年幼儿童特质稳定性理解的乐观主义

Young Children’s Optimism on the Stability of Traits

以个别测查法或问卷法分别对4-5 岁的幼儿、7-8 岁的小学低年级儿童和20-22 岁的大学生共120人进行了8个故事测验,以考察他们对于积极或消极特质稳定性的理解。采用重复测量方差分析统计发现,各年龄组对于消极特质稳定性的预测分数差异显著,在积极特质稳定性上的预测分数则不存在显著的年龄差异。这一研究结果表明,与作为成人组被试的大学生相比,无论是消极特质还是积极特质,幼儿与小学低年级儿童对它们的稳定性都持有一种积极乐观的态度。尽管这种乐观态度是超现实的,但在保护年幼儿童的自尊和动机方面扮演了重要角色,对于解释青春期无助感和自杀的发生具有一定的意义。

To examine young children’s understanding of the stability of traits, eight short constructed stories, showed with a set of drawings or on the paper, were used to test 40 children (4-5 years old) from the kindergarten, 40 students (7-8 years old) from elementary school and 40 undergraduate students (20-22 years old) from a normal university as an adult group. In predictions on negative traits, all the age groups had significant age differences, which didn’t exist in reasoning on positive traits. These results suggested young children were more optimistic than the adult group. The sources of young children’s optimism, implications of the optimism and age difference in the incidence of depression of helpless are discussed.