Developmental Analysis of Morality(Belief, Judgment & Behavior) in Relation to Attribution

귀인 경향에 따른 도덕성(도덕신념, 판단, 행동) 발달 분석

Different aspects of morality, namely, moral belief, moral judgement and moral behavior have been studied seperately. This study examined the development of these three aspects of morality in relation to internal attribution in one sample. A total of 371, third -and sixth- grade children from Masan city were responded to questionnaires on moral belief, moral judgement, and attibutional tendency. In addition, children's moral behavior was measured by the teachers' 5-item rating scale. As results, there were signigicant but low correlations among three components of morality. There were developmental differences in moral belief and moral judgement but there was no age difference in moral behavior. Compared to third graders, sixth graders were higher in moral judgement but lower in moral belief. Social experience as well as cognitive development on moral relativity could explain this paradoxical developmental trend in moral belief. There was a sex difference only on moral behavior : Girls were rated higher in moral behavior than boys. Internal attribution was significantly correlated with all three aspects of morality, .15 with moral belief, .45 with moral judgement, .14 with moral behavior, respectively. There was a significant developmental difference but no sex difference in attributional tendency: Sixth graders reported higher internal attribution than third graders. However, there was no developmental difference in correlations among internal attribution and three aspects of morality. Most importantly, internal attribution explained morality better than either age -or sex- variable. It was suggested that educational programs on morality need to focus on the internalization of it.