/
Landmarks of Moral Formation in Early Childhood Landmarks of Moral Formation in Early Childhood

Landmarks of Moral Formation in Early Childhood - PowerPoint Presentation

sportyinds
sportyinds . @sportyinds
Follow
342 views
Uploaded On 2020-06-20

Landmarks of Moral Formation in Early Childhood - PPT Presentation

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

children moral prosocial early moral children early prosocial rules emotional social standards behavior amp child empathy morality age norms

Share:

Link:

Embed:

Download Presentation from below link

Download The PPT/PDF document "Landmarks of Moral Formation in Early Ch..." is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.


Presentation Transcript

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

Slide2

Morality is “declarative” knowledge

It is deliberative, explicit, propositional

It is wrestling with dilemmasIt is “knowing that”

Infant Morality and the “Received View”

Slide3

But 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

Slide4

Landmarks

Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial BehaviorToddlers Norms, Standards Concepts

ConscienceSocial-Cognitive (“Narrative”) Approach

Slide5

Biologically prepared “motives”

Procedural knowledge

Origins of the Moral Self?

Robert

Emde

“In my beginning is my end.”

---T. S. Eliot (East Coker)

Slide6

Procedural 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

Slide7

System 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

)

Slide8

The 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)

Slide9

Early 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)

Slide11

Early 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)

Slide12

An Early Moral Self

Infant rule-learning originates in

inborn propensity

and in expectable

caregiver relationship experiences

ReciprocityNorm ViolationsEmpathy-Sharing

Emde et al (1991)

Slide13

Reciprocity

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)

Slide14

Is this morality?

Reciprocity is the “foundation stone” of moral systems

Do unto others…

Slide15

Norm 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

Slide16

Empathy

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

Slide17

Empathy

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

Slide18

By 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

Slide19

Social referencing

Searching for emotional signals during prohibitions

Repeated looking before or after prohibited actOr for permitted acts

Slide20

Is 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

Slide21

Empathy 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

Slide22

1983,

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

Slide23

Observed 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

Slide24

Tomasello

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

!

Slide25

Summary

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!

Slide26

Present 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

Slide27

Landmarks

Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial Behavior

Toddler’s Norms, Standards, ConceptsConscienceNarrative Self

Slide28

Sensitivity 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

Slide29

J.

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

Slide30

R. 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)

Slide31

Courtesy of Ross Thompson

Slide32

Toddlers 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)

Slide33

Toddler’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

Slide34

J. 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

Slide35

Landmarks

Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial BehaviorToddler’s Norms, Standards, Concepts

ConscienceNarrative Self

Slide36

Conscience

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

Slide37

Kochanska’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

Slide38

Within 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”

Slide39

Two 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

Slide40

Children 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

Slide41

Security 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

Slide42

Multiple 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

Slide43

Longitudinal 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

Slide44

Moral 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?”

Slide45

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

Slide46

Children 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

Slide47

Fig. 2 Kochanska et al (2010)

Slide48

Fig. 3 Kochanska et al. (2010)

Slide49

How 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)

Slide51

Dan & 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

Slide52

Parental 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.

Slide53

Landmarks

Moral Self of InfancyEmpathy and Prosocial Behavior

Toddlers Norms, Standards ConceptsConscienceSocial-Cognitive (“Narrative”) Approach