Psychology: Developmental psychology: Factors influencing young children's use of motives and outcomes as moral criteria

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Factors influencing young children's use of motives and outcomes as moral criteria

Author: Nelson (1980)

Key term: Children's morals

Background/context:

• Piaget proposed that children go through 3 stages of moral development:
  -Pre-moral stage: No morals, just instinct, from birth to 4-6 years
  -Heteronomous morality: Moral is the rule, 6 - 10 years
  -Autonomous morality: Set of individual morals, 10+
• Morality: Ability to distinguish right from wrong.
• Piaget proposed that children under 10 based their judgement on the outcome (negative/positive) instead of intention (motives).
• However, Nelson suggests that in Piaget's study the children did not fully understand the story, and if the child understands the story (eg. by including pictures), then they can understand motive as well as outcome.

Aim/hypothesis: To prove that children as young as 3 years do take into account both motive and outcome when making moral judgements.

Method: Field experiment in school, involving an interview.

Study 1

Variables:

Independent variables:

1. Age: 3-4 years or 6-8 years
2. Motive (good or bad) and outcome (good or bad)
   Stories:
   -Boy playing with ball. Wants friend to join in (good motive). Boy throws ball to friend to start game of catch. Friend catches ball and game of catch begins (good outcome).
   -Boy playing with ball. Wants friend to join in (good motive). Boy throws ball to friend to start game of catch. Ball hits friend on head and makes him cry (bad outcome).
   -Boy playing with ball. Mad at friend, throws ball to hit him on the head (bad motive). Friend catches ball and game of catch begins (good outcome).
   -Boy playing with ball. Mad at friend, throws ball to hit him on the head (bad motive). Ball hits friend on head and makes him cry (bad outcome).
3. Mode of presentation:
   Verbal only: Stories described to each child verbally (as done by piaget).
   Motive implicit: Set of cartoon-like pictures with the positive and negative motives only implied by facial expressions.
   Motive explicit: Set of cartoon-like pictures with positive and negative motives shown explicitly by cartoon-like thought bubbles above the characters head showing his motive.

Motive explicit story board. Bad motive bad outcome story. 

Dependent variable: Judgement of whether the boy in the story was a 'good boy' or a 'bad boy' by the child. This was done by a scale of 7 faces, from a sad 'very bad' face to a happy 'very good' face. Both sets of good/bad smileys were 7.5cm (very good/bad), 6.5cm (good/bad) and 5.5cm (little bit bad/ little bit good). There was a 'neutral' 4.5cm face in the middle for 'just okay'.

Scale of smiley faces.

Design: Independent groups for age and mode of presentation. Motive and outcome were repeated measures because kids were shown all four stories.

Setting: Schools in and around Illinois, Chicago, USA.

Participants and sampling technique: Study 1: 60 preschool kids aged 3-4 (average age 3.4 years) and 30 kids aged 6-8 (average age 7.4 years). Half male half female. Parents gave consent for them to be in the experiment.

Apparatus: 4 stories of cartoon-like pictures. Pictures were 25 x 23 cm black and white line drawings.

• Motive implicit: Only facial expressions
• Motive explicit: Thought bubble showing character's intentions (motives).
• Verbal only: Just verbal description of story.

Controls:

• Each child had 4 stories.
• Same experimenter tested every child.
• Cartoons were all the same, in a standard format.
• Children told they would have to repeat the story later so they pay close attention to the story.

Procedure:

1. Children in each age group randomly assigned mode of presentation; verbal only, motive implicit and motive explicit. Split evenly - 20 kids in each verbal, motive implicit and motive explicit preschool group, and 10 kids in each for the older group. 
2. Children were each interviewed individually by experimenter and familiarized with the rating scale (7 smiley faces) by being given 2 practice stories. 
3. Children were told to listen to each story then point to which face that showed how good or bad the boy was. 
4. After the child made their judgement, pictures were removed in the picture condition groups and child was asked to repeat the story the experimenter told. If the motive or outcome was missing, the experimenter would ask specific questions such as "Why did the boy throw the ball?". 

Data: 

• Quantitative data: A number was allocated to each smiley face so the numbers in each IV condition could be calculated. 
• Qualitative data: Interviewer asked child to repeat the story. A second rater was used to check interviewer understanding - great inter-rater reliability: agreement of 97%. 

Significant results:

3-4 years old:

• Good motive: Good outcome: 6.55. Bad outcome: 4.17.
• Bad motive: Good outcome: 2.27. Bad outcome: 1.60.

