Daniel Lapsley University of Notre Dame Dan Darcia wwwndedudlapsle1Lab Conference on Infant and Toddler Mental Health August 12 2011 Morality is declarative knowledge It is deliberative explicit propositional ID: 782452
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Slide1
Landmarks of Moral Formation in Early Childhood
Daniel LapsleyUniversity of Notre Dame
Dan
Darcia
www.nd.edu/~dlapsle1/Lab
Conference on Infant and Toddler Mental Health, August 12, 2011
Slide2Morality is “declarative” knowledge
It is deliberative, explicit, propositional
It is wrestling with dilemmasIt is “knowing that”
Infant Morality and the “Received View”
Slide3But self and morality develop
before onset of reflective self-awareness
By age 3 the child’s self is a moral
self
The child has internalized “rules” of what to doand not to do Displays moral affect
Engages in prosocial sharingRegulates conflict between personal needs
and social obligationsIs governed by internal standards
Slide4Landmarks
Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial BehaviorToddlers Norms, Standards Concepts
ConscienceSocial-Cognitive (“Narrative”) Approach
Slide5Biologically prepared “motives”
Procedural knowledge
Origins of the Moral Self?
Robert
Emde
“In my beginning is my end.”
---T. S. Eliot (East Coker)
Slide6Procedural Knowledge
Information that underlies skills that need not be represented consciously
It is knowing how---but we know more than we can say
Intelligent systems can manifest rule-governed behavior without any explicit representation of the ruleSystem 1 vs. System 2
Slide7System 1
System 2
Non-conscious
Conscious Implicit-tacit
ExplicitIntuitive
Analytical
AssociativeRule-BasedAcquired
by
:
Biology, exposure, personal experience
Acquired by
:
Formal instruction
Procedural Knowledge
(
knowing
how
)
Declarative
Knowledge
(
knowing
that
)
Slide8The early self develops
procedurally
“Existential self” is the first self of infancy(independent existence and agency)Infants’ behavior is coherent, organized, rule-governed,
but not always based on acquisition of explicit rulesBut acquired piecemeal via day-to-day interactions with caregivers
Emde (1991)
Slide9Early moral development is based on knowledge that is organized procedurally
Infants act in accordance with moral rules ----but need not recall them to follow them
What is source of this procedural
knowledge?
Infants are biologically prepared for it!Five “motives” built into our species by evolution
And consolidated into an “affective core”
Slide10?
Five Motives and the “Affective Core” of the Moral Self
Motives
Description
ActivityBasic tendencies for exploration, mastery
Self-RegulationPropensity
to regulate physiology and behavior“built-in” developmental goalsSocial Fittedness
Infants
pre-adapted for initiating, maintaining & terminating interactions
(
e.g
, regulating caregivers, behavioral synchrony, joint visual attention)
Affective Monitoring
Monitor experiences
according to what is pleasurable
Infant affect guides parental care
Emotional communication increasingly salient by 6 mo.
“Social referencing”
Cognitive assimilation
Infant seeks out the novel to make it familiar
“basic
fact of life” (Piaget)
But operation, activation and consolidation of basic motives requires a sensitive,
responsive infant- care-giver relationship
i.e., the affective core
requires a
context
Source: Emde et al (1991)
Slide11Early Caregiver Interactions
as ….
Theorist
Affective “dialogues”Spitz“good-enough mothering”
WinnicottSensitivity and attunement to infant’s emotional signals and needs
Bowlby
Contextual Model
Caregivers regulatory role in structuring the continuity of early experience….
Theorist
“holding” or “facilitating
” environment
Winnicott
Emotional “re-fueling”
Mahler
“mirroring” support
Kohut
Emde et al. (1991)
Slide12An Early Moral Self
Infant rule-learning originates in
inborn propensity
and in expectable
caregiver relationship experiences
ReciprocityNorm ViolationsEmpathy-Sharing
Emde et al (1991)
Slide13Reciprocity
Develops from basic motive of social
fittednessEarly face-to-face turn-taking with mother an example of internalized rules about reciprocity
Rules about how to communicate---engage, maintain and terminate social interactions are operative before language
Are internalized as result of pleasurable caregiver experiences and come to form early motives and procedures for social turn-taking
Emde et al (1991)
Slide14Is this morality?
