SOP 3015
CLASS
NOTES # 6 (Chapters 10-13)
Ch. 10: ALTRUISM AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
I. ALTRUISM & PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Prosocial behavior = behavior that benefits another (behavioral
definition)
Altruism = prosocial behavior with primary intent to benefit other
(motivational definition)
Theories: (emphasize different aspects of development)
- Ethological: adaptive behavior-- social norms
grew from evolution
- Hoffman: emphathy is inherited
mechanism for prosocial behavior, interacts with social environment
- Psychoanalytic: superego-- internalization of
standards of warm, nurturant parent; violation --> guilt
- Social Learning: reinforcement &
modeling/observation
- Indirect conditioning (negative
reinforcement) of empathic response
- Feels good to help because other
stops crying & relieves own distress
- Direct teaching, praise for
altruistic behavior
- Observation of altruistic models
- Cognitive Developmental: ability to reason
about prosocial issues parallels cognitive development
Developmental Trend
- Hoffman: Newborns show empathic distress
- 12-18 mo.: offer toys, comfort (comforting others
related to self differentiation, self recognition-- ability to
differentiate own distress from other's distress)
- 2 1/2 to 3: recognition of reciprocity with mother
prompting/ little spontaneous sharing
- 6-12: more generosity/sharing
- related to increased cognitive/role-taking
skills (recognition of need, etc.)
- greater competence &
responsibility
- Eisenberg: stages of prosocial reasoning (ex. Should Mary
help injured peer & miss a birthday party?)
- Hedonistic (what's good for me)
- Approval seeking (help because mom
will love me)
- Empathic (role taking) (help
because person feels bad, needs help)
- Internalized values (help because
it's the right thing to do-- will help even if person is disliked)
Individual differences in altruism affected by:
- Culture: some more cooperative than others
- Whiting: cooperative cultures:
· Less industrial, more
extended & interdependent families, children have more responsibility
- Socialization:
- Direct teaching &
reinforcement (long term)
- Social reinforcement, not extrinsic
reinforcement, is effective
- More effective from warm,
nurturant persons
- More effective if focuses on
internal characteristics of child; e.g. "that was kind of
you"--but need to be concrete with young child): emphasizes
altruism as personal characteristic of the child
- Not effective from selfish person
- Modeling:
- Actions louder than words/
Socially committed activists in 60's had activist parents
- Warm, nurturant models more
effective
- Discipline:
- Rational, affectively oriented
discipline associated with prosocial behavior
- Harsh, punitive discipline--
children less prosocial
II. MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Similar to prosocial behavior, but focus is on moral principles and
transgression of moral principles.
Includes affective, cognitive, and behavioral components--
different theories focus on different aspects
Theories
- Psychoanalytic: deals with affective
component of morality
- Freud: Oedipal conflict theory not
substantiated
- Is support for role of affect in
moral behavior
- Social Learning: Deals with behavioral
aspect of morality (resistance to temptation, adherence to moral
principles)
- Reinforcement of behavioral
alternatives to prohibited behavior
- Modeling of moral behavior
- Mild punishment by warm, nurturant
parent (harsh punishment alienates child, leads to external control--
child transgresses again when parent is out of sight)
- Providing rationale for prohibition
along with mild punishment very effective
- Hoffman: Study of Parent
Discipline styles
- Power assertive:
authoritarian ("Don't do that"!, Physical force)
- Love withdrawal: (I don't
want to speak to you, you terrible child)
- Inductive reasoning:
- Focuses on victim
(you've hurt your brother)
- Encourages role taking,
empathy
- Communicates social
norms
- Encourages reparation
- Inductive reasoning most
effective style
- Cognitive Developmental Theory: Focus on cognitive/reasoning
aspects of morality
- Piaget: Assessed child's
understanding of moral dilemmas
- Dilemmas: manipulated intentions
& consequences in transgressions-- breaking 1 cup while taking
forbidden jam from cupboard or 15 cups by accident when opening door.
