Unit 4 – Early Social and Emotional

Development
CH 12: EARLY SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Mutual Regulation Between Infants and Caregivers

 Key to development of this two-way system is effective communication between the infant
and the caregiver.

Crying
 Most important form of communication.
 Serves as a stimulus to trigger innate caregiving behaviors by the mother, by informing on
the baby’s state/condition.
 Can be conditioned.
 For communication: 1) diff cries should comm diff messages 2) listeners must be able to
discrim diff cries.
 2) comes with experience.
 Both elements of nature and nurture → elicited by various internal and external stimuli.
Baby learns to use the crying response → control mother’s attention and care.

Emotions and the Affective System

 Babies communicate aversions and preferences (likes/dislikes) called emotions – internal
reaction or feeling which may be +ve or -ve and reflect a readiness for action.
 Affect – outward expression of emotions thru facial expressions, gestures, intonation
etc.…
 Important component in mutual reg b/w babies and their mothers.

Development and Expression of Emotions

 Most affects are expressed through facial expressions → baby can do all those of an adult.
 A way to assess a babies’ facial expression has been created.
 Primary emotions:
 Distress by crying
 Interest by staring attentively.
 Disgust elicited by unpleasant tastes or odours
 Pleasure by smiling (3 months of age) – response to familiar events.
 Diff smiles have been identified → anticipating smile and satisfactory smiles.
 Sadness and anger – experimentally determined by inducing frustration (4mths of age)
 Fear – (7-8mths)
 Expression = how the baby is feeling about a situation.
 Secondary emotions (self-conscious):

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  Embarrassment – feeling of exposure and respond by looking away + shy smile.
 Empathy – vicariously experience another’s emotional state or reaction (distress). Crying
when other’s cry.
 Need to develop a sense of self first.
 Jealousy – shown when parents attention is to another.
 Secondary emotions (self-conscious evaluative)
 Shame, guilt and pride.
 Req comparison of one’s beh to a standard (expectations set by parents or external
rules)

Socialization of Emotions
 Mainly a biological process → early infancy = shaped by cultural practices.
 Modelling – children follow their role models expression of emotions (whether that may
limited (e.g. japan) or expressive).
 Reinforcement processes – rents respond more to their child’s positive emotions than
negative ones.
 Communication – parents and child are constantly discussing emotions.
 Awareness of display rules of their culture – the expectation or attitudes a society holds
toward the expression of affect. → child begins to not mirror closely emotions and affect →
what they express may not be what they’re acc feeling.
 Regulating Emotional Reactions
 Negative parent responses (punitive/dismissing) → interfere w/ child’s ability to reg
emotional arousal → increase their arousal and emotional dysregulation.
 Warm parental response (supportive) → accepting of child’s feelings and open to
discussion.
 Distractions (e.g. it’s just a story!)
 Problem solving – giving child alternative ways to cope with emotions.

Recognizing Emotions
 Child NEEDS to be able to interpret mother’s emotions.
 Development of Recognition
 < 6 wks: NONE AT ALL.
 > 6 wks: able to discriminate diff emotions → but just facial expressions not acc
emotions.
 5-6 mths: clearer understanding of emotional expression.
 ~2 yrs: use external info to reg their own behavior. Use another person’s emotional
reactions to understand the enviro and adjust (glass cliff example).
 Able to make social referencing → with external responses (from mom and dad). E.g.
if they hear an animal bark they look at mom for response.
 Mother’s know they have inf on the infant’s responses to the situation.

Face to Face Interactions

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 Fundamental to the dev of an effective comm system between mom and child +
attachment that is secure.
 Microanalysis – analyzing with two video cameras the face to face interaction between
a mom and child and able to look at the response frame by frame at two perspectives.
 Shows inf on one another.

Caregiver-Infant Interaction Cycles

 Cycle: Attention/interest to inattention/avoidance.
 Early interactions are imp cuz → show baby’s capacity for emotional regulation → inc +ve
feelings and dec -ve feelings by adjusting beh.

Caregiver-Infant Interaction Patterns

 Caregiver learns to adjust affective displays during child’s period of attention/interest.
 Develops an interactional synchrony.
 Mom maximizes “teaching” and baby regulates this amount.
 Caregiver then alternates in responses to babies response → primitive dialogue between
them.
 Affect mirroring – the degree to which they gauged their communicative behaviours to
respond to input from their infants (moms).
 Level of affect mirroring correlates to child’s behavior patterns.
 More = positive affect and less = negative affect.

