Chapter 14:

Aggression, Altruism, and Moral

Development

Dr. Pelaez

Development of Aggression

Aggressive Acts are divided into two categories:

1.

2.

Hostile Aggression- Aggressive acts which mainly

focuses on purposely harming or injuring another
individual.
Instrumental Aggression- Aggressive acts which
mainly focus on gaining access to objects, space
and privileges.

Example: A boy who hits and teases his sister and

then continues to tease her for crying. This can be
defined as hostile aggression.
The boy can act further by taking away a toy that
his sister was playing with after hitting her. This
would be defined as instrumental aggression.
There can be a bidirectional relationship.

Developmental Trends

Signs of instrumental aggression begin to

show at the end of the 1st year of life.
Goodenough (1931) found that unfocused
temper tantrums become less common
between the ages of 2 and 3, as children
begin to physically retaliate when frustrated
or attacked by playmates.
Goodenough (1931) also found that physical
aggression declines and makes way for
verbal forms of aggression (teasing, tattling,
name-calling) between the ages of 3 and 5.

Developmental Trends (cont.)

Adolescents show less overtly aggressive behavior, but

may turn to other forms of antisocial behavior.
Relational Aggression: acts such as snubbing,
withdrawing acceptance, or spreading rumors that are
aimed at damaging an adversarys self-esteem,
friendships, or social status.
Relational aggression in girls becomes more subtle and
malicious during adolescence.
Boys are more likely to express their aggression
through acts like theft, truancy, substance abuse, and
sexual misconduct

Developmental Trends

Sex Differences

Boys have higher

levels of sex
hormonestestosterone.

Social Learning

By preschool,
aggression was viewed
to be a male attribute
in their gender
schemas. (Watson &
Peng, 1992).
Researchers focus
more on overt rather
than covert behaviors.

Aggressiveness is not
a stable attribute.
Aside from genetic
predispositions, some
children will remain
highly aggressive due
to their social
environment and
maintain aggressive
habits.
Only a small
percentage become
chronically aggressive.

Individual Differences in Aggressive

Behavior

Proactive Aggressors

Confident that
aggression will result
in tangible benefits.
Believe that self
esteem will be
enhanced by being the
dominant one over
other children.
Use of instrumental
strategies to obtain
and achieve personal
goals

Reactive Aggressors

Display high levels of

retaliatory aggression.
Are suspicious and
cautious of other
individuals.
Believe others who are
dominated deserve to
be dominated.

Is Aggressiveness a Stable Attribute?

An international longitudinal study by Cummings et al.

(1989) found that the amount of moody, ill-tempered,
and aggressive behavior that children display between
3 and 10 is a fairly good predictor of their aggressive
or other antisocial inclinations later in life.
Children who genetically predisposed to be
temperamentally irritable may remain relatively
aggressive over time because they regularly evoke
negative reactions, which may foster aggressive
responses.
Other children may remain highly aggressive because
they are raised in home environments that nurture and
maintain aggressive habits.

Social Information Processing Theory

Kenneth Dodge (1986) created this model

to display how children prefer aggressive
or non aggressive resolutions to social
problems.
Six stages in Social Information
Processing Theory:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.

Encode Social Cues- what is the harm doer's

reaction?
Interpret Social Cues- Meaning behind the action.
Formulate Social Goals- resolve situation.
Generate Problem Solving- Strategies to achieve
goals.
Evaluate Strategies- Were goals achieved?
Enact a response- child responds to situation.

Dodges Social-Information
Processing Model

Steps children take when deciding how to respond to

harmdoing.

Victims of Peer Aggression

Passive Children
1.

2.
3.
4.

5.

6.

Socially
withdrawn
Sedentary
Physically weak
Reluctant to fight
back
Do not defend
themselves.
Invite hostilities
by not acting.

Proactive Children
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Oppositional
Restless
High tempered
Inclined to fight
back to
aggressors
Involved in
various fighting
situations.

Perpetrators of Peer Aggression

Olweus (1984, 1993) found that 10

percent of his adolescent sample could
be described as habitual bullies who
physically and verbally harassed another
10 percent of the sample on a regular
basis.
Rates are higher in younger children.
Habitual bullies have often observed
adult conflict and aggression at home,
but have rarely been the target of
aggression. They have learned that
aggression pays off for the perpetrator.

Bullies appear to harass their victims for

personal or instrumental reasons are
usually classified as proactive
aggressors.

Cultural and Subcultural Influences on

Aggression

Some cultures and ethnicities are found to be much more violent

and aggressive than others.

Gebusi of Papua New Guinea

Teach children to be fierce and competitive and
unresponsive to the needs of other individuals
In relations to crime, 50% of murder is higher than
any other industrialized nation.
Compared to the U.S. the incidence of rape, homicide
and assault are the second highest in the nation.

