prosocial behaviour and moral development

• prosocial behaviour " helping, comforting and sharing on the part of one to another "(smith et al)
• why do children engage in pro-social behaviour

  grusec suggests 2 reasons:

  1. motivation due to empathy or sympathy (responses reduce these feelings)
  2. motivation to behave according to cultural norms

  these 2. motivations have been examined by experimental and observational studies
• experimental studies

  does reinforcement affect pro-social behaviour?

  Gelfand

  5-6 year olds

  play marble game to earn pennies - pennies will buy a prize

  told: you can donate pennies to another child

  examined effect of:

  1. prompting child to donate
  2. praising child after donation

  found both prompt and praise increase donation rate

  demonstrates reinforcement can incease pro-social behaviour
• does modelling affect pro-social behaviour?

  grusec:

  • compared modelling vs preaching
  • 8-10 yr olds watched adult play marbles game
  • poster: 'help poor children. marbles buy gifts"
  • adult: either preached or not, then either gave 1/2 of marbles or none
  • child left to play alone
  • most children who saw adults give marbles donated some
  • few children donated in response to preaching only
  • few weeks later, few donated regardless of previous conditio
• experimental studies:

  criticisms:

  • artificial, unfair
  • do experiments measure true helpfulness, or just conformity

  eisen-berg

  • stories relevant to children "would you help injured child if had to miss a bday party"
  • longitudinal study in various countries
  • found progression from self interest to decisions based on human rights
• observational studies:

  avoid problems of experimental studies;

  zahn-waxler and radke-yarrrow

  24 children ages 12-30 mo

  mothers kept diary: note childs response to someones distress

  up to 20 mo: personal distress. prosocial behaviour rare and simple

  after 20 mo: 1/3 of all behaviour was prosocial and more advanced

  prosocial behaviour is present before 3 years
• observational studies:

  eisenberg-berg + hand:

  • observed 35 children aged 4-5 years in nursery school
  • found prosocial behaviour every 10-12 min
• bar-tal et al

  • observed 156 israeli children ages 18mo - 6 yrs
  • found 1-20% of all social contact is prosocial
  • consistent across age and gender

  prosical is evident very early child hood and frequent
• effect of parents on prosocial behaviour

  • grusec highlights possible role of mothers behaviour
  • grusec (1982)
  • examined mothers reports of prosocial behaviours in 4 + 7 yr olds
  • found 1 event per day over 4 weeks
  • asked mothers to note their own responses after

  1. child helps another child
  2. child fails to help another child

  found: mother almost always thanked, praised, smiled in response to childs helpfulness
• effect of family on prosocial behaviour - panfile

  • securely attached children are learning to regulate their behaviour when parenting is sensitive
  • emotion regulation mediated the relationship between attachment and empathy
• effect of parents

  • krevans and gibbs: children more prosocial when mothers regularly encourage them to consider how their actions affect others
• how might children learn parents values:

  grusec and goodnow

  1. accurate understanding of parents message
  2. acceptance; by experiencing the value as reasonable

  predicts children will not learn if punished for failing to act prosocially
• effect of parents

  zahn-waxler studies identify 5 types of parental behaviour that promote development of child's prosocial behaviour

  1. provide clear rules and principles
  2. show emotional conviction
  3. attribute prosocial behaviour to the child
  4. model prosocial behaviour
  5. empathetic caregiving
• effect of parents - zahn-waxler

  1. provide clear rules and principles

  • e.g. you don't bite people, it will hurt them" will work "don't do that" it will not work
  • also reasoning is a better strategy than punishment (grusec and goodnow)
• effect of parents

  2. show emotional conviction

  • explain rules with feeling; child more likely to understand the message is important
• effects of parents

  3. attribute prosocial behaviour to the child

  • tell children often they are kind, helpful etc. children attribute these qualities to their personality and live up to them
  • child learns they are responsible for producing good behaviour
• effect of parents

  4. model prosocial behaviour

  • children imitate adult behaviour; demonstrate prosocial behaviour
• effect of parents

  5. empathetic caregiving

  • be loving, approving, responsive to child. most importan
• type of parenting is associated with prosocial behaviour

  authoritative parenting

  • both highly responsive and warm to child and highly demanding of them
  • offer clear rules and expectations
  • encourage autonomy

  increase in prosocial behaviours
• type of parenting

  permissive parents

  • highly responsive to the child
  • undemanding of child
  • do not provide clear rules and limits
  • decrease in prosocial behaviours (r= -0.96)
• neglectful parents

