Abstract:
The purposes of this thesis were to compare the development of the ability to use motive information to make trait inference and to predict prosocial behavior in 5, 8, and 11 years-old children. There were 120 participants in the study: 20 boys and 20 girls in each age group. Each participant was presented with 4 types of situation in counterbalance order. A 3 x 2 analysis of variance (mixed design) was conducted for statistical analysis. The results are as follows: 1. In situations that the motive information is in accordance with the outcome, the ability to make trait inferences of others in five, eight, and eleven-year-old children is not different. 2. In situations that the motive information is contradictory to the outcome, the ability to make trait inferences of others in five-year-old children is less than the eight and eleven year-old children (p< .01). 3. In situations that the motive information is in accordance with the outcome, the ability to predict prosocial behavior of others in five, eight, and eleven-year-old children is not different. 4. In situations that the motive information is contradictory to the outcome, the ability to predict prosocial behavior of others in five-year-old children is less than the eight and eleven-year-old children (p< .01)