Moral Development Flashcards
Define aggression
Behaviour performed with the intention of harming a living being who is motivated to avoid this treatment.
List and explain the different types of aggression
- hostile: an aggressive act in which the main goal is to harm or injure the victim
- instrumental: an aggressive act in which the main goal is to gain access to objects, space or privileges.
- relational: an aggressive act in which the main goal is to damage a persons self esteem, friendship or social status.
Explain the development timeline of aggression
- 12 months: may exhibit aggression
- <2 years: temper tantrums
- 2-3 years: targeted physical aggression
- 3-5 years: physical aggression gradually replaced by verbal aggression
- Middle childhood: overall decline in overt aggression
Explain the social information-processing theory of aggression
A harmful event or social problem occurs:
- Child encodes the situation and available social cues
- Child interprets the situation and the available social cues
- Child formulates a goal, a desired outcome.
- Child generates possible strategies for achieving this goal.
- Child evaluates which strategy will best achieve their goal, and selects a response.
- Child enacts response.
What factors can influence a child’s response in aggression?
- past social experiences
- social expectations
- knowledge of social rules
- emotionally/emotion regulation skills.
Explain the social learning approach to aggression
- children learn from direct reinforcement
- Bandura theorised that children also learn from vicarious reinforcement, or observational learning
- Bobo doll experiment
Explain the nature of bullies
- bully in an effort to raise their social standing
- view aggression positively
- have trouble following rules
- show little concern for the feelings of others
Explain the nature of victims
- are more diverse as a group
- may be passive or in some cases provocative
Explain the role of culture, social and home environment in aggression development
- cultures and subcultures may condone or fail to discourage aggressive behaviour
- social differences in aggression may be due to differences in child rearing, approaches to conflict, economic stressors.
- conflict between parents may contribute to aggression development
How do we control aggression in young children?
- create non-aggressive environments
- eliminate the payoffs for aggression
- use social-cognitive interventions to help develop emotional regulation
Define altruism
A genuine concern for the welfare of other people and a willingness to act on that concern
Explain the nature of altruism
Very young children are capable of pro-social behaviour, though its expression may depend on temperament and parenting styles.
Describe the development timeline of altruism
- <3 years: capable of pro-social behaviour but unlikely to exhibit spontaneous self-sacrifice.
- 4-6 years old: exhibit real helping acts and are more self sacrificing
- 6 years+: pro-social conduct becomes increasingly common.
Explain the social-cognitive and affective contributors to altruism.
- role taking: helps child appreciate the point of view and feelings of another being.
- pro-social moral reasoning
- empathy: the felt responsibility hypothesis, which proposes that empathy may promote altruism by causing one to reflect on altruistic norms and thus to feel some obligation to help others who are distressed.
Describe cultural, social and parental influences on altruism
- cultural: less industrialised societies have more altruistic children
- social: adults can promote altruistic forms, verbal reinforcement
- parental: modelling and discipline