When Interaction is Disrupted

 Still-face paradigm – child starts to get mothers attention → start to show distress →
eventually gives up and looks away.
 Interaction is initially comfortable but is disrupted → other party has trouble coping
with new interactional style.
 E.g. clinically depressed mothers have children who are more irritable and cry a lot →
nursery teachers don’t see this → proof that mother-child interaction is important.
 Premature babies – are asleep most of the time → more irritable and over aroused by social
stimulation. Holding babies (skin to skin) helps. Eventually they catch up.

Temperament
 The aspect of personality studied in infants, which includes their emotional expressiveness
and responsiveness to enviro stimulation.
 Focusing on how a baby completes a task rather than what task they are completing.

Defining Temperament

Inherited?
 Twin studies (identical/fraternal) show that some portion of temperament is transferred
through genes. Identical > fraternal.

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Stable?
 Some research shows that infants’ beh style remain stable over time → thanks to
longitudinal studies.
 Could be due to the fact that genes don’t change over time, or that child’s environment of
child is fairly constant in early life.
 Instability → change in environment or some genetic plan.

Evident in Early Life?

 Mixed evidence → charac of fetus (stable through last months of pregnancy) = good
indicators of child’s temperament. Some differences appear (involving irritability and
negative responding).

Conceptualizing Temperament
 Examining three models of temperament.

1) Early Approach: Goodness of Fit

 Concerns the goodness of fit between baby’s response style and their surroundings.
 Degree = degree of inf of the infant temperament on later dev.
 = NYLS (New York Longitudinal Study) carried on for 40 yrs.
 Goal: develop categories of infant temperament and examine whether these categories
related to the child’s social and emotional development at later ages.

Easy Baby 
Regular patterns of eating, sleeping and toileting.

Adapt to changing situations easily and +ve happy
mood.
 Willing to approach new objects or ppl.
 Reactions are low-mod intensity.
 = 40% of all babies
Difficult Baby  Schedules less predictable.
 Uncomfortable with situation changes = -ve mood +
crying.
 Withdraw from new experiences and react intensely to
most environmental stimulation.
 = 10% of all babies.
Slow-to-Warm Baby  Adapts to poorly changing sitchs and tends to withdraw
from unfamiliar ppl or objects.
 Less active → responds at a low intensity.
 = 15% of all babies.
*35% of babies don’t fit in any category.

 This categorizing method is subject to bias by the parent.

 Questionnaire instead of interview is alt – respond to objective questions.
 Can produce quantitative info that can be further manipulated.

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  Subject to bias and confusion.

2) EAS Model
 Biological – temperament is an inherited personality trait that shows early onset.
 Key components of temperament: emotionality, activity and sociability + shyness.

 Emotionality – how quickly a baby becomes aroused and responds negatively to stim from
enviro.
 Differences are from infant nervous systems being diff; some infants have a quicker
trigger response than others.
 Revealed through general distress reactions → → → eventually fear or anger responses.
 Activity – baby’s tempo and energy use.
 Activity level determines how fast the infant can go, but enviro tells the direction.
 High in this = very mobile.
 Sociability – infant’s preference for being with other people.
 Innate preference to stimulation derived from ppl rather than from things that the baby
is familiar with
 Assessed in the baby’s rxns to unfamiliar ppl.
 Shyness – child’s response to unfamiliar persons (home + elsewhere). Wariness > social
activity.

 Observing the interaction of characs determ by genes and interaction with characts of their
social and physical environment.
 Uses the EAS temperament survey; questionnaire completed by rents.

3) Rothbart’s Model
 Biological – reflecting inborn differences in infants’ physiological functioning.
 Observe reactivity and self-regulation through a questionnaire done by rents.

 Reactivity – how easily and intensely a baby responds to stimulation (kind of like
emotionality). INCLUDES POSITIVE AROUSAL (e.g. smiling/laughing).
 Self-Regulation – ability to increase or reduce reactivity. Change as the baby gets older.

4) Physiological Processes - Cortisol

 De-emphasized environmental factors.
 Diffs in stress reactivity → evidenced by inc in cortisol levels.
 Focus on negative emotionality → shy/inhibited children show more stress reactivity.
 Related to aggression, extroverted sensation-seeking behaviours and low self-control.
 Not necessarily causation.

Temperament and Social Interactions

 Infants social interaction  influenced by personality + degree these characs math the
demands of the enviro.

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 Quality of children’s social interactions → affect their cognitive development.

Temperament and Behaviour Problems

 Focus on two categories of infant personality: level of difficulty and level of inhibition.

