Young Children's Distributive Justice Reasoning,Behavior, and Role Taking: Their Consistency and Relationship

Young children's reasoning about distributive justice, behavior, and role taking were measured to determine their consistency and relationship in three picture stories and in three parallel real situations in the classroom. Relatively nonverbal techniques were used. Children's reasoning and behavior were related, but their actual behavior in a real situation was at a lower level than was their reasoning about a hypothetical situation. Perceptual and social role taking were related with each other and with reasoning. Each level of social role taking was necessary for the corresponding stage of reasoning.