Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development
When parents are asked what moral qualities they
hope their children will learn, the following things
were marked as primary:
1) Avoid hurting others (control aggression)
2) Prosocial concern for others (altruism)
3) Sense of personal values and ethics
Aggression-behavior done for the purpose of
harming another. So intent defines an act as
aggressive, not the ultimate consequences.
1) Hostile aggression-main goal is to inflict
harm or injury on the victim.
2) Instrumental aggression-goal is to gain
access to something desirable.
3) Retaliatory aggression-aggression in
response to real or imagined provocation.
4) Relational aggression-social exclusion,
withdrawing acceptance, sabotaging or
gossiping about another in order to damage
self-esteem, power, or friendships. More
common for girls.
Trends over time- 1 yr-olds will act aggressively if
someone is frustrating their goal toward an object,
but the act seems to merely be an effort to get what
they want. 2 yr-olds will more likely attempt to
negotiate with another to get the desired object.
Parents can be effective in training children at this
young age to share and ask. Temper tantrums for 2
yr-olds give way to active aggression in service to
anger or frustration by age 3. By age 5 physical
aggression is replaced by name-calling, tattling, and
verbal aggression. Older children learn to assess
intention in order to decide if retaliatory aggression is
okay.
Gender differences-males are more physically and
verbally aggressive except in 1 – 2 yr. olds. By age 3
gender differences emerge in a consistent way. It’s
not that girls aren’t aggressive, it’s that they are more
covert in their aggression. Since girls are more
motivated by needs for relationships and acceptance
by others, this is a significant area to display hostility
towards others. So exclusion and rumor-mongering
can be extremely hurtful to other girls. Older girls are
actually engaging in more physical aggression today.
Aggression is a relatively stable attribute over time.
Types of aggressors
1) proactive aggression-see aggression as a
successful means to an end- to get what they
want. They may actually display happy
emotions as they exhibit aggression toward
others, since they expect a payoff.
2) reactive aggression-suspicious of others’
motives, seeing others as adversaries who
deserve their aggressive treatment.
Social Information-Processing Theory of
Aggression suggests that the child’s past
experiences and mental state set up expectancies of
others which they use to assess others’ intentionality
in ambiguous circumstances. If one’s expectation is
victimization and believing others have a hostile
intent, his response to normal bickering, etc. is more
likely to be aggressive- to protect himself (hostile
attributional bias). Unfortunately this creates
resentment and hostility on the part of peers, isolating
and rejecting the angry child.
Bullies vs. whipping boys-bullies have often
witnessed violence at home but rarely been the target.
They learn that violence pays off, so they use it with
peers. They see victims as easy marks to use to get
what they want (proactive aggressors). (Christmas
Story). This does not cause other children to protect
the victims – they are generally disliked by others.
1) Passive victims-withdrawn, physically weak,
reluctant to fight back, do little to invite the
aggression. May have had overprotective mothers.
2) Provocative victims-oppositional, hottempered who seem to deliberately irritate
peers, fight back unsuccessfully. Often
physically abused at home and learn to see
others as adversaries and threats.
Victimized children are at risk: for loneliness,
anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem, avoidance
of school. They need social skills training and
even self-defense training to enhance their selfconfidence.
Cultural influences on aggression-different cultures
have different values regarding the acceptability of
aggression. The US is tolerant of aggression in
service of problem-solving. The male culture in
urban, lower SES groups are more aggressive.
Aggression thrives when there is low chance of
paying a significant personal price.
Coercive Home Environments-commonalities in
families that raise aggressive children are bickering,
needling, deliberate irritations of others. When
these techniques work to get another to leave them
alone, they are reinforcing. Parents rarely use
positive reinforcement for loving behavior or
prosocial behavior. In some families the only
attention the kids get is for acting out. Even negative
attention is attention. In the absence of other
attention, kids will take the negative attention if
necessary. But they learn to perceive others as
hostile, coming out of such a punitive environment. It
also results in children who are resistant to
punishment. Nothing makes an impression on them.
Eventually this contributes to poor impulse
control, academic problems, and peer problems.
They gravitate to the marginalized in the school,
finding acceptance in gangs and antisocial peers.
Once they commit to a deviant peer group, academics
are devalued, aggression embraced, dropping out
seems more acceptable. Antisocial boys are likely to
pair up with antisocial girls, creating abusive
relationships and early parenthood. Interventions
need to target the parents’ skills in managing conflict
and learning to respond more effectively to their
children’s needs. Other interventions target the child
having academic problems to keep them from getting
so frustrated in school that they give up.
Methods of Controlling Aggression
1) Creating nonaggressive Environmentsreduce access to aggressive toys, video games,
guns. Expand other play activities.
2) Eliminating the Payoffs for Aggressionrequires alertness and assertiveness in reacting
by the parent in order to short-circuit early
attempts to force compliance on another.
a. Incompatible response techniqueignoring unacceptable behavior and
giving attention to positive behaviors,
sharing, cooperation that are incompatible
with aggression (a slowly effective
technique that most parents can’t tolerate)
b. Time-out Technique-removing the
hostile child from the setting until they
calm down. Only works if the child is
being removed from a desirable place to a
place with no rewards.