Difficult  “Difficult babies” displayed more behavioural problems in early childhood

Infants than others → scheme may serve as early screening for later problems. (via
longitudinal study).
 Some correlation has been found, b/w detecting behaviour problems early
on and adjustment problems in later childhood.
 Baby’s temperament can be fed by caregivers → e.g. crying baby increases the
chances that parents will respond in a less optimal manner = problems in
relationship. (goodness of fit concept).
 Results also from parent attitudes, expectations or approaches to child
rearing NOT their actual characs.
 Could provide ethological advantages → e.g. inc chance of survival in East
Africa
Inhibited  Tendency to quickly respond in a negative manner to an unfamiliar situation.
Infants  Have risk for future behavioural problems.
 Study: 75% of children who had been identified as inhibited/uninhibited
displayed consistent behaviour 6yrs later (by examining behavioural
measures).
 More likely to exhibit characteristics of social anxiety with strangers.
 Greater physiological arousal (heart rate and pupil dilation) shown in inhibited
children that stayed consistent.

 Inhibition/uninhibition is variable and not concrete → hard to tell if a pattern exists over
time.
 Shyness and timidity can also be inf by factors related to experience and socialization.

Attachment
Developmental Course of Attachment
PHASE 1 (b to 8-12 wks): Indiscriminate Social Responsiveness
 Respond positively to anyone but quickly develop a preference for mother’s face
(peripheral stuff) and voice (since fetus).
 Maternal bonding occurs during a sensitive period immediately after birth (done by skin
to skin) → the emotional bond to the baby that develops very quickly.
 Early contact is not necess for such a bond – e.g. babies and mothers separated due to
illness at birth or adoptive babies.
PHASE 2 (2-7mths): Discriminate Social Responsiveness
 Direct social responses to caregivers and other familiar people; strangers assume second
class status.

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  Interactional patterns = communication = unique relationship b/w them.
 Child develops cognitive representation of the caregiver.
 Child uses social-referencing process w/ caregiver and caregiver uses this to her
advantage to exert control over the child.
 Dev of sense of self, understand that they can change the world on their own.
PHASE 3 (8 mths – 2.5 yrs): Focused Attachment
 Emotional development – fear emerges as a dominant emotion → improvement in
memory and cognitive functions = aware of familiar and unfamiliar surroundings and
react to such experiences negatively.
 Wariness of strangers is common → baby cries and retreats to the mother,.
 Produces separation protest = crying and searching after mother.
 Distress reduced when reunited with mom.
 Physical Development – get first personal control of their location via crawling → crucial
to attachment process. Baby no longer needs crying to gain proximity to his mom or
father.
 Emotional + physical dev = caregiver is a secure base. Reg feelings of fear by controlling
their distance.
 Attachment is created with more than just the mother, but with different hierarchies.
PHASE 4 (3yrs+): Goal Corrected Partnerships
 Able to modulate their own actions and responses → decrease in need for attachment.
 Inc in cognitive abilities => understand parents as separate individuals → gain reciprocal
relationships (more partnership)
 = lifelong mature attachment behaviours.
 Less need for rents and transfer their needs for emotional security to peers → then
romantic partners → other inmate relationships

Assessing Attachment
 Two major methods have been developed: Strange Situation Procedure and the Attachment
Q-Set.

Strange Situation Procedure

 Studying the child interacting with caregiver and with an adult stranger in an unfamiliar
setting → interest: baby’s reactions when separated from the caregiver and when reunited
with her or him (remember video)
 Pattern A babies are insecure-avoidant – show little distress at separation, and avoid
caregiver upon return.
 Pattern B babies are securely attached – secure to explore freely , display distress upon
leave, and enthused when returned.
 Pattern C babies are insecure-resistant – evidence of distress t/o the procedure
(separation). Reuniting = mixture of relief and anger towards. 15% of babies.

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 New: Pattern D babies are insecure-disorganized/disoriented – unpredictable, distressed
response to separation from and reunion with mother. By-product of disrupted/unusual
maternal behaviours = feeling of abandonment.
 Pattern B is secure and healthy; A, C and D are not.
 Structured observation method → applied the same way at diff times by diff researchers.
Recorded responses can be re-observed for clarity.
 Disadvantage – brief sampling of child interactions in an unfamiliar setting and enviro +
mother’s beh is strictly directed.

Attachment Q-Set (AQS)

 Exp conducted in home and over a much longer period of time.
 Uses Q-sort method to evaluate the mother-baby relationship after hours of observation.
 90 items are sorted into “least like” and “most like” the child and compared to a sorted list
of a securely attached child.
 Advantages: broader range of children + more array of behaviours.
 Disadvantages: focuses on attachment security-insecurity but not b/w the types of secure
attachment.

Cultural Differences in Attachment

 Attachment varies with cultural context in which children develop.
 Compatible w/ view of evolutionary psychists; social bonds infants form w/ caregivers are
flexible, depending partly on their enviro.

