Lecture #9 Flashcards
Social Cognition
Thinking about the perceptions, thoughts, emotions,
motives and behaviours of self, other people, groups and
even whole social systems
Theory of Mind
• A ToM is the understanding that people have
mental states such as desires, beliefs and
intentions, and that these mental states guide
their behaviour.
ToM- autism
85% of 4 year olds of normal intelligence and older
children with Downs Syndrome pass the false belief task.
• Despite mental ages greater than those of the children
with Downs Syndrome, 80% of children with autism failed.
Early signs of ToM
ToM starts to develop in the first 2 years of life.
Early steps:
• Imitation and modelling: first 12 months.
• Understanding intentions: first 6 months.
• Joint attention and pointing: 9 months.
• Pretend play: 1-2 years.
• Emotional understanding: 2+.
ToM desire based reasoning ***
ToM starts to develop when children refer to
mental states in their speech.
• ToM develops in two phases:
• Desire psychology: toddlers talk about what they want
and explain their own behaviour and that of others in
terms of wants or desires – around 2 years of age.
• Belief-desire psychology: they appreciate that people do
what they do because they desire certain things and
because they believe that certain actions will help them
fulfill their desires – around 4 years of age.
Social perspective learning
The ability to adopt another person’s perspective and understand their thoughts and feelings in relation to your own. - ToM in action
Social perspective learning in children
Social perspective-taking abilities develop in a stage-like
manner:
• 3-6 years old, respond egocentrically.
• 8-10 years old, children appreciate that two people can have
different points of view even if they have access to the same
information.
• 12+ years old, become capable of mentally judging multiple
perspectives, including the perspective of the ‘generalised
other’, or the broader social group.
–> advances rely on rely on explanations rather than
punishment in disciplining their children.
Social cognition in adulthood
- best at seeing both sides of the argument
- Areas of the cortex that support social cognition and
emotional understanding age more slowly that the areas
that support nonsocial cognition.
– Older adults tend to reply more than younger adults on
simple rules of thumb and strongly held beliefs about
people.
- Areas of the cortex that support social cognition and
Morals
attitudes and beliefs people use to determine what is right and wrong.
Morality
knowing what is right and wrong, being motivated to take the right action and taking the
right action (i.e., cognitive emotional and
behavioural aspects).
Moral Rules
used by society to protect individuals and guarantee their rights (e.g., stealing, hitting,
cheating, lying).
Social conventions
rules used by society to
govern everyday behaviour; arbitrary customs
(e.g., dress style, rituals)
moral development
• Moral reasoning is the process of applying
reasoning to situations and decisions that involve
right and wrong.
moral development - piaget
- young children
- pass through three stages
• Premoral period (preschool): children show little awareness or
understanding of moral rules and cannot be considered moral beings.
• Heteronomous morality (6-10 years): rules handed down by
authority figures are taken seriously.
• Autonomous morality (11+): rules are seen as flexible/changeable
agreements between people. More emphasis is put on intentions.
- extended by kohlberg and gilligan
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
******** • 3 levels (with 2 stages each): • Preconventional moral reasoning. • Conventional moral reasoning. • Postconventional moral reasoning
Moral- infant
• Tend to view infants as amoral – we don’t believe they are
capable of evaluating their behaviour in relation to moral
standards, and so we don’t hold them responsible for the
wrongs they commit.
• They are predisposed to empathy and prosocial behaviour
• Helping: 14-months - will (without being asked) pick up a peg dropped
by adults when their hands are full.
• Cooperation: 14-months – can engage in cooperation games.
• Altruism: <2 – will show greater joy at providing a treat to an
appreciative puppet than when they receive them.
moral- child
• Sensitivity to the intentions behind actions does increase
as children get older.
As young as 3, children can distinguish between moral
rules and social-conventional rules.
moral- adolescent
- Moral identity – the integration of morality as part of
one’s personal identity - Conventional reasoning (stage 3 and stage 4) becomes
the dominant mode of moral thinking. - some have anti social development
MoralDevelopment Transitions: Adolescence
to Adulthood
stage 6 reasoning is rare. might require special training in ethics
Criticisms of Kohlberg
- built on subjective data from boys
- underestimates child moral sophistication
- focused solely on moral reasoning not moral emotions or gut feelings
- doesn’t take into account culture
Gilligan theory of moral development
Proposed a different model rela6ng specifically to
females’ moral reasoning.
• Contains three stages of moral development focusing
on interpersonalcare and concern.
Gilligan theory of moral development (decision making)
- different model relating to female’s moral reasoning
- 3 stages- focus on interpersonal care and concern
stage 1: survival orientation
stage 2: conventional care
stage 3: integrated care
Fowlers faith knowing system
According to Fowler, the growth of faith is a universal progression through stages of spiritual development that is not necessarily religious in orientation.
