Psychology Chapter 13 Adolescents who develop a sense of moral identity

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Chapter 13

b. Fearful, inhibited children can be socialized through a gentle touch,

capitalizing on their anxiety but not terrorizing them

Checking Mastery

1. How is a moral rule different from a social-conventional rule and at what age can

children tell the difference?

➢ Moral rules concern the welfare and rights of other people (as in rules against

2. What are two capacities shown by preschool children that contradict Piaget’s and

Kohlberg’s views that they are limited moral thinkers?

➢ Contrary to Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s views, preschool children consider whether

3. Create an example of induction and explain why Martin Hoffman concludes that it is

the best approach to discipline.

➢ Induction involves explain to a child how his or her behavior harmed someone

IV The Adolescent

A. Moral Identity

1. Adolescents who develop a sense of moral identity tend to be:

2. Development of moral identity:

a. Can be fostered by parents

B. Changes in Moral Reasoning

1. Kohlberg stages

a. Preconventional (stages 1 and 2) dominate until the teen years

b. Conventional reasoning dominates (Kohlberg stages 3, good boy or girl, and

4, authority and social order-maintaining morality) by late teens

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moral identity are capable of more advanced moral reasoning

C. Antisocial Behavior

1. Few adolescents involved in serious antisocial conduct (e.g., rape, assault,

robbery), but crime rates peak during adolescence in most societies (especially for

“hell–raising” crimes like vandalism)

a. Most severely antisocial adults start antisocial careers in adolescence with

b. Some individuals qualify for a psychiatric diagnosis of a conduct disorder—a

persistent pattern of violating the rights of others or age-appropriate societal

norms through such behaviors as fighting, bullying, and cruelty; others may

receive a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder

i. Most children and adolescents who engage in antisocial behavior do not

2. Dodge’s Social Information-Processing Model

a. Key to understanding aggression behavior is how an individual processes and

interprets social information

b. Six steps to the process

i. Encoding of cues – taking in information

youth)

f. Example of highly aggressive adolescent tripped by classmate, who is likely

to:

i. Process few cues and hold bias suggesting trip was deliberate

ii. Make attribution of “hostile intent”

iii. Set goal of getting even

iv. Think of only a few responses, mostly aggressive

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one thinks”

3. Patterson’s coercive family environments

a. Coercive family environments – family members locked in power struggle

trying to control others through negative and coercive tactics

4. Nature and nurture

a. Males are overall more aggressive

i. Shows up in many cultures and is evident as early as infancy

ii. Aggressive male tendencies may be evolutionarily related to adolescents

being more successful at mating, increasing their ability to pass on genes

to future generations

b. Some males and females more genetically predisposed to have difficult

temperaments, impulsive tendencies, that contribute to aggression,

delinquency, and criminal behavior

c. Behavioral geneticists suggest genetics account for 40% of variation among

individual antisocial behavior, with remaining 60% accounted for by

g. Prenatal environment (e.g., exposure to alcohol, lead poisoning) may

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h. Culture can play a role

i. Collectivist cultures (like Japanese, Hispanic) children often taught to

value social harmony; result is less antisocial behavior

i. Dodge and Pettit have aggression model that integrates all influences in a

biopsychosocial model based on a dynamic cascade model in which

aggression results from the interplay between numerous biological, individual,

j. Prevention of antisocial behavior should be a national priority

i. Fast Track Program designed by Dodge and members of the Conduct

Checking Mastery

1. What is the main change level in moral reasoning during adolescence?

➢ Answer: Adolescents normally progress from preconventional (stage 2) reasoning

to conventional (mainly stage 3) reasoning.

2. What are the main contributions of (1) Kenneth Dodge and (2) Gerald Patterson to

understanding why some adolescents are highly aggressive?

➢ Answer: Dodge’s social information-processing model helps explain deficiencies

3. What is an example of the contribution of a gene-environment interaction to the

development of aggression?