Reciprocity is the “foundation stone” of moral systems
Do unto others…
Slide15Norm Violations
Another feature of basic morality becomes
differentiated by end of second year…..
Anxiety when internal standards are violatedNew affective way for “cognitive assimilation
” to show itselfi.e., for “getting it right”
Is this morality?
All systems of morality require internalized standards, and “unease” when violated
Child’s early moral self has emotional procedures that guide the process by age
3
Slide16Empathy
Empathy
: affective response that stems from apprehension of another’s emotional state & is similar to what the other is feeling or would be expected to feel in given situation;Rules for turn-taking and social communication cultivate empathy
Has strong maturational basisEmpathy and helping influenced by quality of caregiving
Infants produce and comprehend emotional gestures and signal in play episodes;
Can use emotional expressions of others to regulate own emotions
Slide17Empathy
By the first birthday
: Is aware that self and others are independent
and that
minds can be interfacedInter-subjectivity can be generated
by emotional signalling
Slide18By 20 months
: Infants can label some emotional statesBy 24 months: can make causal statements
(“You sad, Mommy……what daddy do?”)By 24 months
children have internalized rules for “do’s” and “don’ts” ---(at least in presence of caregiver)Toddlers are empathically responsive to mood states of others and can reproduce or share in emotion states of others
Pre-schoolers can correctly identify emotional reactions of others and its causes
Slide19Social referencing
Searching for emotional signals during prohibitions
Repeated looking before or after prohibited actOr for permitted acts
Slide20Is this morality?
People who experience another’s emotions and feel concern are expected
to help, be altruistic and
prosocial; Only prosocial behaviors motivated by empathy-sympathy have moral significance
Slide21Empathy and Prosocial Behavior
Eisenberg
Children under 2 often share toys and give things away
By age 2, can verbalize understanding of another’s needs, wants, intentions
And comfort a younger sibling, will attempt to alleviate distress by sympathy, offering help
These prosocial inclinations are observed throughout early childhood
Slide221983,
Child Development
When young children heard infants cry:
Children as young as 4-5 displayed signs of emotional arousal
Made empathic statements
Offered to help
(especially when cries were not too intense and baby’s mother was present)
Zahn-Waxler
Slide23Observed sympathetic concern and prosocial behavior
co-occur even at age 2
And co-occur in early childhood
When 4-5 year olds witnessed someone in distress, children in all risk groups (low-moderate-hi) showed
similar empathic concern and prosocial behavior
Moderate and high risk children were less able to remain positively engaged with distress victims
Slide24Tomasello
After a 3-year old witnessed a puppet destroy another puppet’s belongings:
Intervened on behalf of absent victim (verbally protested)
Tattled on transgressors
Acted pro-socially on behalf of victims of transgression
Children as young as 3 years of age actively intervene in third-party moral transgressions….and in
defense of moral norms
!
Slide25Summary
The building blocks of the moral self are evident in infancy
The affective core
is organized into procedural moral understandingReciprocity
Norm-ViolationsEmpathy and Prosocial BehaviorFashioned in sensitive, reciprocal exchanges with emotionally-available caregivers
But there is
room for improvement!
Slide26Present 4-, 6- and 8 year olds a situation where a child commits a moral transgression
e.g., steals another’s candy, pushes a child off a swing
Then ask: “How would the victimizer feel?”
W.
Arsenio
Nearly all 4- and 6-year olds and most 8-year olds predicted that the victimizer –who gets what he or she wants---
would be
happy
“Happy Victimizer”
The young child has difficulty coordinating material gain of the victimizer with negative consequences to the victim
Slide27Landmarks
Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial Behavior
Toddler’s Norms, Standards, ConceptsConscienceNarrative Self
Slide28Sensitivity to Norms and Standards
“Ought”
Young children develop early normative expectations
Towards end of the second yearToddlers become concerned with how things
ought to bee.g., names of things they are learninge.g., behavioral routines (inflexible about bedtime rituals)
e.g., violations of appearance
Children are constructing representations of how things are done and are sensitive to violations of normative expectations
Slide29J.