Studies in the U.S. and U.K. found social-class differences in

aggression: Youth from lower SES, particularly males from urban
areas, exhibit more aggressive behavior and higher levels of
delinquency than their peers in the middle class.

Socioeconomic Class

Children from low SES usually in urban areas

tend to exhibit more aggressive behavior and
high levels of delinquent acts.
Parents with low income have found to use
physical punishment styles to discipline
aggression, therefore modeling aggression
rather than suppressing it.
Parents with low SES live stressful and difficult
lifestyles making parental monitoring difficult.

Coercive Home Environments:

Breeding Grounds for Aggression and Delinquency

Families as Social Systems:

Patterson (1982) observed that highly

aggressive children live in atypical family
environments he termed coercive home
environments: homes in which family
members often annoy one another and use
aggressive or otherwise antisocial tactics as a
method of coping with aversive experiences.
Negative reinforcement is important in
maintaining the coercive interactions.
The flow of influence is multidirectional, with
coercive interactions affecting the behavior of
all parties and contributing to the hostile family
environment.

Coercive Home Environments as

Contributors to Chronic Delinquency
Preschool Years
Develop hostile
attribution biases
Defiant
Aggressive
behavior
General lack of
self resistance

Pre-Adolescence
Rejection by
school peers
Criticized by
teachers
Poor academics
Poor attendance
Exposure to other
deviant groups

A Model of the Development of

Chronic Antisocial Behavior

Adapted from Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989.

Developmental Paths

Boys are more likely than girls fall into

delinquency, but recently the gap is narrowing.
Delinquent girls are more likely to engage in
prostitution and running away, but equally as
likely as boys to be involved in larcenies,
substance abuse, and sexual misconduct.
Delinquency Legacy: Antisocial male adolescents
tend to pair up with antisocial females and have
children at an earlier age. These couples expose
their children to the same kind of coercive home
environment that fostered their own delinquency

Developmental Paths

Family interventions are

effective for modifying antisocial
behaviors.
Useful interventions consist of:
1.

2.

3.

Parenting skills for

effective child
management techniques
Fostering social skills in
children to prevent from
rejection by peers.
Providing academic
remediation to keep
children on grade level.

Methods of Controlling Aggression &

Antisocial Conduct
Proven Methods

Non-aggressive
Environments
1.

Play areas to
minimize conflict
Provide space for
vigorous play to
avoid accidents

1.

Incompatible response
technique-ignoring
undesirable conduct while
reinforcing acts unrelated
to these conducts.

2.

Time out Techniquediscipline for misbehaving

children in which they are
removed from a setting
until they are able to act
appropriately.

Payoffs for Aggression

1.

Decrease incidence
of proactive
aggression by
identifying and
eliminating
reinforcing
consequences.

Social Cognitive Interventions

Highly-reactive, aggressive children

can benefit from social cognitive
interventions.
1. Looking

for non-hostile cues associated

with harm doing.
2. Control anger
3. Generate non-aggressive solutions to
conflict.

Preventing Violence at School

School faculty and counselor take measures in the

school environment
To decrease aggressive acts amongst children.
Focus on :
Minimizing rewards for aggression
Replacing aggression with pro-social responses
Helping students control their emotions
Understand feelings and intentions
Seek non-aggressive solutions to conflict

Origins of Altruism

Altruism: a selfless concern for the welfare of

others that is expressed through pro-social acts
such as sharing, cooperating, and helping.
Toddlers are capable of being compassionate
towards their companions.

Individual differences in early compassion depend

on temperamental variations and parents
reactions to the child harming another child:

More compassionate toddlers have parents who

discipline harm doing with affective explanations
(focuses attention on harm or distress the child has
caused) that foster sympathy.

Altruism: Individual Differences

Childrens early compassion

depends heavily on:
Behaviors children view amongst
parents.

Example: Mothers of uncompassionate

toddlers use coercive tactics
(verbal consequences or physical
punishment) to discipline undesirable
behaviors.

Developmental Trends in Altruism

Spontaneous self sacrifice, in terms of

sharing and helping, are relatively
infrequent amongst toddlers.
Unless instructed by an adult or
threatened by a peer, these behaviors are
unlikely.
This involuntary acts of compassion
improve as toddlers enter the preschool
age.

Social-Cognitive and Affective

Contributors to Altruism

2 important contributors to the

development of altruistic behavior:
1. Pro-social moral reasoning: the
thinking that people display when
deciding whether to help, share with, or
comfort others when these actions could
prove costly to themselves.
- Eisenbergs level of pro-social moral
reasoning in children and adolescents
predicts future altruism.

