Chinese Children's Predictions of Emotion in Rule Situations

Abstract

This study investigated children's predictions in contexts in which desires conflict with forbidden rules. Forty-eight children participated: 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and 7-year-olds, with 8 boys and 8 girls in each group. The children listened to stories and were asked to predict behaviors and emotions. The story portrayed one child who wanted to engage in an activity in a certain domain (personal or prudential), but an authority (adult or peer) prohibited him/her from doing so. Only 5- and 7-year-olds predicted more positive emotions for breaking the rule and more negative emotions for complying with the rule in the personal domain than in the prudential domain. The results indicated that older children differentiated the personal domain from the prudential domain. Older children can differentiate adult authority from peer authority. When rules were given by an adult authority, 7-year-olds predicted more positive emotions for transgression and more negative emotions for compliance than when the rules were given by peer authority. Four-and 5-year-olds' predictions did not differ when rules were stated by either of the two authorities.