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- Title
'What I Want and What You Want': Children's Thinking about Competing Personal Preferences.
- Authors
Komolova, Masha; Wainryb, Cecilia
- Abstract
This study examined how children reason about competing personal preferences. Seventy-two participants (mean ages 5 years 5 months, 10 years 4 months, and 17 years 7 months) considered three hypothetical scenarios in which a protagonist's personal preference was in conflict with her or his friend's personal preference. Scenarios varied in the relative weightiness of each character's desires. Whereas 5- and 10-year-olds prioritized the friend's preference across scenarios, 17-year-olds affirmed the character's prerogative to act according to her or his own preference except when the friend's preference was weightier. Nevertheless, regardless of age, participants generally reasoned about these situations in terms of autonomy and friendship rather than as moral obligations. The findings contribute to our understanding of how children of different ages work out the boundaries of the personal.
- Subjects
REASONING in children; CHILD psychology; CHILD development; FRIENDSHIP; INTERPERSONAL relations; SOCIAL interaction; PREFERENCES (Philosophy); COMPETITION (Psychology) in children; CONFLICT (Psychology) in children
- Publication
Social Development, 2011, Vol 20, Issue 2, p334
- ISSN
0961-205X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00589.x