The Emergence of Morality in Young Children

The Emergence of Morality in Young Children
Author: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Health Sciences Program
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 1987
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780226422329

How- and when- do children distinguish right from wrong? Several prominent psychologists and a moral philosopher join in these essays to confront this issue and related questions and to clarify the controversies surrounding them. Introducing cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary viewpoints, the resulting volume is a landmark in the study of moral development.

The Philosophy of Childhood

The Philosophy of Childhood
Author: Gareth Matthews
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1994
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780674664807

Adult preconceptions about the mental life of children tend to discourage a child’s philosophical bent. By exposing the underpinnings of adult views of childhood, Matthews clears the way for recognizing the philosophy of childhood as a legitimate field of inquiry and conducts us through influential models for understanding what it is to be a child.

Children and Social Exclusion

Children and Social Exclusion
Author: Melanie Killen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2013-05-28
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1118571851

Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity explores the origins of prejudice and the emergence of morality to explain why children include some and exclude others. Formulates an original theory about children’s experiences with exclusion and how they understand the world of discrimination based on group membership Brings together Social Domain Theory and Social Identity Theory to explain how children view exclusion that often results in prejudice, and inclusion that reflects social justice and morality Presents new research data consisting of in-depth interviews from childhood to late adolescence, observational findings with peer groups, and experimental paradigms that test how children understand group dynamics and social norms, and show either group bias or morality Illustrates data with direct quotes from children along with diagrams depicting their social understanding Presents new insights about the origins of prejudice and group bias, as well as morality and fairness, drawn from extensive original data

Conceptions of Childhood and Moral Education in Philosophy for Children

Conceptions of Childhood and Moral Education in Philosophy for Children
Author: Dina Mendonça
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3662641801

Philosophy for Children (P4C) has long been considered as crucial for children’s ethical and moral education and a decisive contribution for education for the democratic life. The book gathers contributions from experts in the field who reflect on fundamental issues on how childhood and ethics are interrelated within the P4C movement. The main interest of this volume is to offer an understanding of how different philosophical conceptions of childhood can be coordinated with different ethical and meta-ethical philosophical considerations in P4C addressing topics such as P4C and relativism, P4C and Virtue ethics, ethics and emotions in P4C, philosophical commitments and P4C application, and Socratic practice within a pragmatist framework. A thought-provoking collection about how assumptions of particular philosophical conceptions of childhood modify moral and ethical education and a testimony of the undeniable contribution of P4C for moral education and reconceptualization of childhood.

Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology

Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology
Author: Michael Lewis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 836
Release: 2014-04-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 146149608X

When developmental psychologists set forth the theory that the roots of adult psychopathology could be traced to childhood experience and behavior, the idea quickly took hold. Subsequently, as significant research in this area advanced during the past decade, more sophisticated theory, more accurate research methodologies, and improved replication of empirical findings have been the result. The Third Edition of the Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology incorporates these research advances throughout its comprehensive, up-to-date examination of this diverse and maturing field. Integrative state-of-the-art models document the complex interplay of risk and protective factors and other variables contributing to normal and pathological development. New and updated chapters describe current refinements in assessment methods and offer the latest research findings from neuroscience. In addition, the Third Edition provides readers with a detailed review across the spectrum of salient topics, from the effects of early deprivation to the impact of puberty. As the field continues to shift from traditional symptom-based concepts of pathology to a contemporary, dynamic paradigm, the Third Edition addresses such key topics as: Early Childhood disorders, including failure to thrive and attachment disorders. Aggression, ADHD, and other disruptive conditions. Developmental models of depression, anxiety, self-injury/suicide, and OCD. The autism spectrum and other chronic developmental disorders. Child maltreatment and trauma disorders. The Third Edition of the Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology is a discipline-defining, forward-looking resource for researchers, clinicians, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in such fields as developmental psychology, psychiatry, social work, child and school psychology, educational psychology, and pediatrics.“p>

Just Babies

Just Babies
Author: Paul Bloom
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2014-11-11
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0307886859

A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone. From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society—and especially parents—to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others’ actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice. Still, this innate morality is limited, sometimes tragically. We are naturally hostile to strangers, prone to parochialism and bigotry. Bringing together insights from psychology, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Bloom explores how we have come to surpass these limitations. Along the way, he examines the morality of chimpanzees, violent psychopaths, religious extremists, and Ivy League professors, and explores our often puzzling moral feelings about sex, politics, religion, and race. In his analysis of the morality of children and adults, Bloom rejects the fashionable view that our moral decisions are driven mainly by gut feelings and unconscious biases. Just as reason has driven our great scientific discoveries, he argues, it is reason and deliberation that makes possible our moral discoveries, such as the wrongness of slavery. Ultimately, it is through our imagination, our compassion, and our uniquely human capacity for rational thought that we can transcend the primitive sense of morality we were born with, becoming more than just babies. Paul Bloom has a gift for bringing abstract ideas to life, moving seamlessly from Darwin, Herodotus, and Adam Smith to The Princess Bride, Hannibal Lecter, and Louis C.K. Vivid, witty, and intellectually probing, Just Babies offers a radical new perspective on our moral lives.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2015-07-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309324882

