The Effects of Possession and Ownership on the Sharing and Proprietary Behaviors of Preschool Children.

Researchers concerned with moral development have long been interested in children's social behaviors with possessions, e.g., in the sharing and the defense of objects. Nevertheless, we know relatively little about children's ability and willingness to use cues of possession to modify their behavior in a normative, socially expected manner. It is clear that even young children are relatively capable of understanding certain indicators of possession, e.g., linguistic cues (DeVilliers & DeVilliers, 1974; Ervin-Tripp, 1973), and that preschool children increasingly are able to modify their motor behavior in re sponse to simple verbal instructions (Bain, 1976; Golden, Montare, & Bridger, 1977; Masters & Binger, 1978; Strommen, 1973). However, since preschool children seldom justify sharing behavior with refer ences to norms (Eisenberg-Berg & Hand, 1979; Eisenberg-Berg & Neal, 1979), it is not clear if young children understand norms and expectations relating to ownership and possession, and if cues to possession can induce the child to consider these norms. In an earlier study we examined the effects of instructions re garding ownership of a toy on children's sharing and defense of the toy. It had been hypothesized that younger children (21/2 and 3 year olds) could not or would not respond differentially to instructions indicating that the toy was either theirs to keep or belonged to the classroom. In contrast, 4 and 5 year olds were expected to respond differentially to the instruction, i.e., to behave in ways that were