GROWTH OF IDEA OF LAW IN ADOLESCENCE

Depth interviews were conducted with 120 Ss, 30 each at the ages of 11, 13, 15, and 18. Significant changes in the view of law occurred between 13 and 15. Level of discourse shifted from concrete to abstract; a restrictive emphasis was replaced by a stress on the positive aims of law; a conception of amendment was increasingly present in the later years, as was an emphasis on the intrapsychic effects of law. In general, law lost its absolutistic meanings, and was seen as functional, as a tool for achieving community ends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.