Development of the concept of promise in contemporary schoolchildren: Their contextual considerations regarding promise keeping

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to reexamine the developmental feature of considering others' feelings and not considering one's duty to a group, based on Yamagishi's article which analyzed the promise concept in contemporary schoolchildren in Tokyo. The investigation was conducted in Nagano prefecture. A questionnaire was used to ask children in second, fourth and sixth grades whether they would keep or break promises in A scenarios in which various contextual factors against keeping these promises were included, adding 2 new situations to clarify the developmental feature. The fourth and sixth grade respondents were also asked to state reasons. The results were as follows: 1) the same tendency was found in both new situations and former ones. 2) the same tendency was found in Nagano, as in Tokyo, indicating no regional difference, 3) when stating reasons, there were many who stated concern for other's feeling (especially in fourth grade), and while many fourth graders felt a sense of duty to a group, there were many sixth graders who responded to promise situations flexibly, coordinating both positions. The findings are discussed with reference to Kohlberg's stage 3 and contextual relativism.