  • unresponsive to child
  • undemanding of child

  no significant association with prosocial behaviours
• effect of siblings

  • experience with siblings provides opportunity for development of prosocial behaviour
  • dunn and kendrick longitudinal study found:
  • if at 1-3 yrs a child shows concern for newborn sibling in first 3 weeks, concern is more likely if sibling distressed 6 yrs later
  • children who grew up with unfriendly sibling were more likely to have emotional difficulties in their relationships with others
• are there cross cultural differences in prosocial behaviour?

  cross cultural studies shed light on factors that influence development of prosocial behaviour

  whiting and whiting observed children aged 3-10 in 6 countries kenya, mexico, philippines more prosocial than okinawa, india, USA
• cross cultural differences in prosocial behaviour: whiting and whiting

  • children are most prosocial in societies where there is most pressure for mother to work - delegating responsibility to children
  • children are least prosocial in more individualist societies
• moral development:

  • prosocial behaviour depends on ability to make moral judgements , more than simply compliance
  • how do children develop beliefs about how people should behave in society
  • social learning theory (e.g. bandura)
  • cognitive developmental theory (e.g. piaget, kohlberg)
• moral development:

  social learning theory (e.g. bandura)

  • morals internalised like other behaviours
  • supposes children attend to, remember and reproduce adult prosocial behaviour
  • reinforcement alone is insufficient; prosocial behaviour is initially too rare
  • explains complex behaviour: lot of people and behaviour to imitate
  • views moral development as internalisation of societal norms

  criticism: ignores child's active role
• moral development:

  cognitive developmental theory (e.g. piaget, Kohlber)

  propose: development of reasoning ability leads to moral development

  emphasis on reasoning from experience with social conflicts

  from moral concepts: justice and fairness

  child develops understanding:

  morality is "something that must be true in the social world, just as conservation must be true in the physical world"
• cognitive developmental theory: Piaget

  assessed moral development via games and story pairs

  1. premoral (up to 4 yrs) - no understanding of rules or right and wrong
  2. moral realism (4-10 years) - concrete understanding, rules are fixed
  3. moral subjectivism (from 10 years) - actions judged according to intentions, morality base on principles e.g. justice
• cognitive developmental theory: Piaget

  evaluation

  • influential theory
  • shows that child and adult moral reasoning differs
• cognitive developmental theory: piaget

  criticisms

  • stories long and complex for young children
  • later research shows more advanced moral reasoning at earlier age
  • stage theory too rigid
• cognitive development theory: Kohlberg

  • kohlberg extended and refined Piaget's theory
  • assessed subjects responses to 'moral dilemmas' at interview eg:
  • heinz wife dying of cancer, doctor finds drug to cure, costs £2000, only cost doctor £200 to make drug. only raises £1000 refuses to sell. heinz steals drug, should have he have done that
• cognitive development theory: Kohlberg

  pre-conventional level

  stage 1: heteronomous morality

  • difficulty considering different viewpoints in dilemmas
  • obedient in order to avoid punishment

  heinz should not steal or he would go to jail
• cog develop theory : moral : kohlberg

  preconventional level

  stage 2: instrumental purpose and exchange

  • can consider diff viewpoints, but understanding is concrete
  • 'right' is what satisfies individuals needs
  • 'fair' is an equal exchange of favours

  heinz and doctor can both do what they want
• moral development

  cog dev theory: kohlberg

  conventional level

  stage 3: morality of interpersonal cooperation

  • obey rules to uphold harmony among close contacts
  • trust, loyalty and concern for others is important

  heinz should steal or people will think he doesnt care
• moral development

  cog dev theory: kohlberg

  conventional level

  Stage 4: social order maintenance

  • obey rules to uphold harmony along society
  • believe society rules are vital to social order; must be uphelo except in certain extreme cases
  • "right is contributing to society
  • heinz should not steal as it is his duty as a citizen to obey the law
• moral development: cog dev theory: kohlberg

  principled level

  stage 5: social construct

  • move beyond unquestioning support for the law. rules are agreements that can be changed by consensus
  • define morality in terms of universal values (e.g. rights to life & freedom)

  heinz should steal. the law is not meant to violate the right to life, so the law needs to be changed
• criticisms of kohlberg's theory

  • kohlberg model implies differences are due to different levels of cognitive ability but:

  methodological problems: stages based on artificial dilemmas

  • interview techniques is open to biases & subjective interpretation
• criticisms of kohlberg's theory

  • kohlberg model implies differences are due to different levels of cognitive ability but:
  • cross cultural validity: snarey reviewed findings from 27 different cultures. only found stage 5 reasoning in urban cultures.
  • suggests test may reflect western individualistic views
• criticisms of kohlbergs moral dev theoory:

  Gender differences? Gilligan (1982) suggests female morality isdifferent from male: Males’ judgments based more on principles

  Females’ judgments based more on peoples’ feeling