➢ Answer: The combination of a gene for low MAOA activity in the brain (and

V The Adult

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A. Changes in Moral Reasoning

1. Postconventional moral reasoning (Kohlberg stage 5) may emerge in young

adulthood, but seldom does

5. Spirituality and postconventional thinking both related to wisdom

B. Culture and Morality

1. Kohlberg’s Theory made tremendous contribution to field of psychology for

many years

a. Weak support for developmental progression in moral thought (e.g., only a

2. Charges of bias

a. Claims of cultural bias—biased against collectivist cultures that emphasize

social harmony and place good of group ahead of good for the individual

i. People in collectivist cultures are scored in stage 3 yet may have

sophisticated concepts of justice

b. Political bias – some believe that highest stages only achievable if you have

liberal attitude toward issues that are biased against political conservatives

(e.g., oppose capital punishment)

c. Gender bias – possible bias against women

i. Carol Gilligan argued that Kohlberg’s stages (initially developed using

only male subjects) are biased against women (i.e., women tend to be

stage 3 and males stage 4)

d. Underemphasizing emotion and behavior

i. Kohlberg’s theory has a primary focus on moral thinking and devotes little

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C. Moral Intuition and Emotion

1. New emphasis on role of empathy in motivating moral action

a. Haidt suggests that humans have evolved to have quick moral intuitions based

D. Predicting Moral Action

1. Kohlberg’s stage theory

a. Underestimates children’s moral sophistication

E. Religion and Spirituality

1. Kohlberg viewed moral development and religious development as distinct, but

others see the two as clearly interrelated

2. Exploring religious and spiritual issues part of identity formation (children adopt

beliefs of parents and then may reject them when they develop their own belief

system)

a. Religiosity (religiousness) – sharing the beliefs and participating in the

3. Dillon and Wink investigated developmental changes in religiosity and

spirituality

a. Religiosity strong in adolescence, decreased somewhat in middle age and rose

again in the late 60s and early 70s

b. Spirituality was judged to be at lower levels than religiosity throughout

adulthood but increased significantly from middle age to later adulthood

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d. Religiosity in later adulthood correlated with a sense of well-being stemming

e. Highly spiritual individuals have a high sense of well-being that is derived

from personal growth

i. Spiritual adults tend to be highly involved in activities that allow them to

Checking Mastery

1. How does moral reasoning typically change over the adult years?

➢ Answer: Over the adult years, a minority of adults progress from conventional to

2. What are the two distinct processes in dual-process models of morality?

conscious deliberation, and quick, emotion-based intuition.

3. What is the main difference between being highly religious and being highly

spiritual?

➢ Answer: Highly religious individuals adopt the views of a religious community

SUGGESTIONS FOR CLASS DISCUSSIONS OR PROJECTS: To develop critical thinking skills

and enhance learning with exercises that support the course learning objectives.

1. Moral Reasoning: Students might report on moral dilemmas they have experienced in their

own lives. Do they remember any early moral dilemmas? Do they remember how they chose to

2. Moral Decision Making: An excellent film by Pierre Sauvage allows students to think about

moral dilemmas of the most serious kind. Weapons of the Spirit tells the story of a Christian

mountain community in France that defied the Nazis and turned itself into a haven of refuge for

3. Moral Dilemmas: Many students have trouble relating to the traditional Kohlberg moral

dilemmas such as the “Heinz dilemma” because they find them out of date or unrealistic. This

and other moral dilemmas can be found in Colby, Kohlberg, Gibbs, & Lieberman (1983). Pick a

more contemporary topic, such as obeying (or disobeying) social networking rules (e.g., posting

4. Moral Education and Values Clarification: Have students discuss whether moral education

or values clarification should be included in both the school curriculum (at the elementary,

middle school, high school, and college levels) and workplace (e.g., job place rules). What are

adults must possess!

5. Morality and Violent Behavior: Use the crisis of school violence (e.g., the Columbine or

Virginia Tech shootings) to discuss the role of nature and nurture in explaining antisocial

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6. Bullying: Given the violence on middle school, high school, and college campuses, the issue

of bullying and bullies has come to the forefront of psychology and popular press debate. An

interesting class discussion could focus on the issue of bullying in academic settings. Students

7. Defining Spirituality: As noted in the text, spirituality is hard to define. Have students explore

their and their classmates’ conceptions of this concept by having everyone in class write down