Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立師範學院 === 國民教育研究所 === 90 === The research of three year old children’s deception ability
Abstract
This research had designed and used two experiments to probe into how much <degree of difficulty of deception> and <age> could influence a three—year-old deception behavior. Experiment one was to use traditional deception methods to set up. We divided the degree of difficulty of deception into two levels, one was junior deception and the other was the high-level deception. Experiment two was using theory of mind deception research method to set up, and also divided the degree of difficulty of deception into two levels, one was the high-level deception and the other was the highest-level deception. The age group standard for both experiments would be based from 3.6 years old, older than 3.6 will be <big three-year-old group>, younger than 3.6 years old will be <small three-year-old group>
Research sample sources were taken from three places: students of a private American language kindergarten in Chung Chen district, the children of the researcher’s colleagues, and the younger sisters and brothers of researcher’s students, there are 40 children altogether. (20 in big three-year-old group, 20 in small three-year-old group, half girls, and half boys) Researchers operated the one on one experiment on the object by using the method of Experiment one and two, observation and recording the children’s behavior on a deception level.
Experiment one was using the method of traditional deceptions. For junior deception level was when deception action taking place, deceivers did not need to show concern about the other’s condition. As for high deception level when deceiving actions took place, deceiver will have to show concern about the other’s condition, and in conclusion the experiment result as follow:
1. The <degree of deception difficulty level> could easily affect a three-year-old child’s deceiving behavior, and they were mainly focused on small three-year-old group. When the degree of deception level was low, most of small three-year-old group will still show, but when degree of deception level was higher, the small three-year-old group deceiving behavior became weaker. On the opposite, the deceiving behavior on the big three-year-old group would show no matter the how much the level of degree of deception.
2. <Age> could also have an effect on the three-year-old child’s deceiving behavior, and the big three-year-old group would show more of the high-level deception than the small three-year-old group. On the junior deception part, regardless big or small group, they both showed the deceiving behavior, there was no obvious difference. On the high deception, the big three-year-old group will show the high deception behavior, but on the small three-year-old group on the high deception part they were still seeming to be weaker.
Experiment one had concluded the research result as:
Three-year-old children might show a high deception level resulting from an adult’s instruction or from a reward induced offer. They did not really show concern about the other’s condition Therefore experiment two used theory of mind deception research methods to set up a <game of hidden treasure> to find out how the big three-year-old group will react with their high-level deception. This hidden treasure game had been divided into two parts. One was the <deceiving behavior> to find out how they react on the high-level’s deception, (in this they will need to consider other people’s feeling). The other part was the <opposite deceiving>, set the difficulty degree to the highest, (react changing tactics by observing the other’s response), and find out the level of their deceiving behavior. We had concluded the research result from Experiment 2, and the result is as follows:
1. On the <deceiving behavior>, the big three-year-old group could still show their ways of deceiving, but the small three-year-old group were weaker on the deceiving behavior. This theory supported the result on experiment 2. The reason why the big three-year-old group could perform the high-level deception, was because they already known how to think about the other’s feelings and condition, but it wouldn’t be possible for the small three-year-old group.
2. On the <opposite deceiving>, most of the big and small three-year-old could not show any of the deceiving behavior when it came to opposite deceiving. That means, when they performed the deceiving behavior at the same time, although they could consider other people’s feelings, they could not change their tactics right away by looking at the other’s response to deceiving back. On the part of controlling other people’s thoughts, they were still just the beginning, and they couldn’t handle it very well.
All and all, this research had used traditional deception methods and theory of mind deception research methods, and it had explained the <degree of deception difficulty> and <age> had effected on the three-year-old child’s deceiving behavior. On the difficulty level also divided to junior level deception, high-level deception and highest-level deception, three levels. The result of the research showd, when the degree of deception difficulty increases, the performance of deceiving behavior gets weaker. For example, every one could perform deceiving behavior in the junior level, but only the big three-year-old group could perform in the high-level not the small group. Neither of the big or small groups could perform the deceiving behavior in the highest-level of deception.
On the age aspect, the big three-year-old group could perform both junior and high-level deception, but the small group could only perform the junior level deception. In the highest - level deception neither the big group or the small group could perform the deception behavior. The conclusion was the big three-year-old children that would have the ability with the higher-level of deception behavior than the small three-year-old children.
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