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Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development

Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development. Chapter 14. Instrumental aggression: major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges Hostile aggression: major goal is to harm or injure Both form and expression of aggression change with age.

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Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development

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  1. Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development Chapter 14

  2. Instrumental aggression: major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges • Hostile aggression: major goal is to harm or injure • Both form and expression of aggression change with age

  3. Figure 14.1 Trajectories of mother-rated aggression for children from age 2 to age 9 years. ADAPTED FROM NICHD EARLY CHILD CARE RESEARCH NETWORK, 2004.

  4. Rough-and-Tumble vs. Aggression? • Does rough and tumble play promote social development? • rough and tumble could easily be misinterpreted

  5. Costabile et al. (1991) • Strength and type of blows • Facial expressions • Presence or absence of laughter and angry words • Presence or absence of a crowd watching • Presence or absence of injury and crying

  6. Sex Differences • On average, boys more aggressive • Not until 2 ½-3 years of age though! • Biological differences • Socialization differences

  7. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGGRESSION • Overt aggression declines from middle childhood through adolescence • Relational aggression in girls, and indirect aggression in males increases

  8. Individual Differences in Aggression • Aggressive toddlers  aggressive 5 year olds • Aggression between 3 and 10  aggression and antisocial behavior later in life

  9. Figure 14.2. Aggression in childhood predicts criminal behavior in adulthood for both males and females. FROM HUESMANN, ERON, LEFKOWITZ, & WALDER, 1984.

  10. Individual Differences in Aggression • Few individuals are highly aggressive • 10-15% of classmates are abused by bullies • Proactive aggressors • Reactive aggressors

  11. Social Cognition of Aggression • Dodge et al. • Kindergarten to fifth grade • Given written descriptions of aggressive and nonaggressive children, asked to name others in class who fit description • Aggressive = males… • Participants = aggressive and nonaggressive boys

  12. Social Cognition of Aggression • Stories varied on: • Actions • Negative outcome vs. Ambiguous outcome • Recipient of action • Self vs. Other • Instigator of action • Aggressive vs. Nonaggressive • Task: • Decide why event occurred, indicate how they would respond

  13. Social Cognition of Aggression • Results • Hostile intent attributed more often when aggressive boy was instigator • Hostile intentions attributed to negative outcomes more than ambiguous outcomes • When imagined self as recipient, aggressive boys attributed more hostile intent, even in ambiguous situations (hostile attributional bias)

  14. Social Cognition of Aggression • aggressive boys biased • may lead retaliation • other children biased • This seems to be a characteristic of reactive aggressors

  15. Social Cognition of Aggression • Proactive aggressors may have friends and do not feel as disliked as reactive aggressors, so they may not be as likely to have a hostile attributional bias • Proactive aggressors – plan an aggressive response to achieve an instrumental goal • Expect positive outcomes • Feel capable of dominating others

  16. Support for Aggression • Peers • Reinforcement • Elicitation • Families • Coercive cycles

  17. Origins of Coercive Cycles • Parental behavior • Ineffective at controlling child, parent loses control • Indiscriminate use of rewards/punishments • Characteristics of child • Arrested development • Insensitive to social stimuli

  18. Prosocial Behavior and Altruism • Altruism – concern for the welfare of others and willingness to act on that concern • 12 to 18 month olds offer toys to peers • Toddlers can express sympathy • Verbally rebuking children and physically punishing them reduces compassion • Discipline based on affective explanation increases compassion

  19. Prosocial Behavior and Altruism • Developmental Trends in Altruism • 2-3 year olds show sympathy/compassion • 4-6 year olds – more real helping acts, fewer during pretend play

  20. Prosocial Behavior and Altruism • Sex Differences in Altruism • Girls are more likely to be helpful, generous, and compassionate than boys (small difference) • Boys less cooperative and more competitive; more interested in looking good or attaining status/dominance over others

  21. Prosocial Reasoning • Children with well-developed role-taking skills are more helpful • Prosocial moral reasoning • Preschoolers tend to be self-serving • Older adolescents are much more responsive to the needs of others

  22. One day a girl named Mary was going to a friend’s birthday party. On her way she saw a girl who had fallen down and hurt her leg. The girl asked Mary to go to her house and get her parents so they could come and take her to a doctor. But if Mary did, she would be late to the party and miss the ice-cream, cake, and all the games. What should Mary do?

  23. Prosocial Reasoning • Eisenberg found that responses formed an age-related sequence • Hedonistic responses – motivated by consideration of selfish gain • Needs oriented – consideration of others’ feelings and needs • Stereotyped – try to gain approval • Empathic orientation – judgments include sympathetic feelings • Internalized values – based on internalized values

  24. Prosocial Reasoning • Also observed behavior in classroom for 2 months (4 and 5 year olds) • Hedonistic and needs-oriented were most common responses • Needs-oriented reasoning = more likely to share • Hedonistic = less likely to share • Empathy: an emotional experience in response to another person’s emotional state or situation that is similar to that person’s emotion and is accompanied by concern for the other person

  25. Socialization of Prosocial Behavior • Modeling • Disciplinary techniques (Hoffman) • Power assertion • Love withdrawal • Induction