6-8 years old:

• Good motive: Good outcome: 6.20. Bad outcome: 4.47.
• Bad motive: Good outcome: 3.46. Bad outcome: 1.56.

Outcome: Overall good: 4.7. Overall bad: 2.92.

Age: 40% of 3-4 year olds would rate the boy as bad once any mention of 'bad' was heard, ignoring any good information. 28% ignored outcome and rated solely on motive.

Findings:

• Outcomes greatly influenced a child's judgement as shown in overall outcome ratings - outcomes were very different from each other. 
• Bad motives influence judgement much more than good motive or outcome - children learn bad before good. 
• Only outcome judgement varied with mode of presentation, when it was expected that both motive and outcome would vary.
• When motive was explicit, outcomes would affect the child's judgement more than verbal only or explicit. 
• Younger children made more errors in recalling the story.
• Less errors in motive recall when pictures were shown (motive implicit and explicit). 
• Children want a story that is congruent (where both motive and aspects match each other - eg. all good or all bad). 
• When a story is incongruent, kids aged 3-4 have a harder time recalling the story, and tend to change the story so it is congruent.

Conclusion:

• Young children place more importance on the valence (positive/negative or good/bad) than the motive or outcome. 
• Children are more influenced by bad than good. This may show that children learn the concept of bad before good, as shown in the 3-4 age group.
• However, motive might affect the child's judgement because it is the first information they receive, as results show that children immediately rate a story as bad when motive was bad. Therefore there is a design flaw, so another study was done. 

Study 2

Participants and sampling: 27 pre-school kids aged 3-4 (mean age 3.8). Each child was randomly assigned a mode of presentation.

Procedure; Everything repeated the same way as study 1 except for order of presentation: in the stories outcome was presented before motive.

Storyboard used in Study 2. Bad motive and bad outcome story. 

Findings:

• Same as study 1, anything negative, motive or outcome, affected judgement more than anything positive.
• Outcome did not have a bigger affect in this study, although being presented first, which shows that motive is still taken into account and important. 

Conclusion:

• Children as young as 3-4 years old can understand the concept of good and bad and if they understand the story, their moral judgment will be based on both outcome and motive. 
• Mode of presentation has some effect on a child's judgement: in verbal only, children would rate the boy as bad when the mention of bad was heard, however, in picture presentations, the child understands the story more and bases judgement on both motive and outcome. 
• Younger children are better at recalling the story accurately if the story is congruent (all good or all bad eg. bad motive bad outcome). 

Strengths

• Quantitative data: Objective and easier to analyse - The data was numerical so it was easy to compare different scores in different age groups and story conditions and analyse the data collected.
  This makes it easier to draw conclusions because data can be averaged and the data is concrete and evidently supports/ doesn't support aim. 
• Field experiment: Ecological validity - Children were in a natural setting therefore may be more likely to act naturally, therefore the experiment is valid.

Weaknesses

• Quantitative data: Lacks valuable information - The child simply pointed at a face, but we don't know why they chose that face. We do not know the child's reasoning and whether they chose the face based on their moral judgement or because of another reason.
• Social desirability or demand characteristics: Children might have chosen the face based on the two pilot stories they heard instead of what they believed was the answer, because the experimenter showed them what they were supposed to answer in the pilot stories.
  This would affect the validity of the data.
• In study 1, children were told all four stories verbally. The children could have gotten bored or muddled the stories together, which would affect the judgements they made, especially for the last 2 stories. This could affect the validity of the data.

Ethics

• Use of children - cannot give informed consent.

Psychology: Developmental Psychology: Case study 3: Infant facial preference

Psychology: Developmental Psychology: Case study 3: Infant facial preference

Authors: Langlois et al. (1991)

Background/Context: Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Do we judge books (and people) by their cover?
Langlois believes that there is a universal standard of beauty that people judged facial attractiveness with, and both adults and infants judge attractive adults and infants more favorably, treating them better than those who are unattractive. 

Young infants have not yet been influenced by media or culture, so researching on infants would prove whether there is a universal standard of attractiveness.

Aim/hypothesis: 

• Study 1:
  -Replicate previous results (preference for attractive) with adult female faces.
  -See if adult male faces produce the same results (preference for attractive).
  -Investigate where order of presentation of male/female affects preferences.
• Study 2: See if same results are achieved with non-white faces.
• Study 3: See if same results are achieved with faces of babies.

