Social Interactions and the Development of Social Concepts in Pre-School Children.

This study investigated social interactions and the development of social concepts in preschool children in terms of two conceptual domains, the moral and the societal. The former has to do with concepts of justice and fairness, the latter with social conventions, rules and social organization. Subjects were children 3 to 5 years of age enrolled in ten preschools. Preliminary results include data from observations made at four of these schools. A total of 98 events that involved social conventional or moral transgressions were observed and rated. The data suggests that essential information regarding the injustice of the act is directly available to the actor through the nature of the victims' response. It thus becomes possible for the very young child to construct conceptions of morality. Social connections, however, cannot be discussed in terms of personal loss but rather in relation to the social order. Responses to moral transgressions appear to be qualitatively different from those made to violations of social conventions. It is argued that since there is no difference in intensity of adult responses to moral or social conventional transgressions, the intensity of adult responses cannot be viewed as a salient variable to the child. The data seems to support Piaget's suggestion that it is the peer interactions which are the more salient events in the development of the child's moral reasoning. (MS)