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

The Parents We Mean to Be

The Parents We Mean to Be
Author: Richard Weissbourd
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2009-05-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 054752532X

A wake-up call for a national crisis in parenting—and a deeply helpful book for those who want to see their own behaviors as parents with the greatest possible clarity. Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd argues incisively that parents—not peers, not television—are the primary shapers of their children’s moral lives. And yet, it is parents’ lack of self-awareness and confused priorities that are dangerously undermining children’s development. Through the author’s own original field research, including hundreds of rich, revealing conversations with children, parents, teachers, and coaches, a surprising picture emerges. Parents’ intense focus on their children’s happiness is turning many children into self-involved, fragile conformists. The suddenly widespread desire of parents to be closer to their children—a heartening trend in many ways—often undercuts kids’ morality. Our fixation with being great parents—and our need for our children to reflect that greatness—can actually make them feel ashamed for failing to measure up. Finally, parents’ interactions with coaches and teachers—and coaches’ and teachers’ interactions with children—are critical arenas for nurturing, or eroding, children’s moral lives. Weissbourd’s ultimately compassionate message—based on compelling new research—is that the intense, crisis-filled, and profoundly joyous process of raising a child can be a powerful force for our own moral development.

Moral Child

Moral Child
Author: William Damon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2008-06-30
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1439105391

William Damon offers the first, much-needed overview of the evolution and nurturance of children's moral understanding and behavior from infancy through adolescence, at home and in school. Drawing on the best professional research and thinking, Professor William Damon charts pragmatic, workable approaches to foster basic virtues such as honesty, responsibility, kindness, and fairness—methods that can make an invaluable difference throughout children's lives.

The Ability of Young Children to Distinguish Between Morality and Convention

The Ability of Young Children to Distinguish Between Morality and Convention
Author: Jörg Böttcher
Publisher: diplom.de
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2002-12-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3832462163

Inhaltsangabe:Zusammenfassung: Diese theoretische Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit Thema, inwieweit entwicklungspsychologische Forschungsbemühungen im Bereich der sogenannten „frühen Moral“ Aufklärung zu der Frage beitragen, ob Kinder in der Lage sind, moralische von konventionellen Normen zu unterscheiden bzw. sich diesen Unterscheidungen entsprechend zu verhalten. Ausgegangen wird dabei von den Arbeiten Lawrence Kohlbergs, der die These vertrat, jüngere Kinder (unter 10 Jahre alt) seien in ihrem sozialen Verhalten nahezu ausschließlich daran orientiert, Strafe zu vermeiden bzw. in egozentrischer Weise ihre Ziele zu verfolgen. Fähigkeiten zur Perspektivenübernahme seien nicht vorhanden; echtes moralisches Verhalten (nach Kohlberg die Orientierung des Handelns an Maßstäben der Gerechtigkeit) sei somit bei ihnen nicht möglich. Innerhalb verschiedener Forschungsansätze wurde diese Sicht der moralischen Kompetenz jüngerer Kinder in Frage gestellt. Es stellte sich heraus, dass Kinder unter bestimmten Bedingungen sehr wohl Entscheidungen treffen können, die sie mit Rückgriff auf moralische Normen begründen. Sie sind auch fähig, konventionelle von moralischen Normen zu unterscheiden, indem sie moralische Verhaltensregeln beispielsweise als weniger veränderbar betrachten als Konventionen. In meinem Überblick stelle ich die verschiedenen theoretischen und methodologischen Vorgehensweisen der Ansätze dar und arbeite heraus, welche Unterschiede in den Forschungsmethoden zu welchen Unterschieden in der Beurteilung der moralischen Entwicklung von Kindern führen. Dabei stellt sich unter anderem heraus, dass bestimmte Untersuchungsdesigns geradezu verhindern, dass Kinder innerhalb dieser Untersuchungen moralisches Verhalten zeigen können. Es ergibt sich ein durch die neueren Ansätze erweitertes und differenzierteres Bild in bezug auf die moralischen Fähigkeiten von Kindern, als das von Kohlberg propagierte. Wie ich aufzeige, bedeutet dies jedoch in keiner Weise, dass Kohlberg durch die neueren Ansätze „widerlegt“ wurde. Es wird vielmehr deutlich, dass Einseitigkeiten bzw. blinde Flecken in den Forschungsansätzen sowohl bei Kohlberg als auch bei seinen Kritikern zu den dargestellten unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen geführt haben, und dass es darum notwendig ist, die unterschiedlichen Ansätze zu integrieren. Abstract: In this diploma thesis I want to consider several approaches in the area of moral development research. Given the theory of Lawrence Kohlberg, young [...]