Comprehension of the Objectivity-Subjectivity Distinction in Childhood and Early Adolescence

Abstract

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Children's differentiation between beliefs about matters of fact and matters of opinion.

“…The majority of the children recognized that questions about matters of fact can be judged as right or wrong but were equally divided (responding at chance level) about whether the same can be said for matters of opinion. This pattern of results is consistent with Rothbaum's (1979) findings.…”

“…Thus, explicit comprehension of subjectivity was not a prerequisite for greater conformity on objective than on subjective judgments. Using Rothbaum's (1979) methodological approaches to children's epistemological understandingmeasuring conformity to others' judgments about objective and subjective questions as well as responses to explicit questionsbut with different stimuli and simpler procedures, we found evidence that an implicit distinction between objective and subjective matters could be exhibited in children's behavior even when they do not make such a distinction in their explicit responses.…”

“…In particular, children must demonstrate their awareness that there is no single right judgment of matters of opinion, rather than reporting on this awareness explicitly. Interestingly, a 1979 study on children's comprehension of the “objectivity-subjectivity distinction” did exactly that, although the two methodologies were not deliberately contrasted in this way (Rothbaum, 1979).…”

“…In Rothbaum's (1979) study, children between the ages of 7 and 14 years answered explicit questions about age (fact/objective) and attractiveness (opinion/subjective) judgments, such as "Would one of [two differing answers] have to be wrong?" However, they were also required to make judgments themselves about the oldest and best-looking face in sets of four photographs after seeing the (purported) responses of their parents or of adult strangers.…”

“…In Rothbaum's (1979) study, children between the ages of 7 and 14 years answered explicit questions about age (fact/objective) and attractiveness (opinion/subjective) judgments, such as “Would one of [two differing answers] have to be wrong?” However, they were also required to make judgments themselves about the oldest and best-looking face in sets of four photographs after seeing the (purported) responses of their parents or of adult strangers. Results showed that conformity to the adult responses was greater for age judgments than for attractiveness judgments in the oldest children but not in the younger children and that this developmental increase in differentiation between objective and subjective judgments was linked to the increase with age in explicit understanding of the subjectivity of the attractiveness judgments.…”