Determinants of Attachment
Parental Responsiveness
 Secure attachment = warm responses of parents → self confidence in infant → sense of
comfort and protection.
 Rents adjust behaviour to that of the babies.
 Feeding (know limits and when hungry), respond to crying (more likely to respond) and
infant interactions (amount of bodily contact).
 Synchronized actions with the baby.
 Less attached = no experience in reliable care → inconsistent, indifferent and even
rejecting.
 Baby devs diff attachment relationships w/ diff caregivers → due to diff responses.
 Vary culture to culture depending on how each caregiver responses based on culture’s
norms.
 Interventions have also inc attachment (to increase sensitivity).

Attachment Across Generations

 Attachment styles of caregivers is based on their recollection of their own childhood
experiences. Testing this gives four adult attachment styles.
 Autonomous parents – objective and balanced picture of their childhood, +ve/-ve
experiences.

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 Dismissing parents – difficulty recalling their childhoods or put little significance to them.
 Preoccupied parents – dwell on their early experiences (confused and emotional manner)
 Unresolved parents – attachment-related trauma that is unresolved.
 Their own influence with their parents will inf their infant-caregiver relationship.
 Results are fwd reverse (predicted form the womb and checked out after child is no
longer attached)
 Also importantly mediated by the nature of the current family environment.

Temperament and Attachment

1. Child’s temp may interfere w/ valid assessment of his or her attachment classification.
Temperament gives illusion of a certain pattern of attachment.
 Temperamental characs involving activity level, distractibility or soothability affect
ratings in tests.
 AQS helps avoid this problem.
2. Temperament may directly affect the type of attachment relationship the child develops.
 Relates to goodness of fit concept.
 Bad temperament may result in harder reach of secure attachment.

Consequences of Attachment
 Secure attachment → display more positive characs. Features of both cogni and social dev.
More comfort = ability to explore and dev cogni and social skills.
 Early influence develops in context → attachment relationships d.n. exist in isolation.
Shaped by child’s changing levels of cognitive understanding and by how conflict is handled.
 Attachment is subject to change. Improvements or deteorations have an effect.

Cognitive Competence
 Securely attached = better problem solvers + more curious/exploring + competence in cogni
and lang dev.
 + strong sense of self, attentiveness and higher grades (correlation).
 + academic competency (communication, cogni engagement and mastery motivation)
(correlation).

Social and Emotional Competence

 Secure attachment = more socially competent than insecure.
 More cooperative, participate more actively in the peer group and have better relations
with their peers.
 < likely to dev emotional or beh problems.
 > skilled at understanding emotions and their own reg of them.
 ADVANTAGES IN ADOS
 Good participation in groups
 More independent + leadership skills.
 Shape view of ideal romantic partners and their relationships in terms of conflict and
collaboration.

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 Mothers are more adept in modulating feedback style/degree they provide to children;
favouring +ve > -ve comments.
 Insecure attachment = difficulty with social interaction.
 Pattern A = isolate themselves and avoid contact
 Pattern C = ineffectual interactional skills (hover in periphery of group activities) but
love interaction.
 Pattern D = aggressive + adjustment problems.
 Can’t respond appropriately; don’t know children’s level of competence.
 Daycare experiences → enviro influence = imp role in development in later social
competence.

CH 12: EARLY SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Self-Knowledge
Self-Recognition
 Babies begin to increase awareness of self → able to recognize what they look like.

Visual Self-Recognition in Infancy

 Goal: research the development of visual self-recognition – ability to recognize oneself, by
examining babies’ reactions to mirror reflections.
 Limitation: does baby recognize themselves or just perplexed at a new person.
 3 months: own image is starting to be familiar to them.
 5 months: look at own pictures when pics have been altered.
 2 years: vocabulary makes it clear (e.g. it’s me, that’s Amy (me))

 Classic: add a red dot to a part on the face not visible and see if the baby touches it when
looking into the mirror.
 Babies recog themselves in mirrors months before pictures.
 Underestimate the dawning of self-recog because req lots of other cogni achievements.

Individual Differences in Self-Recognition

 Related to temperament: strong reactors have stronger sense of self
 Related to attachment: more secure attachment have better understanding of personal
agency and phys characs + relations with emotional responsiveness show better self-
recognition.
 Secure attachment promotes exploration and develop a concept of a separate self.
 Research gives evidence to this.

Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others

 Creates better awareness of the separateness and distinctiveness of others.
 Proven in type of play = synchronic imitation -children observe others and repeat. Must
have understanding of other child’s intentions and behavior.

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 Linked to emergence of the self-conscious emotions of embarrassment, empathy, jealous →
2nd half of first year.
 Req self-awareness to do so.
 Ability to relate the self to some social standard → needs awareness of others.

Developmental Changes in Self-Descriptions

 Assess older children’s self-knowledge by examining self-descriptions of themselves.

