CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AND SOCIAL LIES - A DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE FORUNDERSTANDING HONESTY AND KINDNESS IN SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

To provide an assessment of the dynamics of development of complex soc iomoral concepts, a 10-step scale for assessing development of underst anding relations between honesty and kindness was administered under m ultiple assessment conditions to 113 youths who were 9-20 years old. T he sequence proved to be both scalable and reliable, even while level of understanding varied greatly as a function of contextual support an d practice. Development moved through 3 age periods: With high support and practice, youths age 9-12 demonstrated abstract concepts of hones ty and kindness, youths age 13-15 demonstrated simple abstract relatio ns, and youths age 16-20 demonstrated complex abstract relations. Inde pendent of age and verbal intelligence, understanding related to proso cial problem solving but not to nonsocial problem solving.