Social-Cognitive and Affective

Contributors to Altruism (cont.)
2.

Empathy: persons ability to experience

the emotions of other people.
- Childrens interpretation of their own
empathic arousal as concern for
distressed others (sympathetic empathic
arousal vs. self-oriented distress) should
eventually come to promote altruism.
-Social-cognitive development must take
place for true empathy to develop.

Eisenbergs Levels of Pro-social Moral

Reasoning

Hedonistic

Needs Oriented

Stereotyped, approval oriented

Empathic orientation

Internalized values orientation

Social-Cognitive & Affective

Contributors to Altruism

Social-Cognitive & Affective

Contributors to Altruism
Preschoolers

More geared towards

concern
for themselves; self
serving.

Adolescence
Become increasingly
responsive to the
needs wishes and
concerns of other
individuals
Less self centered.

EX: helping someone

they may dislike

Age Trends: Empathy-Altruism

Relationship

Empathy can be better measured by the age of the

child.
Studies have shown children appeared empathetic by
expressing feelings about misfortunes of storybook
characters.

Younger children lack role taking skills and insight

about their personal emotions in order to understand:

Why others feel and act distressed

Why other are feeling aroused due to the distress.

How Empathy Promotes Altruism: A

Felt Responsibility Interpretation

FeltResponsibility
Hypothesis: the
theory that
empathy may
promote
altruism by
causing one to
reflect on
altruistic norms
and thus to feel
some obligation
to help
distressed
others.

Cultural and Social Influences on

Altruism

Most Altruistic
Less industrialized
societies

Large families

Children contribute to
family matters
Suppressed
individualism

Less Altruistic
Western Culture
competition of
individual rather than
group goals

Few responsibilities in
family
Lack of self care
routines

Cultural & Social Influences on Altruism

Reinforcing Altruism

Likable and respected adults can promote childrens

pro-social behavior by verbally reinforcing their acts
of kindness.
Children who are offered tangible rewards for their prosocial acts are not especially altruistic because they
attribute their kind acts to a desire to earn incentives,
rather than to a concern for others welfare and are
less likely to make sacrifices for others when the
rewards stop.
Children who observe helpful models become more
helpful themselves, especially if the model has a warm
relationship with the child, provides a compelling
rationale, and regularly practices what he preaches

Who raises altruistic children?

Studies of unusually
charitable adults indicate
they have enjoyed a
warm and affectionate
relationship with parents
who themselves were
highly concerned with
the welfare of others.
Parental reactions to a
childs harm doing also
play an important role in
the development of
altruism.

What is Morality?

These are principals or

ideas that help
individuals decipher
right from wrong
actions. A condition of
feeling pride vs. guilt or
unpleasant emotions
As individuals grow older
altruism is internalizedshifting from externally
controlled actions to
governing internal
standards and principles

How Developmentalists Look at

Morality

1.

2.

3.

Research has centered on 3 moral components:

Affective Component: the feelings that surround
right or wrong actions and that motivate moral
thoughts or actions.
Cognitive Component: the way we conceptualize
right and wrong and make decisions about how to
behave.
Behavioral Component: how we actually behave
when we experience the temptation to lie, cheat,
or violate other moral views.

All contemporary theorists consider internalization

to be a crucial milestone along the road to moral
maturity.

Freud: Development of the Conscience

Emphasized moral affect.

Freuds theory of oedipal mortality: children internalize
the moral standards of the same-sex parent during the
phallic stage as they resolve their Oedipus or Electra
complex and form a conscience or superego.
Toddlers in securely attached relationships have mutually
responsive relationships with their parents.
These toddlers are likely to display committed
compliance in which they:
1. Are highly motivated to embrace parents
agenda and comply with rules.
2. Are sensitive to a parents emotional signals
and judge if they have done right or wrong.
3. Are beginning to internalize parental reactions
in response to their achievements and changes.
This leads them to experience shame, guilt or
pride.

Cognitive-Developmental Theory:
The Child as Moral Philosopher

Cognitive-developmentalists chart the

moral reasoning that children display.
Believe that children progress through
invariant stages, each of which evolves
from and replaces its predecessor.
Believe that cognitive development and
relevant social experiences underlie the
growth of moral reasoning.
Two major theorists:

Jean Piaget & Lawrence Kohlberg

Piagets Theory of Moral

Development
1. The Premoral Period: The first 5 years of life,
when children are said to have little respect for
or awareness of socially defined rules.
2.

Heteronomous Morality: The 1st stage of moral

development in which children view the rules of
authority figures as sacred and unalterable.

3.

Autonomous Morality: The 2nd stage of moral

development, in which children realize that rules
are arbitrary agreements that can be challenged
and changed with the consent of the people they
govern.