 Age 2: most basic characteristics → learned thru modeling and learning processes.
 Preschool: physical characteristics, possessions, preferences.
 Limitation: way of asking questions elicits generality → children respond generally.
 Middle Childhood: shift to concrete operational abilities → behavioural traits and abilities,
emotions, and category membership. Stress positive > negative.
 Later Childhood – based on social comparisons, and opposing facts. Start negative self-
evaluations.
 Adolescence: abstract and hypothetical terms: attitudes, personality attributes (opposing or
assoc w/ diff roles) and beliefs.
 Middle Adolescence: self typically differentiates into more roles. Opposing conflicting
attributes → produce feelings of confusion and distress.
 Late Adolescence: combined into single personality styles and more complex view of the
self → viewed as legitimate and normal. Display false self-behaviour (purposely behave in
ways that do not reflect their true selves).

Adolescents and Cultural Identity

 Explore cultural heritage and relevance to their identity.
 Three phases:
1. Initial: young ppl give little consideration to their cultural or ethnic identities – simply
not sufficiently salient to warrant attention or don’t even consider it.
2. Grow increasingly interested in learning about their ethnic and cultural heritage and the
role it may play in their lives → trigg by exp with prejudice/racism.
3. Commitment to his or her ethnic identity.

 Not all are strong identities: exploration → lead to lessening of ethnic ties.
 Sometimes bicultural identity = identification with both the majority culture and their
ethnic culture.
 All depends on how parents are committed to their ethnic identity → opening host culture
d.n. interfere with ethnic identity and values.
 Integration -maintaining a positive ethnic and Canadian identity → able to converse in
both languages and developing friends in both = best adaptation for immigrant youth.
 Occurs in places that promote multiculturalism.

Self-Regulation
 How the self comes to regulate/control children’s behavior.

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 Need this to be able to survive their environment → impressive accomplishment.

The Emergence of Self-Control

 First: involuntary biological processes → reflexes, sleeping. Not necess cognitively aware.
 2 yrs old: dev voluntary behaviours + act on enviro w/ purpose. Act to accomplish and
produce outcomes.
 Can’t monitor behaviours and adjust them as necess
 3 yrs old: self-control = more effective + obvious. Assert desire to do things on their own.
 Verbal control → over children’s beh to move from external sources to children
themselves.
 Pay attention to simple standards set by others or by themselves + monitor their
activities with respect to those standards. Develop emotions towards the
meeting/failure of these standards.
 Important developments.
1. Regulation shifts from external to internal control.
2. Self-control grows more elaborate and sophisticated.

Compliance
= children’s ability to go along with requests or adopt the standards of beh espoused by
caregivers.
 Begin to understand by 1, but tend to refuse.
 Children must be able to inhibit the undesirable behavior.

 Observed Don’t vs. Do situations. Start to comply with Don’t as getting older > Do.
 Committed compliance – compliant behavior that results from a child’s internalizing the
instructions of an adult; results in positive emotion → response to Don’t situations as get
older is e.g.
 Situational compliance – obedience that results from a child’s awareness of an adult’s will
in a particular situation; does not reflect enduring beh changes. → grudging Do situations.
 Disappears at distraction of caregiver.
 Parents start using Don’t earlier than Do (since it involves safety) → instill this beh early on.
Also, ability to inhibit a beh mature before those req to sustain a prolonged flow of beh.
 Compliance also depends on who the caregiver is.
 Child Temperament
 Vary in this dimension → fearfulness, ability to reg their behavior (inhibitory control).
 More compliant = more cautious and can inhibit a dominant response.
 Attachment
 Parental warmth is assoc w/ higher levels of self-control in youngs and teens.
 Children are most likely to comply in dyads marked by a happy mood in which patterns
are mutually responsive to another’s needs or desires. Dev responsive stance to
maternal wishes when mother is responsive early in his/her life.
 E.g. Japanese mom-child → try to make them WANT to comply → foster a receptive
stance.

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  America → convince children to go along with parental requests → use force. Result of
outgrowth of joint emphasis on autonomy + independence.

Resistance to Temptation
 See “forbidden-toy paradigm”
 Producing self-instruction to resistance increased resistance than being silent. Content
DID Not matter, could be nothing.
 Seeing a model break the rule induces possibility in child doing it more.

Delay of Gratification
 Delay-of-gratification technique.
 Self-instruction allowed for later delay → MUST be relevant instructions though.
 Distracting/hiding small reward helped delay gratification.
 This ability to understand grows with age (distraction strategies)
 Distraction strategies used in other context ~rel to their ability to delay gratification.
 Delay of gratification allows for distraction strategies to work later in childhood.
 Delay of gratification may be an indication of a child who is generally well-equipped to
navigate social experiences and adjust his/her responses to best fit the situation.
 Related to social competence
 Delay responses in social interactions → consider opposing points of view.
 Reflect surprisingly stable personality characteristic.
 Most academically successful, better interpeer relationships, better problem solving,
most confident and self-reliant.
 Long term predictor of that child’s eventual success and happiness.

