Self & Moral Development: Middle Childhood Through Early Adolescence Presented By:

Self-Concept  Self-Concept: How someone views themselves, through beliefs, attributes, physical characteristics, and emotional characteristics  Based off of others views about them

How Does Self-Concept Develop?  In progressing through the stages of childhood, into adolescence, often a person's view of their own self-concept is rocky and hard to interpret.  Relationships with other people largely influence this development  Lego example

Structure of Self-Concept  Self-esteem and self-concept go hand in hand  Two types of self-concept have come about based off of the research done by Shavelson, Hubner, and Stanton (1976)  Academic self-concept  Nonacademic self-concept

Influences on Self-Concept  Influences on a persons self-concept weighs heavily on their competence in areas that are of special importance to them  Academic performance, ability in sports, etc…  Social approval or disapproval

 Negative claims have been made toward schools for giving girls less attention than boys  They associate academic failure to lack of ability instead of lack of effort  Girls' self-esteem does decline more than boys in late adolescence and early adulthood Gender Differences

Racial and Ethnic Differences  Assumptions have been made that minority groups would have lower self-esteem than the majority  Many social comparisons can be internalized for minority groups, resulting in the interpretation of low self-esteem  Negative attributions to societal prejudices  Does not apply to ALL minority groups as other factors are taken into consideration

The Moral Self  Morality: Judge Right from Wrong & choosing to act Right  Social Principles  Concern for Others  Sense of Fairness  Trustworthiness  Self-Control

Emotions Cognitions Behaviors Feelings Thoughts Actions Elements of Morality

Theories of Moral Development  Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory  Self-Serving Desires of the id  Moral Emotions of the superego  Piaget’s Cognitive Theory  Morals based on rules  Kohlberg’s Cognitive Theory  Levels based on philosophical issues

Stages Preconventional Conventional Level Postconventional Stages of Moral Development  Piaget’s Stages  Premoral Period  Unconcerned about rules  Heteronomous Morality  Rules are absolute  Autonomous Morality  Rules can be changed  Kohlberg’s Stages  Preconventional Level  Stage 1 & 2  Conventional Level  Stage 3 & 4  Postconventional Level  Stage 5 & 6

Children’s Prosocial Behavior  Acing in ways that Benefit Others  Emotions in Helping Behavior  Empathy/Sympathy  Cognitions in Prosocial Behavior  Needs Oriented  Personality in Prosocial Behavior  Sociability/Competence  Parents in Prosocial Behavior  Sensitive/Demanding

Children’s Antisocial Behavior  Intent to Harm others  Three types of Aggression  Instrumental  Person-Directed  Relational  Social Information Processing

The “Moral” of this Presentation…  Be Proud to be Who You Are!  Surround yourself with Positive people!  Do what you know is Right!  Be Kind to Others!