- Stages of moral reasoning:
- Premoral (preschool) -- no
conception of rules
- Moral realism (heteronomous
morality) age 5-9
- Rules are real,
unchangeable
- Violation of rules
results in immanent justice
- Consequences more
important than intentions in considering punishment
- Moral reciprocity (automomous
morality) age 9-10 up
- Rules are arbitrary,
socially agreed upon, changeable
- Violations considered
in terms of effects on others-- Egalitarian concept of justice,
rejection of blind obedience to authority
- Punishment related to intentions
- Mature moral reasoning related to
peer conflict: increases role taking, reduces egocentrism
- Kohlberg: Extended Piaget
- Moral dilemma: assess reasoning
behind judged rightness or wrongness of act committed by central
character
- Example: Heinz steals drug for
dying wife
- 3 levels, 6 stages of moral
reasoning
- Level 1: Preconventional
Morality
- Stage 1: Obedience
& Punishment Orientation
- Deference to authority
to avoid punishment
- Example: Shouldn't
steal because could get caught
- Stage 2: Hedonistic
instrumental morality
- Concern with personal
gain (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours)
- Example: Should steal
drug so wife can continue to cook and clean
- Level 2: Conventional Morality
- Stage 3: Good boy/good
girl morality
- Concern with social
approval
- Example: Should steal
drug so wife will love him
- Stage 4: Social order
maintaining (most adults at this level)
- Law and order
morality: must obey laws
- Example: Shouldn't
steal drug because stealing is against the law
- Level 3: Postconventional
Morality
- Social contract
orientation
- Recognition that laws
are social contracts subject to change and may be challenged
- Example: Stealing is
against the law, but it would be reasonable to steal under these
circumstances
- Individual principled
morality
- Recognition that there
are moral principles that transcend laws & must be decided by
individual conscience
- Example: Should steal
drug because preservation of human life takes precedence over law
against stealing
- Is support for invariant sequence
of development
- Mixed data on association with
behavior: is associated at higher levels of reasoning & for older
children and adults
- No solid evidence for Stage 6
reasoning.
- Gilligan's idea that males have a
morality of justice and females have a morality of care is not supported
by research: males and females are similar in their moral reasoning
- Cultural variation raises
questions about universality of Kohlberg’s model.
Ch. 11: THE FAMILY
Family as system
- Changing families, changing definition of family
(father working, mother housewife, 2 or more children = 12% of families)
- Change in one part affects other parts
- Direct and indirect effects (Father support -->
mother responsiveness to child)
- Interactions differ depending on presence of
different family members
- Family embedded in larger social network, culture (1
in 5 U. S. children live in poverty)
Parenting in childhood
- Parents differ in degree of warmth/supportiveness,
control over child, and expectations/demands
- Patterns (Baumrind)
- Authoritative: High warmth,
moderate control, appropriate expectations
- Children tend to have high
cognitive and social competence
- Authoritarian: Low warmth,
high control, high expectations
- Children tend to be lower in
competence
- Permissive: High warmth,
low control, low expectations
- Children tend to be lower in
competence
- 4th pattern not in Baumrind
research: uninvolved, neglectful parenting
- Children have very low
achievement, low social competence, behavior problems
- Social class/economic stresses
affect parenting
- Lower classes more authoritarian
- Economic distress --> more neglectful
parenting
- Authoritative parenting associated
with positive outcomes regardless of socioeconomic status, but there is
cultural variation. Can't assume authoritative parenting is best for
all.
Parenting adolescents
- Adolescents striving for autonomy leads to conflict,
especially around puberty
- Need independence with safety net of age-appropriate
limits
- Emotional closeness continues
Siblings
- Sources of both support and conflict
- Viewed as important relationship / Sibs can serve as
attachment figures in strange situation
- Modeling and direct teaching from older to younger
sibs/ benefits both
- Only children (those without siblings) are at least
as high in cognitive & social competence as those with siblings.
Effects of Divorce:
- Children often show behavioral, academic problems
- Resentments/problems can remain into adulthood/ fear
for own marriages
- Probably better for child than living in continual
conflict
- Effects can be moderated with
- adequate financial support
- adequate parenting from custodial
parent
- social/emotional support from
noncustodial parent
- social support from others
- fewer additional stressors
(moving, changing schools, etc.)