CH 12: EARLY SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Theories of Moral Development

 Debate: morals/beliefs reside in the child and change over time or reside in culture and
transmitted.

Cognitive-Developmental Approaches
 Young children have difficulty taking multiple perspectives into account.
 T.f. advances in moral reasoning abilities depend heavily on children’s improving
cognitive abilities.
 Three models as guides.

Piaget’s Theory
 Two approaches: 1) Naturalistic approach (observed children playing common street games
such as marbles) and 2) give moral dilemmas to solve in the form of short stories.
 Dev a 4 stage model to rep the way children follow rules
1. (2-4yrs) -no real conception of morality → beh involves play and imaginative games that
have no formal rules and impose restrictions on themselves.

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 2. (5-7yrs) – idea of following someone else’s rules appears consistently. Approach rules in
absolute manner.
 Social rules = heteronomous commands presented by ppl of authority and cannot
be changed.
 Stage of moral realism – children view rules as absolute, externally dictated and not
changeable.
 Observe morality based on physical and objective consequences/damages. More
damage = morally wrong.
 Immanent justice – punishment must always occur when the rule is broken, incl.
those that go undetected.
3. (8-11yrs) – rules are agreements created by ppl to help or protect one another.
Following = autonomous or personal decision to cooperate.
 Person’s motive or intentions is considered.
 Moral relativism – morality is now evaluated in relation to other factors in the
situation + autonomous decision + motive/intentions.
4. (12yrs+) – develop new rules when the circumstances req it. Extend moral reasoning
past personal level to larger societal/political concerns.

 Both cognitive + social experiences/factors underlie dev of moral reasoning.

 Improved with de-egocentrism → multiple perspectives.
 Child’s interactions with peers.
 One-way sys of parent-child rule following limits child from expressing their own POV, or
appreciating diff ones.
 Children learn there can be sev perspectives on an issue and that rules are negotiated,
compromised and respected POVs of other people.

Kohlberg’s Model
 Also presented moral dilemmas to assess their level of moral reasoning.
 Famous: Heinz dilemma (with expensive chemo drug).
 Moral reasoning develops in 3 predictable levels: preconventional, conventional and
postconventional.

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  6th stage is more theoretical.
 Further 7th stage → beyond
these levels of moral reasoning
and enters the realm of religious
faith.
 Perspective of child changes as they
grow → not sufficient for moral
reasoning to advance.
 Movement occurs when the child
can no longer handle new
information w/I his or her current
view of the world → child can no
longer assimilate new info within his
or her existing structure of schemes.
 Importance on role-taking
opportunities → when child
participates in decision making
situations. Contrasting viewpoints =
cognitive conflict => child eventually
resolves by reorganizing.

Turiel’s Model
 Created stories have rule violations in 3 domains:
1. Moral domain – ppl’s rights and welfare → fairness and justice, such as lying, stealing
and killing.
2. Social domain – involve social conventions – rules that guide social relations among ppl.
Being polite, wearing appropriate clothing and addressing ppl using proper titles.
3. Personal domain – individual preferences take priority.
 Limitation: children can distinguish among these domains very early.
 Come from increasing social interaction with peers (being victim and bystander to
immoral acts).
 The social conventions that become obvious may be diff per culture.

Evolutionary and Biological Approaches

 Part of the human genome and must be present in other species as well.

Altruism
 = behaviours that benefit someone else but offer no obvious benefit to the self.
 Created paradox of altruism → it is against human nature to not put oneself first and t.f.
selfish species should be more fit to survive.
 Kin selection proses that humans behave in ways to inc chance of survival and repo of
their genes rather than just themselves.

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  Need multiple ppl to pass on genes. If genes are shared → more reasonable to save their
life.
 Non family member altruism => reciprocal altruism – genetically programmed to be helpful
because 1) likelihood that they will get help in the future 2) ensure that genes similar to
their own will be passed on (by increased likelihood).

Aggression
 Increase likelihood of survival of an inds genes. Help to obtain food, protect young etc.…
 Full aggression may not be required → threats.
 Dominant one wins and minor one avoids injury.
 Dominance hierarchy – each memb of the group fits somewhere on the dominance ladder
→ each above controls below → governed by threats in monkeys to minimize physical
fights.
 Way to manage conflicts of interest among group members.