3) Social-cognitive interventions-coaching
aggressive children in empathizing with
others, generating milder solutions to
conflicts, and seeing others’ behavior as less
hostile.
4) Preventing violence at school-programs
entail preventive strategies: reducing payoffs
for aggression, teaching prosocial responses,
learning self-control of emotions, negotiations
to find solutions to conflict. These programs
have resulted in significantly less violence on
campus as well as less prejudice.
Altruism-selfless concern for the welfare of others
that is shown by prosocial acts, such as sharing,
cooperating and helping.
Origins of altruism-even 2 yr-olds show signs of
sympathy toward others and compassion toward
those in distress. More inhibited children may not
attempt to help, but they show signs of distress when
another is upset. Most significant in training
compassion is the parents’ responses to distress.
Parents of compassionate toddlers used affective
explanations when dealing with misdoing. “How
would that make you feel if Joe did that to you?”
Toddlers will share if instructed, but spontaneous
self-sacrifice doesn’t happen at this age. Prosocial
behavior increases with age. Girls are no more
empathic or helpful than boys, although it is
displayed differently.
Prosocial Moral Reasoning-how we decide whether
to help another, share with them or comfort others,
particularly if there is a cost to ourselves.
Preschoolers make these decisions based on selfserving interests. Maturity shows in willingness to
help someone you don’t like if they were in need.
This displays a child’s ability to empathize with
others. Empathy is a person’s ability to experience
the emotions of other people. We come into the
world with it, but it can be suppressed or enhanced by
environment. Social concern is modeled by parents in
their concern and response to the child’s needs.
Parents who actually talk about their feelings as they
act sympathetically develop sensitivity in their
children toward others. (Children whose pain is
reacted to abusively by a parent actually show
disintegration of a significant structure of the brain
related to social concern and empathy. These children
are at risk of becoming sociopaths with no feelings
toward their victims.) Children become more
effective in helping others as they mature in their
cognition, allowing them to think more creatively and
abstractly in the face of another’s need.
Felt-Responsibility hypothesis-empathy may
promote altruism by causing one to reflect on norms
of social responsibility and feel some obligation to
help another. Now the child feels guilty if s/he
ignores personal responsibility in helping another.
This link becomes stronger with age.
Cultural influences on altruism-less industrialized,
more closely knit cultures develop more altruistic
children. These cultures train children to contribute to
the family well-being by helping in the home, field.
In US, most children don’t have significant tasks that
benefit the family, but those who do have routine
chores that benefit others do develop more prosocial
skills. Western culture also emphasizes individual
achievement and competition, over group goals. So in
collectivist societies, helping others is not seen as a
choice but a social expectation. Not so in Western
culture. Altruism can be verbally reinforced and
once focused, children will tend to try to live up to
positive expectations that have been set for them.
Modeling charitable work is powerful, especially if
the child has a warm relationship with the model.
Also it emphasizes that people practice what they
preach. Effective parents have a warm relationship
with their children and they act in concert with their
stated principles. Also these effective parents respond
quickly and effectively to children’s harm to others.
They do not ignore these behaviors. They expect
children to display a sense of personal responsibility
for their behaviors. They also give children means of
undoing their transgressions.
Morality1) capacity to distinguish right from wrong
2) act on this distinction
3) experience pride in virtuous conduct and guilt
over acts that violate one’s standards
Internalization- adopting the standards of other
people as your own. Shifting control of behavior
from external controls (risk of arrest) to internal
control (my own ethical standards).
Components of morality
1) Affective
2) Cognitive
3) Behavioral
Theories of Moral Development- different theories
focus on the different components. Psychoanalytic
focus on affect- we act morally to feel good about
ourselves and avoid guilt and shame. Cognitivedevelopmental theories focus on cognitive aspects,
how we reason about moral behavior which changes
as we develop cognitively. Social learning and
information-processing people focus on actual
behavior- resisting temptation, inhibiting immoral
impulses.
Psychoanalytic – Freudian theory is based on the
concept that people behave ethically to feel good
about themselves and avoid guilt. But coercive
parents don’t raise more moral children. Boys don’t
show greater moral development than girls. Even
toddlers show distress with others, before they would
have experienced the Oedipal conflict. Toddlers
actually show greater compassion to others when
they are more securely attached to a parent, and that
relationship is mutually responsive not punitive.
Aloof or insensitive parents promote situational
compliance- compliance based on a parent’s power
to control the child and impose punishment.
Cognitive-Developmental theory-examine the
development of moral reasoning as they assess what
is right and wrong.
a. Piaget’s theory-developed by playing
marbles with children & asking about the
rules for play. He also gave them moraldecision stories to interpret.
Premoral period- preschoolers show
little concern for rules. They don’t play to
win, they make up their own rules and play
to have fun (what a concept!)
Heteronomous morality-ages 5 – 10
children develop strong respect for
rules, thinking they are immutable,
moral absolutes. They also believe in
immanent justice- that all rule
violators will be punished. Justice for
all.
