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Buchsbaum and Emde have devised a means of investigating the development in three-year-old children of moral sense and their understanding of relationships in the family. Twenty-six children were studied by starting a story and asking the child to complete it; the children proved enthusiastically capable of telling about feelings and weighing choices of conduct. Faced with moral dilemmas in how the story should come out, the children showed concern for misfortune; and they endorsed adherence to rules, but would modify them to relieve someone's hurt. The results refute the belief of many writers that morality appears only in older children, upon resolution of the oedipal situation. The method casts light on the three-year-old's awareness of family tensions and what to do about them. Some connections were found between the child's previous experience and the situation in the home, and the way the child completed some of the stories.
The paper is important, the method valid; early childhood evokes so much unsupported speculation proclaimed as fact by those who write about it that a discussion based upon excellent evidence is welcome indeed.