Abstract

ALVES, Ariadne Dettmann; ALENCAR, Heloisa Moulin de  and  ORTEGA, Antonio Carlos. Examples on the importance of love: a study with children in the context of morality. Temas psicol. [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.1, pp. 261-272. ISSN 1413-389X.

This study investigated children's judgments about the choices of most and least important examples of love. We interviewed 40 school children aged 6 and 9 years old, individually, using the clinical method proposed by Piaget. On the most important examples chosen, were considered, above all, 'love for particular(s) person(s), which increased with age', 'actions of love to others' and 'actions with love'. Most of the justifications for this choice were related to 'positive results for oneself', which increased with age. On the least important examples of love, the students aged 9 mainly, said they did not exist, and the 6-years old elected the 'actions with love'. The arguments for the choice of these examples were, especially, for their 'minor importance', which showed an increase with age. From these considerations, this paper extends the discussion on the importance of love in the development by contributing with support for proposals to intervention in education in moral values.

Keywords : Moral development; Moral judgments; Virtues; Love.

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