GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: XDF

The age at which young children begin to make moral discriminations about harmful actions committed against themselves or others has been the focus of recent research into the moral development of children. Until recently, child psychologists supported pioneer developmentalist Jean Piaget in his hypothesis that because of their immaturity, children under age seven do not take into account the intentions of a person committing accidental or deliberate harm, but rather simply assign punishment for transgressions on the basis of the magnitude of the negative consequences caused.

However, in recent research, Keasey found that six- year-old children not only distinguish between accidental and intentional harm, but also judge intentional harm as naughtier, regardless of the amount of damage produced. Both of these findings seem to indicate that children, at an earlier age than Piaget claimed, advance into the second stage of moral development, moral autonomy, in which they accept social rules but view them as more arbitrary than do children in the first stage.

Question List: 1 2

According to the passage, Keasey's findings support which of the following conclusions about six-year-old children?

  • A They have the ability to make autonomous moral judgments.
  • B They regard moral absolutism as a threat to their moral autonomy.
  • C They do not understand the concept of public duty.
  • D They accept moral judgment made by their peers more easily than do older children.
  • E They make arbitrary moral judgments.

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