Chapter 14
I.
The development of aggression
A.
Origins of aggression in infancy
B.
Developmental trends in aggression
1.
Sex differences
Box 14.1 – Focus on research: How girls are more aggressive than boys
2.
From aggression to antisocial conduct
3.
Is aggression a stable attribute?
C.
Individual differences in aggressive behavior
1.
Dodge’s social information-processing theory of aggression
2.
Perpetrators and victims of peer aggression
D.
Cultural and subcultural influences on aggression
E.
Coercive home environments: Breeding grounds for aggression and delinquency
1.
Families as social systems
F.
Methods of controlling aggression in young children
1.
Creating nonaggressive environments
2.
Eliminating the payoffs for aggression
3.
Social-cognitive interventions
II.
Altruism: Development of the prosocial self
A.
Origins of altruism
B.
Developmental trends in altruism
C.
Sex differences in altruism
D.
Social-cognitive and affective contributors to altruism
1.
Prosocial moral reasoning
2.
Empathy: An important affective contributor to altruism
a.
Socialization of empathy
b.
Age trends in the empathy-altruism relationship
c.
The felt-responsibility hypothesis
E.
Cultural and social influences on altruism
1.
Cultural influences
2.
Social influences
a.
Reinforcing altruism
b.
Practicing and preaching altruism
F.
Who raises altruistic children?
III.
Moral development: Affective, cognitive, and behavioral components
A.
How developmentalists look at morality
B.
The affective component of moral development
1.
Freud's theory of Oedipal morality
2.
Evaluating of Freud's theory
3.
Newer ideas about development of the conscience
C.
The cognitive component of moral development
1.
Piaget's theory of moral development
a.
The premoral period
b.
Heteronomous morality
c.
Autonomous morality
d.
Moving from heteronomous to autonomous morality
2.
An evaluation of Piaget's theory
Box 14.2 – Focus on research: Updating Piaget’s methods to find hidden
competencies
3.
Kohlberg's theory of moral development
a.
Level 1: Preconventional morality
i.
Stage 1: Punishment-and-obedience orientation
ii.
Stage 2: Naïve hedonism
b.
Level 2: Conventional morality
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
i.
Stage 3: “Good boy” and “good girl” orientation
ii.
Stage 4: Social-order-maintaining morality
c.
Level 3: Postconventional (or principled) morality
i.
Stage 5: The social-contract orientation
ii.
Stage 6: Morality of individual principles of conscience
4.
Support for Kohlberg's theory
a.
Are Kohlberg's stages an invariant sequence?
b.
The longitudinal evidence
c.
Cognitive prerequisites for moral growth
d.
Evidence for Kohlberg's social-experience hypothesis
i.
Parental and peer influences
ii.
Advanced education
iii.
Cultural influences
5.
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s approach
a.
Is Kohlberg's theory culturally biased?
b.
Is Kohlberg’s theory gender biased?
c.
Is Kohlberg's theory incomplete?
d.
Does moral reasoning predict moral conduct?
e.
Does Kohlberg underestimate young children?
The behavioral component of moral development
A.
How consistent are moral conduct and moral character?
B.
Learning to resist temptation
1.
Reinforcement as a determinant of moral conduct
2.
The role of punishment in establishing moral prohibitions
a.
Investigating resistance to temptation
b.
Explaining the effects of cognitive rationales
c.
Moral self-concept training
3.
Social modeling influences on moral behavior
C.
Who raises children who are morally mature?
Box 14.3 – Appling research to your life: How should I discipline my children?
1.
A child's eye view of discipline
D. Integrating the components of moral development
Applying developmental themes to the development of aggression, altruism, and morality
Summary
Key terms