Psihološka Obzorja (Dec 2001)
The development of human nature in childhood
Abstract
The article deals with the development of human nature in children from 4 to 12 years of age. The concept of human nature is described by Oerter (Oerter, 1991, 1994; Oerter, Oerter, Agostiani, Kim, in Wibowo, 1996) in his theory of development of implicit anthropology. Two procedures were applied in the research: an interview on adulthood and a social dilemma story, which was followed by a guided interview. The distribution of the developmental stages of the concept of human nature in children of different age is presented, along with the frequency of higher-stage answers that progressively rises with subject's age. The frequency of the answers on the first, the second and the third developmental stage is compared between sexes. Higher level of conceptualisation of human nature in girls was found when compared with boys. The intering in personality, social and action theory are explained.
