[Constraint and inclination for reducing complexity--social cognitive aspects of moral judgment in children].

Abstract

When processing information about their reality human beings systematically reduce objective complexity. This is not only true in cognitive problem solving, but also in other every-day situations, e.g., when decisions in situations of moral relevance are required. From a developmental psychological point of view the adequate handling of such situations requires, on the one hand, an age-related differentiation of social cognitions, and, on the other hand, an increasingly effective structuring and integration of information. The latter developmental process, however, bears the danger that an adequate psychosocial development is substituted by a tendency toward complexity reduction in the sense of oversimplification due to the fact that such a tendency may suggest situation-specific alternative actions which are seemingly "easier to handle". In an empirical study with 176 students from Polytechnical High Schools in (East-)Berlin the hypothesis is tested if a tendency toward oversimplification in (fictitious) situations of moral relevance is systematically related to deviant behavior at school. Results show that indeed deviant students have a stronger tendency toward oversimplifying social cognitions than non-deviant students. Furthermore, it can be shown that this result is not moderated by possible sex, age or academic performance effects. As results with regard to moral judgement in the Kohlbergian sense differ substantially in their relation to academic performance and to behavioral deviance, it is assumed that the two judgement processes differ conceptually.