  26. Socialization of Prosocial Behavior • Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow • Measured mothers’ reactions to events where their child caused distress or witnessed distress • Affective explanation • Neutral explanation • No explanation

  27. Socialization of Prosocial Behavior • Attributions • Attribute a behavior to self…bowling study…

  28. Moral Development • How Developmentalists Look at Morality • Affective component – stressed by psychoanalytic theorists – moral affects • Cognitive component – stressed by cognitive-developmental theorists – moral reasoning • Behavioral component – stressed by social learning and social information-processing theorists – moral behavior

  29. Moral Development • The Affective Component of Moral Development • Freud’s Theory of Oedipal Morality • Superego develops during phallic stage • Identifies with same-sex parent • Internalizes same-sex moral standards • Girls have weaker superegos than boys

  30. Moral Development • Evaluation of Freud’s Theory • Pride, shame, guilt are important for ethical conduct • Internalization of standards is vital • Details of theory unsupported • Harsh discipline = less morality • Boys not more moral than girls • Underestimated when children begin expressing morality

  31. Story A. A little boy who is called John is in his room. He is called to dinner. He goes into the dining room. But behind the door there was a chair, and on the chair there was a tray with 15 cups on it. John couldn’t have known that there was all this behind the door. He goes in, the door knocks against the tray, bang go the 15 cups, and they all get broken.

  32. Story B. Once there was a little boy whose name was Henry. One day when his mother was out he tried to reach some jam in the cupboard. He climbed onto a chair and stretched out his arm. But the jam was too high up, and he couldn’t reach it…While he was trying to get it, he knocked over a cup. The cup fell down and broke.

  33. Moral Development • The Premoral Period • Heteronomous Morality • Objective responsibility • Immanent justice • Autonomous Morality

  34. Moral Development • Moving From Heteronomous to Autonomous Morality • Cognitive maturation – decline in egocentrism, increase in role-taking • Social experience – equal status with peers is vital • Lessen respect for adult authority • Increases self and peer respect • Shows rules are arbitrary

  35. Moral Development • Evaluation of Piaget • Describes general direction of change in moral judgment fairly well • Underestimates moral capacities of young children

  36. Moral Development • Intentions – Nelson (1980) • Read story in which child threw a ball to playmate • Motives were good or bad • Consequences were positive or negative • Acts ending in positive consequences judged more favorably than those ending in harm • Good intentions judged more favorably than bad

  37. Moral Development • by age 4, recognize the difference between truthfulness and lying • approve of telling the truth and disapprove of lying • evaluate personal injury more harshly than property injury • more tolerant of immoral acts followed by an apology

  38. Moral Development • Social Conventional Reasoning (Turiel) • 2 and 3 y/o interviewed about drawings depicting familiar moral and social conventional transgressions • By 34 months, saw moral transgressions as “more wrong” • By 42 months, said moral violations would still be wrong if undetected

  39. In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging $2000, or 10 times the cost of the drug, for a small (possibly life-saving) dose. Heinz, the sick woman’s husband, borrowed all the money he could, about $1000, or half of what he needed. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell the drug cheaper or to let him pay later. The druggist replied “No, I discovered the drug, and I’m going to make money from it.” Heinz then became desperate and broke into the store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have done that?

  40. Moral Development • Level 1: Preconventional Morality • Stage 1: Punishment-and-Obedience Orientation • Goodness or badness depends on consequences of act – bad acts are punished • Stage 2: Naïve Hedonism • Conform to rules to gain rewards

  41. Moral Development • Level 2: Conventional Morality • Stage 3: “Good Boy” or “Good Girl” Orientation • Moral behavior pleases, helps, or is approved of by others • Stage 4: Social-Order-Maintaining Morality • Right conforms to legal authority; rules maintain social order

  42. Moral Development • Level 3: Postconventional (or Principled) Morality • Stage 5: The Social-Contract Orientation • Laws should express will of majority, and further human welfare; if not, challenge them • Stage 6: Morality of Individual Principles of Conscience • Individual abstract moral guidelines that transcend laws • Rare (a hypothetical construct) • No longer measured

  43. Moral Development • Support for Kohlberg’s Theory • Are Kohlberg’s Stages an Invariant Sequence? • Individuals do proceed through stages in order • Stages are not skipped • Stage 3 or 4 is highest level for most people

  44. Moral Development • Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Approach • Issues with consistency • Ecological validity • Is Kohlberg’s Theory Incomplete? • Emphasizes moral reasoning, did not focus on moral affect or behavior • Thought mature moral reasoning would lead to moral behavior • Supported by research

  45. Moral Development • Criticisms (con’t) • Limited scope • Is Kohlberg’s Theory Culturally Biased? • Some aspects of moral development vary among societies • Cultural beliefs define morality • Is Kohlberg’s Theory Gender Biased? • Morality of justice for males, versus morality of caring for females • Not supported by research

  46. Moral Development • Criticisms (con’t) • Does Kohlberg Underestimate Young Children? • Yes, as his focus was on legalistic concepts • Did not examine distributive justice

  47. Moral Development • Damon – distributive justice rationales • Level 0 (birth-5) • Level 1 (5-6) • Level 2 (6-7) • Level 3 (8+)

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