- Step-parent families
- often unstable/ have difficult
time adjusting /girls tend to be less accepting of step-parent
- early adolescents show most
academic, behavior problems: about 1/3 disengage from family
Maternal employment
- Positive or negative effects depending on other
circumstances
- Children more mature, more respect
for women, girls show higher aspirations
- Higher achievement in low income
families
- Less positive outcomes if mothers
unhappy with jobs, less committed to parenting, & receiving less
social support
- Boys show lower achievement only
if not monitored
- Mothers need to work-- need to find ways to
strengthen families, provide adequate care in parents' absence
Child abuse
- First cases prosecuted under cruelty to animals laws
- Extent of Problem: about 3,000,000 cases/yr.
reported, 1,000,000 confirmed/11% of all children in community surveys
- Abusive parents
- often alcoholic or drug abusing,
but only 30% of those abused grow up to abuse their own children
- tend to have been abused
- perfectionistic
- unrealistic expectations for child
behavior
- believe in authoritarian style, physical
punishment (magnify general cultural acceptance of physical punishment)
- exacerbated by
stress/poverty/unemployment/social isolation
- Abused children
- often had problems at birth
(prematurity, complications)
- more difficult temperaments, less
compliant
- Effects of abuse
- child aggressive, low self esteem,
rejected by peers
- may be anxious, depressed
- sexually abused children also
ashamed, distrustful/ may be promiscuous, suicidal, prone to drug abuse
- some are resilient-- especially if
positive relationship is available
- most do not abuse their own
children-- especially if
- they had emotional support from
nonabuser as children
- they had therapy
- they have good relationship with
nonabusive spouse
- Solutions:
- Home visits with high risk
families following birth
- Parenting education: parenting
skills, age-appropriate expectations, stress management, social
networking skills
- Support services/respite care
- Parents Anonymous
- Family therapy
- Some are beyond help-- child needs
to be removed
Ch. 12: TV AND SCHOOL EFFECTS
Effects of Television
- Moderate TV watching does not seem to impair
cognitive development, school achievement, or peer interaction.
- TV literacy (understanding story lines & characters’
motives & intentions) limited before age 8-9, improves through middle
childhood & adolescence.
- Negative effects of TV violence on aggression
well-studied, but still not completely clear
- Correlational studies show
relationship between TV violence & aggression
- Eron, Huesman longitudinal study:
violent TV watching at 8 predicted aggression/delinquency in adolescence
& adulthood
- Lab studies manipulating TV
violence show causal relation to aggression
- Field experiments confirm
- Notel Canadian study: aggression
increased after TV introduced to area
- Friedrich & Stein nursery
school study
- children shown Batman/Superman
vs. Mr. Rogers, etc. were more aggressive in play
- Leyens et al. study of
delinquents in residential cottages
- viewing one week of aggressive
films increased aggression for both initially aggressive and less
aggressive cottages; aggression declined in cottages viewing nonviolent
films
- Effects not reduced by viewing
punishment for aggression
- Effects may be most pronounced for
children with aggressive tendencies
- Violent media also leads to “mean
world beliefs” and desensitization to violence in both children and
adults
- Other negative effects of TV
- Stereotyping (gender, race,
ethnicity, etc)
- Children susceptible to sales
pitches
- Poor nutritional messages, lack of
physical activity
- Positive effects of TV
- Education
- Sesame Street highly successful
across economic categories and in absence of parental monitoring
- Other educational programs also
effective, but more dependent on parental reinforcement
- Prosocial behavior: Mr. Rogers,
Sesame St. etc. promote-- more effective with parental reinforcement of
lessons
Computer Effects
- Can improve academic performance
if not used just for drills & teachers are knowledgeable.
- Programming computers may increase
metacognition.
- Collaborative activities with
peers enhance social skills.
- Violence in video games >
aggression.
- Greater computer literacy in
middle to upper income groups may disadvantage lower income children
- Internet use may have positive (ex.
access to information) or negative (ex. susceptibility to predators) outcomes.
School Effects
- Effective schools are authoritative schools
- Warm, nurturant atmosphere, coupled
with high expectations and good control
- Teachers make a difference
- teacher expectations important:
often hold low expectations for lower class students
- use of competitive, timed tasks
intimidates anxious students
- derogatory comments to students
affect peer ratings, lower self esteem of students
- Small school size may be beneficial
- Smaller class sizes better for
younger children and remedial classes
- need adequate resources
- ability tracking not generally
beneficial
- OK if done by subject, if all
levels have good teachers, and if lower track students integrated into
school life
- Structure (example, open vs. closed
classrooms) not related clearly to effectiveness:
- Depends on goodness of fit between
student and school may be important-- may be no one size fits all in
education.