Autonomous morality- by 10 –11
children understand rules are arbitrarily
created and can be changed, can be
violated for a higher good. Now intent
is very important in judging an act.
They favor reciprocal punishments-
punishments that fit the act. This
development requires a decline in
egocentric thinking and an ability to
take others’ perspectives. As older
children develop a sense of respect for
peers and self, it decreases their reliance
on external arbiters of behavior and
they internalize autonomy in morality.
Partly this is a response to parents
relinquishing control as children
mature. Overcontrolling parents
inhibit development of self-control.
As in other areas, Piaget is
underestimating
b. Kohlberg’s theory- a stage theory of
moral development
i. Moral dilemmas-using fictional
moral dilemmas, children were asked
to decide what the right solution was
and then asked why they picked that.
ii. Preconventional morality-rules are
imposed by society and the child
conforms to avoid punishment or
obtain personal rewards
1. Punishment and Obedience
Orientation
2. Naïve hedonism
iii. Conventional morality-obeying the
rules to gain others’ approval or
maintain social order
1. Good Boy or Good Girl
2. Social Order Maintenance
iv. Postconventional morality-right and
wrong is defined in terms of
principles of justice, higher ethics
1. Social Contract Orientation
2. Morality of Individual
Principles
These stages generally follow
development, but few grow to the
level of Stage 5 and 6. It does relate
to cognitive development as Piaget
described.
v. Cultural and gender bias-it does
reflect a Western and male ideal of
justice, so it doesn’t measure
communal reasoning (or female) as
accurately. Gilligan showed that
socialization made a difference in
how we reason. Men reason from a
morality of justice while women
reason from a morality of care.
Recent studies show little difference
in reasoning between M/F.
Doctrine of specificity- the idea that moral affect,
behavior are dependent on the situation. Moral
behavior may not seem consistent.
An important aspect of moral growth is ability to
resist temptation. When children can do this, even
when alone and possibility of detection is remote,
they have internalized that moral norm. Why do
some children internalize values and others not?
1. If a warm adult has reinforced
compliance.
2. Punishment used is firm, immediate,
consistent and explained to the child.
This gives the child information about
why the punished act is wrong & why
they should feel guilty. It also helps if the
adult reinforces that the child is moral and
kind, so s/he wouldn’t do this thing.
Combined with praise for self-control,
this establishes inhibitory control.
3. Modeling of moral behavior is important.
Parents need to do what they ask children to
do.
What do successful parents do that result in moral
children?
The following are common discipline techniqueswhich ones are effective?
1) Love withdrawal-adult withholds attention,
affection or approval to control a child.
2) Power assertion-spankings or withholding
privileges to control child.
3) Induction-adult explains why a child’s
behavior is wrong and emphasizes his/her
behavior’s effects on others.
Power assertion relates more to moral immaturity,
love withdrawal has little effect, & induction relates
to moral maturity. Induction also relates to
development of empathy for others.
This is not entirely a top-down process. Acting out,
fearless children influence parents in the direction of
coercion. Fearful, easily upset children induce
parents to use gentler forms of discipline.
Children prefer inductive discipline and are more
motivated to accept influence from an inductive
adult whom they respect.
Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development
When parents are asked what moral qualities they
hope their children will learn, the following things
were marked as primary:
Avoid hurting others (control aggression)
Prosocial concern for others (altruism)
Sense of personal values and ethics
Forms of Aggression:
Hostile aggression
Instrumental aggression
Retaliatory aggression
Relational aggression
Trends over time
Gender differences
Genetic vs. familial influences
Types of aggressors:
proactive aggression
reactive aggression
Social Information-Processing Theory of
Aggression (hostile attributional bias)
Bullies vs. whipping boys:
Passive victims
Provocative victims
Cultural influences on aggression
Coercive Home Environments
Methods of Controlling Aggression:
Creating nonaggressive Environments
Eliminating the Payoffs for Aggression
a. Incompatible response technique
b. Time-out Technique
Social-cognitive interventions
Preventing violence at school
Altruism-selfless concern for the welfare of others
that is shown by prosocial acts, such as sharing,
cooperating and helping.
Origins of altruism
Prosocial Moral Reasoning
Empathy
Felt-Responsibility hypothesis
Cultural influences on altruism
Moralitycapacity to distinguish right from wrong
willingness to act on this distinction
experience pride in virtuous conduct and guilt
over acts that violate one’s standards
Internalization- adopting the standards of other
people as your own.
Components of morality
Affective
Cognitive
Behavioral
Theories of Moral Development
Psychoanalytic – Freudian
Cognitive-Developmental
1. Piaget’s theory
Premoral period
Heteronomous morality
Autonomous morality
2. Kohlberg’s theory
Moral dilemmas
Preconventional morality
Conventional morality
Postconventional morality
Cultural and gender bias
What do successful parents do that results in
moral children?
Love withdrawal
Power assertion
Induction
Children prefer inductive discipline and are more
motivated to accept influence from an inductive
adult whom they respect.