Method: Laboratory experiment

Variables:

• Independent variables:Study 1-Attractive and unattractive white female faces-Attractive and unattractive white male faces-Infants who saw either of two conditions: All men then all women (or all women then all men) and alternating men and women.
  
  Study 2: Attractive and unattractive black female faces.
  
  Study 3: Attractive and unattractive male and female infant faces.

• Dependent variable: Fixation time (in seconds) - length of time an infant looks at a face. Each face was presented twice (once on the left, and once on the right of the screen) so the mean time for each face was calculated and agreement between the two observers could be checked.
• Attractiveness of faces judged by people on the 5-point Linkert scales.

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Analysis of a phobia of a 5 year old boy

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Analysis of a phobia of a 5 year old boy

Author: Freud (1909)

Key term: Little Hans

Approach: Development psychology; psychodynamic perspective

Method: Case study and longitudinal method

Freud's psychodynamic approach:

• Our behaviours and feelings when we grow up (including psychological problems) are caused by childhood experiences.
• All behaviour is determined.

Personalities are made up of 3 parts: The ID (instinctive drive), ego and superego

• ID: Biological aspects of the personality. Consists of two forces:
        Eros: Life force - Instinct that drives us to do biological things - sex drive, eating, etc. Mainly revolves around libido (sex drive).
        Thanatos: Death force- Instinct of self-destruction.
  ID is chaotic and totally unreasonable (we cannot randomly have sex with people when we feel like it).
• Ego: Mediates between unrealistic ID and external real world. Decision making component of personality. Works out realistic ways of satisfying ID.
  "Part of the ID which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world" - Freud.
  Similar to ID, seeks pleasure and avoids pain but using a realistic strategy.
• Superego: Values and morals of society by influence of parents or role models. Strive for perfection. Develops at around the age of 3-5 during phallic stage of psychosexual development. Two systems:
      Conscious: Punishes the ego through feelings of guilt.
      Ideal self: Imaginary picture of how you ought to be; career aspirations, how to treat other people and how to behave as a member of society.

•  The ego and superego are largely determined by parental values and how you were brought up.

Freud's psychosexual development theory:

• Freud believed life was built around tension and pressure, which was due to the libido.
• What develops is the way sexual energy accumulates and builds up and is discharged as we mature biologically. 
• Each psychosexual stage has a particular conflict that must be resolved before continuing to the next stage. Some people may not be able to leave one stage and continue on to the next. This can be because the needs of the stage have not been met, causing frustration, or the pleasure is so good they don't want to leave, called overindulgence. 

1. Oral - The mouth - sucking, swallowing, etc. Ego develops.
2. Anal - The anus - withholding or excreting feces. 
3. Phallic - The penis or clitoris - masturbation. Superego develops.
4. Latent - Little or no sexual motivation.
5. Genital - The penis or vagina - Sexual intercourse.

Freud's Oedipus complex

• Oedipus - Greek myth where Oedipus, a young man, kills his father and marries his mother.
• The Oedipus complex is when a 3 - 5 year old boy develops sexual feelings for his mother, and therefore wants to get rid of his father so he can have his mother all to himself.
• This is usually resolved by the boy imitating his father's masculine type behaviours, called identification.
• Happens during phallic stage.
• Fred states that every boy goes through this complex to a certain extent.

Little Han's phobia case study

• 5 year old Jewish boy from Vienna, Austria.
• Phobia of horses
• Primary aim was to treat the phobia.
• Freud did not work directly with Hans. his father gave Freud all the details of Hans behavior when he suspected Hans was suffering from the Oedipus complex.

• At 3, Hans was very obsessed with his 'widdler' (penis), and also those of other people. He once asked his mother "Mommy, do you also have a widdler?". He played with it regularly until his mother threatened to call the doctor to get it cut off, which made him get castration anxiety. 
• At the same time, Hans saw a horse collapse and die in the street, and was very upset.

• At 4, Hans developed a fear of horses, specifically a fear that a white horse would bite him. 
• At the same time a conflict developed between him and his father. Hans had developed a habit of getting in to his parents bed in the morning to cuddle his mother. However, his father began to object and banned him from continuing.  
• Hans phobia worsened to the point that he would not leave the family house and he also suffered attacks of generalised anxiety.
• The anxiety Hans had was actually castration anxiety triggered by his mothers threat to cut off his "widdler" and fear of his father caused by his banishment from the parental bed. 

