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4‑ to 10‑year‑olds needed for fun study on moral development

Posted by Psychology & Neuroscience on May 31, 2017 in General Announcements

The Early Social Development Lab (ESDL) at Dalhousie University is looking for 4- to 10-year-old children to participate in a pilot study on moral development. To participate in this study, children must be typically developing and fluent in English.

In the study, your child will use a computer to watch and listen to a series of short vignettes about other children in different situations. Using the computer, your child will indicate whether s/he thinks the behaviour in each vignette is bad, how bad s/he thinks it is, whether the person in the vignette should be punished, and how the situation described makes him/her feel. Because the vignettes describe situations in which a potential moral transgression is taking place, some of them may be seen as disturbing or offensive (e.g. harm to animals, unhygienic living conditions, disrespect toward others). During your visit to the lab, you will be given the option to review the full list of items to be presented to your child beforehand, and you may remove any items that you do not find appropriate. If you would prefer to see our entire list of items prior to signing up for the study, we are also willing to provide it to you. This study is helping us build a measurement to! ol for studying how moral attitudes develop in children of different ages and backgrounds.

This study involves one 35-minute visit to the ESDL at Dalhousie University. In general, we are available Monday through Saturday (morning, afternoon and evening) and would be happy to accommodate your schedule. We have reserved parking for parents and children receive a certificate and small toy as a thank-you for coming in

If you are interested in learning more or participating, please contact ESDL Lab Coordinator Stef Hartlin at esdl@dal.ca or 902 494 6106.