fairness behavior in the Dictator or Prosocial Game.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
The Dictator Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
The Development of Fairness and the Prosocial Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Current Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Additional Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Predictions for the Current Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
METHOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Participants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Materials & Procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Child Temperament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Mind-Mindedness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Parental Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Baseline Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Age & Gender Differences in Fairness Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Individual's Behavioral Stability over Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Individual's Behavioral Consistency Across Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Temperament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Maternal Mind-Mindedness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Parental Measures - Tip, Giving Motivation, & Prisoner's Dilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
DISCUSSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Is children's behavior stable over time?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Is children's behavior consistent across situations?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Are individual or parental factors related to children's fairness behavior?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Summary & Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
REFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
TABLE 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
TABLE 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
TABLE 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
FIGURE CAPTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
FIGURE 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
FIGURE 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
FIGURE 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
FIGURE 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
FIGURE 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
APPENDIX A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Degree	MA
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental
Palabra Clave	Temperament Distributive Justice Development
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Rochat, Philippe, Emory University
Committee Members	Goodman, Sherryl H, Emory University Nygaard, Lynne, Emory University

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