Environmental/Learning Approaches
 Emphasize environmental mechanisms: reinforcement, punishment and observational
learning.
 Research involves moral conduct (prosocial and antisocial behaviours > moral reasoning).
 Bandura states → reinforcement and punishment are major processes → acquiring moral
behaviours. More likely to do what will be awarded.
 Observational learning
 Learn many rules and practices of their world via others.
 Can be affected by what they observe on television, movies etc…
 w/ evaluative self-reactions and self-sanctions → children can reg their beh to match the
moral standards they set for themselves.

Sociocultural approaches
 focus: how children come to understand moral and social rules and abide by them in the
context of everyday activities.
 Moral dev = process of socialization.
 Dev them thru interactions and scaffold children’s moral dev by making salient the
features of moral sitches that are important for children to understand.
 Moral concept = child’s cultural heritage → conceptions of the self, norms for emotional
expression and language.
 i.e. largely individual process FUELLED by children’s social experiences.

Moral Reasoning
Evaluating Piaget’s Model
 With age, children increasingly consider motives and intentions when evaluating morality of
actions.
 Children can achieve advances in moral reasoning via discussions with peers.

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 Children with punitive parents who reinforce strict adherence to rules tend to display less
mature moral reasoning and behavior.
 Parents play more of a role than Piaget believed.
 Piaget underestimated moral reasoning of young children.
 Children consider a variety of factors in addition to motives and damage when assessing a
character’s morality. E.g. taking a toy from a friend is worse than from a non-friend.

Evaluating Kohlberg’s Model

 Stage 3 is the longest form of reasoning that lasts from 14-24 years old. Many don’t reach
stage 4 or 5.
 Individuals will consistently apply the same level of moral reasoning across a range of
problems.
 One type of stage reasoning or two adjacent ones (see figure p 531)
 Characteristics of the dilemma influence the reasoning of that dilemma = not always
consistent. (does it involve general moral issues or personally experienced problems?)
 Culture has a small effect → the cultures and experiences help determine what stage a
person ultimately reaches.
 E.g. those in technologically unadvanced countries rarely proceed to stage 5 moral
reasoning vs. technologically advanced countries.
 In some instances, Kohlberg’s model is not applicable to everyone in these cultures
(china and India for e.g.)
 Moral reasoning of females are DIFFERENT than men, not lesser. (Gilligan’s rebuttal against
Kohlberg).
 The moral reasoning of females focuses less on justice and more on care where
Kohlberg focuses his moral reasoning determination on justice.
 Having the obligation to do something based on the value of a personal relationship
rather than whether someone has the right to do something based on the law.
 Overall though, no recent research proves that moral reasoning is different between males
and females (as Kohlberg said) or the way that moral reasoning occurs (what Gilligan said).

Prosocial Behaviour
 = acts that society consider desirable and attempts to encourage in children. = sharing,
helping, cooperating (conflict resolution) + altruism.
 Roots lie in the capacity to feel empathy and sympathy.

EMPATHY AND SYMPATHY

 Empathy = ability to vicariously experience or share another’s emotional state or condition.
 Sympathy = involves feeling sorrow and concern for another in reaction to his or her
situation or emotional state, without necessarily sharing the same emotion.
 Development of Empathy.

Stage 1: Global Empathic Distress – seeing reactively cry upon hearing the cries of other
infants.

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  Not imitation → in response to distress of another person.
Stage 2: Egocentric Empathic Distress – respond to the distress of others as though they
themselves were in distress.
 Lack clear boundaries between self and others.
 Respond to distress in others by comforting themselves (or caregivers).
Unable so far to develop true empathy. Can’t diff the distress of other with their own feelings
of distress. They are precursors to empathy that will develop.
Stage 3: Quasi-Egocentric Empathic Distress – reactions to distress of others change. Sense
of self has developed → realize distress belongs to other person.
 Respond by trying to help → kiss/hug etc…
 Help they give reflects what they would like not what they would = sense of sympathy.
Stage 4: Verdical Empathy - ~ 3rd year of life → closer to feeling what others are acc feeling.
 Understand that inner states are diff from their own and can now offer more approp help
and comfort.
 Not ALWAYS put to its best use → sometimes don’t care.
Stage 5: Empathic Distress Beyond the Situation – middle childhood → able to consider
broader features of other people’s lives.
 Empathize with ppl beyond situations → e.g. illness, poverty etc… = mature empathy
(response to multiple cues).
Stage 6: Empathy for Distressed Groups – Adolescence. Developing reasoning abilities →
empathize with classes us people (homeless, social outcasts and victims of war etc.)
 Motivates some to intervene to try to aid those in distressed groups.

DEVELOPMENT OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

 Helping, sharing and conflict resolution.

HELPING – many tried to help (older toddlers) → not always appropriate.

