As a graduate student in Cornell University's Human Development Program, Nadia Chernyak received a $25,000 Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Fellowship to investigate young children's emerging moral cognition and prosocial behavior. One of Chernyak's research findings was that the youngest children are able to follow rules when those rules are justified with sensical, causal explanations, such as "Don't open the box because it will make other children upset." That type of approach works better than less sensical explanations, such as "Don't open the box because it's orange."
These results have important parenting implications, suggesting that explaining the justifications behind the rules and appealing to children's causal thinking might be a more effective method for getting children to comply than simply stating the rules.
The Koppitz fellowship also enabled Chernyak to explore whether young children construe moral actions as choices, rather than obligations, and how ideas about choice and morality may change across development and cultures.
Thanks to the fellowship, Chernyak was able to finish three studies, in addition to starting a new line of work on how children learn about decision making and what making choices might do for their prosocial behavior, which resulted in publications in Cognitive Science and Psychological Science. She also trained six undergraduate research assistants and began collaborating with a local children's museum.
Chernyak was also able to spend time applying for other fellowship opportunities. "In some sense, the grant had a cascading effect," Chernyak says. "Once I had a free year, I was able to secure more years devoted to this research."
Chernyak has received many accolades for her work, including the William James Prize for best contributed paper by a graduate student at the annual meeting for the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. "The Koppitz grant was immensely helpful to me," she says. "I was able to devote an entire year solely to the research I proposed, and started a large-scale study that I could not have focused on had I been busy with other responsibilities."