Kagan
19-month olds respond negatively and with concern when faced with objects that have been marred, damaged or disfigured
Missing buttons, torn pages, broken toys---react with interest, attention and negative evaluation (“It’s
yukky
!”)
--touching the flaw--concern about who was responsible
Interpreted as emerging moral sense
These damaged objects
violate implicit norms
of wholeness that parents enforce through sanctions on breaking or damaging objects
But perhaps not an emerging
moral
sense
Slide30R. Thompson
Is the sensitivity to norms specific to “wrong-doing” (i.e., broken or damaged)
Or whether children respond to anything that is simply
atypical
(e.g., being the wrong color)
Compared toddlers response to toy different from the norm in several ways:
Some were broken or damaged (teddy bear with one eye missing)
Others were
functionally impaired
without being broken (e.g., teddy bear without stuffing)
Some functional and intact but
abnormal
(e.g., teddy bear with psychedelic colors with wings)
Slide31Courtesy of Ross Thompson
Slide32Toddlers 14 to 23 months
Regardless of age---young children showed no differential responding
to the objects implying wrong-doingInstead, they responded with interest, affect and attention to all forms of
atypicality –damaged, functionally impaired or abnormalRather than an emerging moral sense---toddlers’ reaction to broken toys and disfigured objects a more
general sensitivity to events different from conventional normsThis sensitivity becomes
enlisted into an early moral sensibility as children come to learn that broken and marred objects are also disapprovedHere---what is atypical is interesting not only because it violates a norm,
but is also forbidden
Thompson (2009)
Slide33Toddler’s Moral Concepts
Toddler’s moral judgments nuanced by their understanding of different
domain
s of rules
Moral
v.
C
onventional
judgments
can be distinguished along several criteria
(alterability, contingency, generality, seriousness)
3.5 year olds distinguish moral and conventional rules on all criteria;
3 year olds distinguish only generality
2 year olds did not distinguish on any criteria
Slide34J. Smetana
24 and 36 month old children
Videotaped in two 45-minute sessions at home
With mother alone
With mother and peers
Moral transgressions more frequent in peer interactions
Conventional transgressions more frequent with mother alone
Mothers response to conventional violations focuses on social order or social regulation
Response to moral transgressions focuses transgressor on consequences of actions on rights or welfare of victim
Slide35Landmarks
Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial BehaviorToddler’s Norms, Standards, Concepts
ConscienceNarrative Self
Slide36Conscience
Grazyna
Kochanska
Inner guiding system responsible for gradual emergence and maintenance of self-regulation
Inner self-regulatory system consisting of moral emotions, conduct, cognitions
Conscience influence how children construct and act consistently with generalizable internal standards of conduct
Range of individual differences
Different pathways to conscience
Two sources of individual differences
:
Biologically-based temperament
Socialization
experiences with early caregivers
Slide37Kochanska’s
Model
Emerging morality begins with quality of parent-child attachment
Strong mutually responsive relationship to caregivers orients child to be receptive to parental influence“Mutually-Responsive Orientation” (MRO)
MRO characterized by
“shared positive affect”Mutually coordinated enjoyable routines (“good times”)“cooperative interpersonal set”
Joint willingness of parent and child to initiate and reciprocate relational overtures
Slide38Within MRO, and the secure attachment it denotes, that the child is eager to comply with parental expectations and standards
“committed compliance”
to norms and values of caregiversWhich motivates moral internalization and “
conscience”
Slide39Two Main Components of Early Conscience
Rule-compatible, internalized conduct (rule compliance without surveillance)
Moral emotion (empathy)
Children who comply with rules even without supervisionWho feel empathic concern towards others’ distress
Who feel discomfort when they commit transgressions
Psychosocial competence
Positive development
Slide40Children who experience a highly responsive relationship with mothers over first 24 months strongly embraced maternal prohibitions
And gave evidence of strong self-regulation at pre-school age
Slide41Security of Attachment (MRO)
Committed Compliance
Moral Internalization
“
Children with a strong history of committed compliance with the parent are likely gradually to come to view themselves as embracing the parent’s values and rules.
