Cultural Influence on Early Adolescents' Social Reasoning: U.S. and Taiwanese Students' Reasoning About Social Exclusion

• In Event: Collaborative Reasoning and Social Processes in Education and Psychology

Abstract

This study presents a cross-cultural comparison of early adolescents’ social reasoning in an essay task. Fifth-grade students’ social reasoning essays from the U.S. (n = 79) and Taiwanese (n = 148) samples were analyzed in terms of social domain knowledge, social information processing, and affective empathy. Overall, the current findings support the cultural difference hypothesis. U.S. students were found to generate more societal knowledge and pragmatic consideration. They tended to engage more in the response evaluation process. Taiwanese students generated more moral knowledge and engaged more in the response generation process.

Authors

• Seung Yon Ha, The Ohio State University

• Wei-Ting Li, National Taiwan University of Technology & Science

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University

• Elizabeth Kraatz, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Sangin Shin, The Ohio State University - Columbus