The Effects Of Remorse On Children’s Forgiveness:The Moderation Of Bystander Types

The development of human beings depends on our cooperative relationship to a great extent.When our cooperative relationship is damaged by unintentional or intentional injury of our companions,we need to repair it if we want to continue our cooperation.On the one hand,repairing the relationship requires the offender to show remorse or apology,on the other hand,the injured person needs to forgive the offender.China is a country with collectivism culture.In interpersonal communication and interaction,the group concept is often emphasized,and individuals pay more attention to others’ views on themselves,so as to comply with the expectations of the group or the society.Individuals learn and live in groups from the pre-school age.The interpersonal interaction among individuals will also be affected by groups such as close companions and authoritative personnel.The research on adults shows that when the offender expresses remorse to the injured,the remorse is also a kind of pain to the injured,and the forgiveness caused by remorse can effectively promote the repair of adult relationship.Previous studies on children’s forgiveness show that children,whether as listeners or parties of injury stories,can accurately understand the remorse attitude and behavior of the injured,and make corresponding forgiveness behavior and subsequent sharing behavior to the injured.Based on the classic experimental paradigm of remorse and forgiveness,this paper explores whether children can accurately understand the remorse expressed by the injured and make forgiveness under the background of collectivism culture in China.The existing research results on the extent of children’s forgiveness are inconsistent,which need to be further verified in this study.In addition,the collectivism culture of our country emphasizes the harmony in interpersonal interaction.Whether the children will be affected by the collectivism cultural background and show more forgiveness behavior will be further explored in this study.At the same time,the constraint effect of social expectation in collectivism culture is stronger.This study aims to find out whether there are different moderating effects of bystanders and different types of bystanders on children’s forgiveness caused by remorse.In this study,120 children in the middle class of a kindergarten were selected and divided into four groups with 30 children in each group.Experimenters A and B painted with each subject,then pretended to appreciate and "accidentally" tore.Experimenter a expressed regret,while experimenter B was neutral.After asking comprehension questions and testing questions,the holder gave the child ten flowers to see how he or she assigned them to A and B,the number of flowers A and B got in the end represented the degree of forgiveness.In the final flower distribution,there was no bystander in the first group;the bystanders in the second,third and fourth groups were teachers,good friends and strangers.At the end of each behavior experiment,the holder and A、B made a clear apology to the children and thank them for participating in the behavior experiment,then completed a new painting together,and finally gave each child a gift.The above behaviors protect the children from the harm of this behavior experiment and make this behavior experiment follow the ethical principles.After the data input,sorting and analysis,the main research results are as follows:(1)Under the background of collectivism culture in China,children aged from4.5 to 5.5(middle class)can distinguish and understand the remorse of the offender,and the level of forgiveness for the remorseful is significantly higher than that for the non remorseful(2)When the bystanders were present,the children could still distinguish and understand the remorse of the offender,and make forgiveness behavior and subsequent sharing behavior,but the results were different from those without bystanders.(3)Different types of bystander can lead to significant differences in children’s forgiveness behavior,and the type of bystander plays a significant moderating role:when the bystander is his close partner(good friend),and authority personnel(teacher),the forgiveness behavior will increase,especially when the good friend is on the lookout,children’s forgiveness level is the highest;when the bystander type is unfamiliar with himself or herself,it is basically strange There was no significant difference in forgiveness level between the two groups.This paper explores the moderating effect of bystander type on the effect of remorse on children’s forgiveness,and finds a very interesting phenomenon: when children are faced with remorse and non-remorse,the level of forgiveness for non-remorse is higher when close partners are watching than when teachers are watching,which shows that children are more concerned about the evaluation of their close partners,thus showing more magnanimity.The findings of this study have certain guiding significance for the future teaching practice of early childhood education.It is expected that this study will help children learn to forgive,regret and apologize in time,and enhance their sense of responsibility in order to solve interpersonal conflicts,maintain interpersonal cooperation,and improve their mental health and moral development.