 Frequency and sophistication of helping increase with age. Same for siblings (if they
weren’t part of their siblings’ distress)
 Culture dependent → some communities integrate to the lives of adults and helping is
expected and encouraged. Participation of chores is assoc w/ prosocial behavior.
 Obstacles: some inds are afraid to help cuz it’s possible to make the sitch worse.
 More likely to help if they’ve been instructed how to do so.
SHARING – not usual but does appear early.
 Serve variety of interpersonal functions: initiate or maintain social interactions (due to
limited verbal ability) and how they resolve conflicts among themselves.
 Give and take relation invokes more sharing.
 More likely to share when you get older.
CONFLICT RESOLUTION – many occur in children → find a way to figure it out.
 1) Negotiation – and compromise are attempts to reduce conflict = positive and
constructive way.

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  2) Disengagement – no resolution to the conflict incl. withdrawal or shifting focus or
topic.
 3) Coercion – one party gives in to the demands of another (usu to response of threats,
power assertion or other negative ploys).
 Children: 3>1,2; Ados: 2>3>1; Adults: 1>2,3
 Peacemaking – friendly post conflict reunion between opponents (characed by play,
hugs, apologies, object sharing and silliness) = explicit and implicit behaviours.

Gender Differences in Prosocial Behaviour

 Modest differences as children.
 Girls express more empathy, personal distress and expressions for concern > boys + more
kind and considerate.
 Sex diffs increase with age and greatest when measured by self-report.

BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

 Some evidence of genetic factors. More empathy in identical vs. fraternal twins.
 Ind diffs in prosocial responding are related to differences in temperament.
 Low level of -ve emotions = more feelings of sympathy
 High levels of -ve emotions = more feelings to their own distress.
 Feeling bad ≠ action.

COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE DETERMINANTS OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Empathy
 Early studies – low relation between empathy and prosocial behavior.
 Physiologically → increase in response displayed more prosocial behavior
 Evidence and home also suggests a link.

Prosocial Reasoning
 Given prosocial dilemmas → modest positive relation.
 Small relation b/w how children think about moral issues and how they act.

Mental State Understanding

 Understanding (but not experiencing) emotions of another person is correlated w/ prosocial
behavior.

SOCIOCULTURAL AND FAMILY DETERMINANTS OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

 Increase in prosocial behaviours with age, by dev changes in child’s affective and cognitive
capabilities.
 + social interactions/experiences.

Opportunities for Prosocial Behaviour

 @ home – routine chores = stronger prosocial orientation > ≠

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Communication of Values
 Employ inductive techniques and talk w/ them about the impact of their actions display
more mature moral reasoning than do those whose parents use other disciplinary
techniques.

Modelling
 Child shares more after observing a model performing sim behs, esp if relationship w/
model is positive.

Secure Attachment
 Secure = greater skill in children’s ability to understanding feelings and motivate altruistic
beh.

Reinforcement
 Reward and appraisal = +ve effect on prosocial beh (esp in altruistic beh). Esp if it influences
child being really good.
 Reinforcement possible with no external awards/approval. Relief of other person’s distress
is the reward.

Aggression
 Aggression – beh that is intended to cause harm to persons or property that is not socially
justifiable. Incl. Social context and ind’s motives.
1. Proactive aggression – beh intended to obtain something or achieve a goal (object or
activity, social status). E.g. bullying.
2. Reactive aggression – beh that occurs in reaction to provocation by someone else,
motivated by anger (threat, insult or frustration attributable to another ind, + is
impulsive).
3. Physical aggression – hitting shoving etc..
4. Verbal aggression – yelling at someone + calling names.
5. Relational aggression – aimed at damaging or manipulating social relationships.
 3-5 can be direct or indirect.

AGE AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AGRESSION

 Physical aggression starts at around second year → declines over time, while verbal
aggression increases.
 Improved ability to resolve conflicts verbally.
 Two spikes in physical aggression in middle childhood and adolescence.
 Boys partake in physical/verbal aggression earlier than girls.
 Girls partake in relational aggression earlier/more than boys.
 Boys to boys = physical increases, boys to girls decreases A LOT.
 Girls usu to girls and still relational.

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BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF AGGRESSION
 Level of aggression is relatively stable over time.

Hormones
 Males in all cultures of the world are more aggressive than females → hormones play a role.
 Inc level of testosterone ~~ with adult aggressiveness.
 ≠ in adolescence = mixed.
 More indirect and vary w/ inds experiences and developmental status.

Genes
 Enviro plays a role = difficulty.
 Genes do play a role in human aggression. → identical twins > fraternal.
 Identical > fraternal in interaction with enviro risk factors w/ genetic effects.

Temperament
 Manifestation of genetic effects = temperament. Stable across childhood.
 Temperament is related to level of aggression.
 Newer temperament dimension too (impulsiveness and poor reg control)

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