Cognitive and Affective Aspects of Children's National Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the joint effects of the child's level of intellectual maturity and of his system of preferences on his ability to understand that people other than himself (nationals of his own and of other countries that he ‘liked’ or ‘disliked’) would behave on the basis of principles guiding his own behaviour. The development of this ability to ‘reciprocate’ was investigated using tests of a fairly concrete nature and one actual play situation. The study confirmed previous findings, that as a function of age the children's preference for their own country becomes more marked and consistent and that they are also increasingly able to adopt the point of view of others; it has also shown, however, that this capacity is affected by the order of preferences in the sense that it is achieved with greater difficulty for countries which are disliked. These combined effects of age and affectivity, together with clear‐cut differences that were found between the behaviour of children from different social backgrounds, suggest that the development of national and international attitudes can be best understood when three major variables are taken into account: level of intellectual development, breadth of relevant experience, and the socially derived system of preferences.

Research on Enemy Images: Present Status and Future Prospects

“…The mediated nature of perceptions of other nations not only emphasizes the importance of the mass media and of political leaders, but also has additional, far-reaching implications for the psychology of enemy images. For example, Piaget and Weil (1951; see also Jahoda, 1962Jahoda, , 1964and Middleton, Tajfel, & Johnson, 1970) have pointed out that as children develop they are increasingly able to take the points of view of people from other nations. Thus, from an individual cognitive perspective, adults should be able to overcome the simplistic tendency to see nations as either good (friends) or evil (enemies).…”

National identifications and attitudes to national ingroups and outgroups amongst children living in the Basque country

“…However, some national outgroups may still be positively liked and evaluated, although to a lesser extent than the ingroup (Barrett & Short, 1992;Johnson et al, 1970;Lambert & Klineberg, 1967;Middleton et al, 1970). Once a relative order of liking of national outgroups has been established, this order tends to remain stable and consistent across the remaining childhood years (Barrett & Short, 1992;Jaspers et al, 1972;Johnson et al, 1970).…”

Images of European people in a group of 5–10‐year‐old English schoolchildren

“…The investigation of children's conceptions of people from other countries has, in the past, been a very active area of developmental research; however, virtually .all work in this field has ceased since 1973 (see Davies 1968;Jahoda, 1962Jahoda, , 1963Jahoda, , 1964Johnson, , 1973Johnson, Middleton & Tajfel, 1970;Lambert & Klineberg, 1959, 1967Meltzer, 1939Meltzer, , 1941aMiddleton, Tajfel & Johnson, 1970;Piaget & Weil, 1951;Tajfel & Jahoda, 1966;Tajfel, Jahoda, Nemeth, Rim & Johnson, 1972;Tajfel, Nemeth, Jahoda, Campbell & Johnson, 1970). This absence of recent research is unfortunate, because there is likely to be a substantial increase in human mobility across the national boundaries of Europe in forthcoming years as a result of the legal and political changes which are currently taking place; as a consequence of these changes, European children are likely to come increasingly into contact with people from other European countries in future years, with many families living and working alongside people of other national origins.…”