Piagets Model Continued

Two factors play a role in the transition from

heteronomous to autonomous morality:
(1) cognitive maturation

decline in egocentrism
development of role-taking skills

(2) social experience

-

equal-status contact with peers

- lessens the childs respect for adult authority
- increases self-respect and respect for peers
- illustrates that rules are arbitrary
agreements.

Critics have argued that Piagets theory

underestimates the moral capacities of preschool
and grade-school children.

Kohlbergs Theory of Moral

Development

Revised and extended Piagets

theory.
As children mature, they are faced with
solving moral dilemmas.
1. Obeying

rule or authority figure

2. Taking some action that conflicted with
rules and commands while serving
human needs.

Kohlbergs Theory:
Level 1- Pre-conventional Morality

Kohlberg believed in the levels of morality

that consisted of six stages:

Level 1: Pre-conventional Morality- moral

judgments are based on tangible punitive
consequences (stage 1) or rewarding
consequences (stage 2)

Stage 1: Punishment & Obedience TrainingThe goodness and badness of an act all depends
on the consequences.
Stage 2: Nave Hedonism- individual conforms
to rules in order to gain rewards or satisfy
personal goals.

Kohlbergs Theory:
Level 2 Conventional Morality

Level 2: Conventional Morality:

Individual strives to obey rules and
social norms to win others approval or
to maintain social order.
Stage 3: Good boy or Good girl
Orientation- Moral behavior which is
perceived to please, aid and assist others.
Stage 4: Social-Order Maintaining
Morality- individual considers perspectives
that are generalized by others. The will of
society will be reflected by the law.

Kohlbergs Theory:
Level 3 Post-conventional Morality

Level 3: Post conventional MoralityMoral judgments are based on social

contracts and democratic law (stage 5) or
on universal principles of ethics and
justice (stage 6).

Stage 5: The Social Contract OrientationIndividual sees the laws as tools for expressing
the will of the majority of human welfare.
Stage 6: Morality of Individual Principles of
Conscience- individual defines right and wrong
on the basis of the self chosen ethical principles
of his or her conscience.

Support for Kohlbergs Theory

Longitudinal research conducted by Colby et al.

(1983) on Kohlbergs original research
participants found that the moral stages do
form an invariant sequence.
The need for cognitive development has also
found support in the literature (Walker, 1980;
Tomlinson-Keasey & Keasey, 1974, etc.).
Research has also shown that social-experience
that occurs with peers, in advanced education
settings, and in diverse, democratic societies
contributes to moral development.

Are Kohlbergs Stages an Invariant

Sequence?

Adapted

from Colby et al. (1983)

Morality: Product of Social Learning

and Social Information Processing

Hartshorne & May (1928- 1930),

conducted longitudinal study on moral
character of children.

Found children were inconsistent in

their moral behavior

Ex: Childs willingness to cheat in one

scenario did little prediction that the child
would lie, cheat or steal in other scenarios.

Criticisms of Kohlbergs Approach

Theory may be culturally biased in that postconventional morality does not exist in some
societies. Critics claim that the theorys highest
stages reflect a Western ideal of justice and does
not account for the values of collectivist societies.
Gilligan (1982, 1993) argues that the theory
does not adequately represent female moral
reasoning (morality of justice vs. morality of
care).
Another common criticism is that the theory
focuses too much on moral reasoning and
neglects moral affect and behavior.
The theory also underestimates the moral
reasoning of young children.

Morality as a Product of Social Learning (and

Social Information Processing)

Social learning theorists claim that moral behaviors are

learned in the same way that other social behaviors
are: through the operation of reinforcement and
punishment and through observational learning.
Among the factors that promote the development of
inhibitory controls are praise given for virtuous
conduct, punishments that include appropriate
rationales, and exposing children to (or having them
serve as) models of moral restraint.
Moral self-concept training is an effective alternative to
punishment as a means of establishing inhibitory
controls

Who Raises Morally Mature Children?

Martin Hoffman (1970) measured different parenting style

approaches to see which was most effective in moral
development.
Neither love withdrawal or power assertion were effective
at promoting moral maturity
Induction seemed to foster development of all three
aspects of morality-moral emotions, moral reasoning and
moral behavior.
Parents who rely on inductive discipline tend to have
children who are morally mature

Reason based discipline can be highly effective with 2 to 5

year olds, by reliably teaching them sympathy and
compassion for others.

Childs Eye View on Discipline

Siegel & Cowen (1984) asked children &

adolescents ( 4-18 year olds) to evaluate
disciplining strategies.
Five types of transgressions were presented:
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Simple disobedience
Causing physical harm to others
Causing physical harm to oneself
Causing psychological harm to others
Causing physical damage

Responses, from all participants, favored the

preferred method to use was induction
techniques.