2410B chapter 12

• Self-control


  The ability to control one's behavior and to inhibit impulsive responding to temptations
• Self-control


  • One of the first steps toward moral behavior because children must learn that they cannot constantly do whatever tempts them at the moment
  • Society has rules for behavior in certain situations, and children must learn to restrain themselves
• Beginnings of self-control


  1. Emerges in infancy and gradually improves during the preschool years

  2. At about their first birthday, infants become aware that people impose demands on them and they must react accordingly

  3. At about 2 years of age, toddlers have internalized some of the controls imposed by others and are capable of some self-control in their parents' absence

  4. At about 3 years of age, children become capable of self-regulation; they can devise ways to control their own behavior

  5. Although preschoolers are able to regulate impulsive behavior somewhat, they still have much to learn, and control is achieved only gradually throughout the elementary-school years
• Delay of gratification


  Studies in which children are offered the choice of a relatively small reward immediately or a much larger reward if they wait
• Self-control may be evident in toddlers, mastery occurs gradually throughout childhood, probably reflecting maturation of circuitry in the brain's frontal cortex that is critical for inhibiting behavior
• Preschoolers' self-control predicts outcomes in adolescence and young adulthood
• Individuals differ in their ability to resist temptation, and this characteristic is remarkably stable over time
• Influences on self-control


  • Greater self-control is linked with a disciplinary style in which parents are warm and loving but establish well defined limits on what behavior is acceptable
  • Self-control is enhanced when parents discuss disciplinary issues with their children instead of simply asserting their power as parents
  • This parental discipline style is called inductive reasoning – inducing the child to reason, to think for him or herself about the situation
  • Self-control is usually lower when parents are very strict with them
• Temperament also matters for children's self-control, with some children being temperamentally better suited to maintaining self-control and regulating their behavior
• Culture may play a role in the development of self-control, with Chinese toddlers being more likely to be willingly compliant and less likely to protest than Canadian children
• Despite cross-cultural differences in timing and degree, Canadian parents still do want their children to learn self-control
• Improving children's self-control


  1. Reminding yourself of the importance of long-term goals over short-term temptations

  2. Reducing the attraction of the tempting event or circumstance

  3. Using self-talk and self-instruction to control behavior

  4. Making plans that include appropriate self-instruction
• Moral realism


  The belief that rules are created by wise adults and therefore must be followed and cannot be changed
• Moral relativism


  The understanding that rules are created by people to help them get along, and that they can be changed if needed
• Heteronomous morality


  Morality based on absolute rules handed down by another
• Autonomous morality


  Morality based more on free will
• Preschool children believe adult's authority is limited, and that pushing a child or damaging another child's possessions is wrong, even when an adult says that it's okay
• Kohlberg's theory of moral development

  • Includes three levels (preconventional, conventional, and postconventional) and six stages
  • Moral reasoning shifts from being based on external forces like rewards and punishments to being based on a personal, internal moral code
• Kohlberg's theory is supported by research showing that older and more sophisticated thinkers are usually more advanced in their moral development, and that individuals progress through the stages in sequence
• Kohlberg's theory has been criticized for not accounting for the consistency of moral reasoning, and for not being universally applicable across cultures
• Gilligan's ethic of caring

  Moral reasoning rooted in concern for others and fulfilling obligations, rather than just in principles of justice
• Research has found little evidence supporting Gilligan's claim of gender differences in moral reasoning, but her theory is important in emphasizing the broader nature of moral reasoning
• Domains of social judgement

  Moral judgements represent just one of several important domains in which children and adults make social judgements, including social conventions and personal choice
• Moral reasoning


  Gilligan believes it becomes qualitatively more sophisticated as individuals develop, progressing through a number of distinct stages
• Gilligan's emphasis


  Care (helping people in need) instead of justice (treating people fairly)
• Research yields little evidence supporting Gilligan's claim that females and males differ in the bases of their moral reasoning
• Gilligan's theory is important in emphasizing that moral reasoning is broader than Kohlberg claimed: most people think about moral issues in terms of both justice and caring, depending upon the nature of the moral dilemma and the context
• Social conventions


  Arbitrary standards of behavior agreed to by a cultural group to facilitate interactions within the group
• Personal domain


  Choices concerning one's body (ex: what to eat and wear) and choices of friends or activities
• Decisions in the personal domain are not right or wrong but instead are seen as personal preferences left up to the individual
• During the preschool years, children begin to differentiate the domains of morality, social convention, and personal autonomy
• Moral rules are common across cultures but, by definition, social conventions are not
• How children come to understand the different domains

  1. Shaped in part by their experiences

  2. Parents' responses to different kinds of transgressions play a role
• By the preschool years, children have made remarkable progress in understanding the distinction among the moral, social-conventional, and personal domains
• The capacity to reason about moral values, and the distinctions made between types of values, increased with age
• Research on domains of social judgement shows that by age 3, children understand that moral rules are special – they can't be changed and they apply broadly
• Other research suggests that moral reasoning may begin at even younger ages – 19-month old's expect resources to be divided evenly, and 6-to-10-month old's prefer helpful actors over those who hinder others
• Moral goodness


  Feeling of concern for other people and helping them in time of need
• Moral evaluation


  Identifying and disliking group members who do not cooperate
• Moral retribution


  Punishing group members whose behavior undermines the group