- Schools have middle class bias/ Lower class students
do less well, but parents don't value achievement less.
- Lower achievement may be related to
school factors (perceived irrelevancy of materials, teacher behavior,
etc.)
- May also be affected by peer values
- Mainstreaming of disabled students works better if
school emphasized cooperative activities
Ch. 13: PEER RELATIONS
Most peer interactions are mixed age, but same sex/ Same sex
friends more common across life span
Functions of peer relations
- egalitarian relationships: promote social-cognitive
growth, role-taking
- reinforce and model social competence/ facilitate
personal adjustment-- to some extent even in absence of adults
- Harlow, Freud & Dann
- optimal development = adults and
peers (usually complementary)
- Poor peer relations predict
delinquency, emotional problems, especially for rejected peers
Development of peer interaction
- Peer involvement increases through adolescence
- Development of peer interaction infancy to preschool
- middle of first year: simple
social gestures, some imitation, rarely responded to by peers
- 12-18 mo. some simple turn-taking,
social play
- 18-24 mo: coordinated, reciprocal
interaction (mutual imitation/sharing)
- 2 1/2-3 yrs: cooperative social
pretend play (you be mommy, I'll be daddy)
- 3 1/2- 4 yrs: complex social
pretend play (organized roles, scripts)
- Later development:
- 7-10 yrs: Rule oriented games, and
peer groups (Sherif & Sherif, Robber's Cave study--competition vs.
cooperation)
- Early adolescence: same-sex
cliques
- Later adolescence: mixed-sex
crowds
Origins of peer relations
- Sociability has some genetic component
- Parents: Direct effects
- choice of residence
- "booking agent"
- monitoring (best if indirect)
- teaching, modeling social/play
skills
- providing preschool experience for
child
- Parents: Indirect effects
- attachment security
- authoritative parenting
Peer Acceptance-Rejection
- Assessed with sociometric ratings, paired
comparisons, or nominations (preference + Impact scores)
- Categories of peer status
- popular (high preference, high
impact)
- isolated, neglected (low
preference, low impact)
- rejected (low preference, high
impact)
- average (moderate preference,
moderate impact)
- controversial (low/high preference,
high impact)
- Rejected children: most stable over time, poorest
prognosis
- Many are overly aggressive, lacking
in social skills
- Attribute hostility to others
- Others view aggressiveness as
stable trait, continue to reject child
- Neglected children--less stable (many become
accepted)
- Antecedents:
- Parenting (authoritative,
responsive play, etc.)
- Temperament
- Cognitive skills (brighter more
accepted)
- Name (unusual names promote
rejection)
- Attractiveness, body build
(mesomorph more popular)
- Maturation (early maturing boys
more popular)
- Behavior/social skills: most
important factor
- friendly, cooperative, outgoing
more popular
- accepted kids ease into group
situation, persist if rejected
- Interventions:
- reinforcement for peer interaction
- modeling-- best with verbal
explanations
- direct coaching in social skills,
role-taking, social problem solving
- academic skill training for
children rejected because of academic failure
Friendships
- Interactions differ between friends and nonfriends
- Serve different functions than peer group-- may be
more important than popularity/acceptance
- Enhance social competence
- Provide security, support
- Teach conflict negotiation
- Buffer negative events (divorce,
lack of peer acceptance, etc.)
- Friendship networks unstable, but "best
friends" more stable from year to year, even in preschool
- Conceptions of friendship change with development
- Early: Friends are those who share
play interests
- Middle childhood: Friends have
shared values, similarity, trust, loyalty, support
- Adolescence: Friends have shared
identity, intimacy, emotional commitment
- Sullivan: same sex friendships
("chumships") important in middle childhood-- does relate to adult
adjustment
- Friends contribute to life satisfaction across the
life span
Peer group influence
- Starts in middle childhood, peaks in early
adolescence, then lessens through high school years
- Peers influence social decisions (peer norms,
personal style)
- Parents influence major life choices, scholastic
decisions
- Peers generally not deviant from parents