1. Self and Moral Development in Middle Childhood Through Early Adolescence The Life Span Human Development for Healthcare Professionals, Chapter 7

2. Self-Concept The Development of Self-Concept – By the age of 7, we have the foundation for our self- concept laid, the next step is to build upon that. – We build upon our self-concept as we develop cognitively. Cognitive development goes hand-in- hand with development of the self-concept. – Development of the ME and all of its subcomponents.

3. Structure of the Self-Concept Illustration on page 234 in Broderick & Blewitt shows that our general self-concept is a hierarchical development built of our other self- concepts. Table 7.1 (page 235) shows the domains of self-concept across the life span. Basically it shows how each level builds towards the next. Academic and Nonacademic self-concepts

4. Influences on the Development of Self-Concept James: Self-esteem is a ratio of our successes to our aspirations-or-how many times we succeed versus how many times we’ve tried. Social comparison: basing your performance against that of a peer – Self-enhancing bias: maintaining moderately positive beliefs about ourselves when compared to others. – Downward social comparison-the type of comparison where a person compares themselves to someone less competent, successful when the person’s self-esteem is at stake.

5. Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Differences Girls tend to “lose voice” when they enter the school setting (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). – Cultural roles of girls/women – Teacher/student interactions – Becomes a way of holding connections with others, even though they lose their ability to form/express their own opinion. – Self-esteem slide: adults believing girls have lower self-esteem may lead to that lower self-esteem.

6. Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Differences Race & Ethnicity – Doll study findings – Strategies for maintaining self-esteem attributing negative feedback to the prejudice maintained by the advanced majority Make social comparisons to their ethnic group instead of the advanced majority Enhance the self-concepts for their groups at which they excel.

7. The Moral Self Morality: the ability to make decisions based on what’s right and wrong and preferring to act in a way that is best described as being “right”. – Conscience: an internalized set of standards and principles that guides our behavior Knowledge of morals is not a guarantee that they’ll be followed – Since 1982, the number of K-12 students that have self- reported cheating in school has risen from approximately 30% to over 65%.

8. Some Classic Theories of Moral Development Freud: our morals are based upon fights between our id and our super-ego: the super- ego develops to keep the id from becoming too out of control.

9. Some Classic Theories of Moral Development Approximate AgesPiagetKohlberg PreschoolPremoral 5 to 8 or 9HeternonomousPreconventional 1 8 or 9-11 or 12AutonomousPreconventional 2 13 to 16Conventional 3 Late adolescents/ young adults Conventional 4 Some AdultsPostconventional 5 Some AdultsPostconventional 6

10. Some Classic Theories of Moral Development Kohlberg’s Theories – Preconventional Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation Stage 2: Concrete, individualistic orientation – Conventional Stage 3: Social-relational perspective Stage 4: Member of society perspective – Postconventional Stage 5: Prior rights and social contract Stage 6: Universal ethical principles

11. The Moral Self (revisited) Children’s Prosocial Behavior – Altruism Emotions as a source of helping behavior – Empathy – Sympathy

12. Children’s Antisocial Behavior Antisocial behavior is often found in children that have not achieved very high levels of moral development. We see different types and onsets: – Early-starter: starts before the age of 5 Can lead to numerous other problems – Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder – Antisocial Personality Disorder – Adolescent onset: behavior begins in early adolescence.

13. Children’s Antisocial Behavior Influences on development of antisocial behavior – Physiological and Neuropsychological Influences – Environmental Influences Coercive Family Interaction – Social Cognitive Influences Social Information Processing Hostile Attributional Bias