Such a moral self, in turn, comes to serve as the regulator of future moral conduct and, more generally, of early morality”
(p. 340)
But children bring something to the interaction….
their temperament
Slide42Multiple pathways to conscience
One parenting style
not
uniformly more effective irrespective of child’s temperament
Children who are
“fearful”
would profit from gentle, low power-assertive discipline
“silken glove”
But
“fearless”
children would require not the “iron hand” but discipline that capitalizes on positive emotions
Slide43Longitudinal assessment: 25 mos., 38mos., 52 mos., 67 mos. & 80 mos.
T
wo, 2-3 hour laboratory session, one with each parent
At 38 months, one home and one lab (with each parent)Child’s internalization of each parent’s rules and empathy towards parents’ distress observed in scripted paradigms at 25mo., 38mo. & 52 mos.Moral self assessed with “puppet interview”
Adaptive, competent, prosocial and antisocial behavior rated by parents & teachers
Overview of Methodology
Slide44Moral Self
Two puppets anchor opposite ends of 31 itemsThe items pertain to dimensions of early conscience (e.g., internalization of rules, empathy, apology, etc)
Each item presented with brief scenario, with one puppet endorsing one option and the second puppet the other option (“with equally self-righteous voices
”)Puppet 1: “When I break something, I try to hide it so no one finds out.”
Puppet 2: “When I break something, I tell someone right away.”
Then the child is asked: “What about you? Do you try to hide something that you broke or do you tell someone right away?”
Other Assessments
(at 80 mos.)
MacArthur Health Behavior Questionnaire (parents & teachers)School engagementPeer relationsProsocial behavior
Problem behaviorChild Symptom InventoryOpposition defiant items
Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (parents)Absences of guilt & empathy
Disregard for rules & standards
Slide46Children who as
toddlers & preschoolers had strong history of internalized “out-of-sight” compliance
with parents’ rules
Were competent, engaged, prosocial with few antisocial behavioral problems at
early school age
Strong history of
empathic responding at toddlers/preschool
Psychosocial competence at early school age
What mechanism accounts for this beneficial effect?
The Moral Self
Children’s moral self robustly predicted future competent behavior
Children at 67 mos. who were “highly moral” were rated at 80 mos. as highly competent, prosocial and having few antisocial problems
Slide47Fig. 2 Kochanska et al (2010)
Slide48Fig. 3 Kochanska et al. (2010)
Slide49How does the moral self execute its inner guidance role?
Mechanisms not completely clear
Kochanka
suggestsavoidance of cognitive dissonance
anticipation of guilty feelings,
automatic regulation due to highaccessibility of moral schemas
Slide50“
In the end is my beginning” ---T.S. Eliot (East Coker)
Moral Self of Infancy
Conscienc
e
“In my beginning is my end.”
---T. S. Eliot (East Coker)
Slide51Dan & Darcia
Social-Cognitive Approach
“Moral “chronicity” built on foundation of generalized “event representations”
Event representations as “basic building blocks” of cognitive development
Are elaborated in
dialogues with caregivers
who help children review and consolidate memories in script-like fashion
At some point specific episodic memories must be integrated into a narrative form that references a self whose story it is,
Episodic memory transformed into autobiographical memory
Slide52Parental interrogatories
“What happened when you pushed your sister?”
“What should you do next?”Are a scaffold that helps children structure events in a narrative fashion
And provides, as part of the self-narrative, action-guiding scripts “
I apologize”
That become over-learned, routine, habitual, automatic.
Parents help children identify morally relevant features of their experience and encourage formation of social cognitive schemas that are chronically accessible.
Slide53Landmarks
Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial Behavior
Toddlers Norms, Standards ConceptsConscienceSocial-Cognitive (“Narrative”) Approach