• Hans reported having the following dream; "In the night there was a big giraffe in the room and a crumpled one: and the big one called out because I took the crumpled one away from it. Then it stopped calling out: and I sat on top of the crumpled one."
• The giraffes in Hans dream represent his parents. The large giraffe is his father, and him crying out represented him objecting Hans. It's erect neck could have also been a penis symbol. The crumpled giraffe was his mother, and the crumpling represented her genitals. 

• When Hans was 5 his phobia of horses lessened, initially becoming limited to only white horses with black nose bands, then disappearing altogether.

• The horses represented Hans father, especially white horses with black nose bands, because they looked like his moustached father. Horses also have large penises, which make a good father symbol.s

• The end of the phobia was marked by two fantasies:
• Hans fantasised that he had several children. When his father asked who their mother was Hans replied "Why Mummy, and you're the granddaddy"
• This children fantasy represents a friendly resolution of the Oedipus complex, where he replaces his father but still keeps him in the family with the role as grandfather.
• The next day, Hans fantasised that a plumber had come and removed his bottom and penis, replacing them with new and larger ones. 
• The plumber fantasy represents identification with the father. Hans can see himself growing a large penis like his fathers and becoming like him.

Conclusion

Hans had a phobia of horses because he was suffering from castration anxiety and was going through the Oedipus complex. Hans dreams and fantasies helped express this conflict and eventually he resolved his phobia and Oedipus complex by identification by fantasising of himself taking on his fathers role and placing his father in the role of grandfather.

Strengths

• Case study - Lots of data can be collected because it is the study of one boy, so it is more valid.
• Natural observation - Hans was in his own house and not in any artificial setting, so there is a high level of ecological validity and mundane realism.

Weaknesses

• Unscientific - Freud's theory is considered unscientific because there is no evidence to back his theory.
• Generalization - Since it is the study of only one boy, we cannot generalize the oedipus theory to every boy.
• Bias - Freud published his theory before doing this case study, therefore he could have been bias. Hans father was a fan of Freud and believed in his theory, therefore he could've only told details that correlated to the study.
• Invalid - There could be many other reasons Hans had a phobia of horses. For example, when he was 3 he saw a horse fall in the street and die.

Psychology: Development psychology: Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models

Psychology: Development psychology: Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models

Authors: Bandura et al. (1961)

Key term: Aggression

Background/context: Behaviorists believe that all behavior is learned, through classical conditioning (Pavlov - learned through association) and operant conditioning (Skinner - learned through reward and punishment). Watson (1923) classically conditioned 'Little Albert' to be scared of a white rat.

Behaviorists believed that we could only learn things that happened to us personally. But Bandura outlined observational learning - if behavior of a model (parent, teacher, etc) is observed then it will be copied (imitation learning). To test this theory Bandura designed an experiment trying to teach children aggression through observation.

Aim/Hypothesis: Children would reproduce aggressive behavior even if the model was no longer present

1. If a behavior is observed it will be imitated.
2. If a behavior is not observed it cannot be imitated.
3. Boys will copy a male model more than a female model/ Girls will copy a female model more than a male model.
4. Boys are more predisposed to show aggression than girls.

Method: Laboratory experiment - controlled observation 

Variables:

• Independent variables:

1. Three conditions:
   -Aggressive model group - 6 boys and 6 girls with the male model; 6 boys and 6 girls with the female model.
   -Non-aggressive model group - 6 boys and 6 girls with the male model; 6 boys and 6 girls with the female model.
   -Control group - 12 boys and 12 girls who saw no model at all.
2. Sex of model
3. Sex of child

• Dependent variable: Number of behaviors out of 240 maximum in each response category.

Independent variable conditions

Design: Matched pairs - Children were matched for pre-existing aggression levels of aggression, and independent groups as shown in 3 conditions above.

Participants and sampling technique: 

• 72 children (36 boys and 36 girls) aged between 37(just over 3 years) to 69 months (5 years 9 months) from Stanford University nursery school.
• Mean age was 52 months (4 years 4 months)
• Probably opportunity sample
• Quota sampling to achieve 12 participants in each sub-category

Apparatus: 

• Room 1: Potato prints, picture stickers, table and chair, Tinker toy set, mallet and inflatable 5-foot bobo doll (adult-size)
• Room 2: Fire engine, locomotive (train), doll, spinning top
• Room 3: One-way mirror for observations, 3-foot bobo doll, mallet and peg board, two dart guns, tetherball with a face, tea set, 3 bears, cars, farm animals, crayons and coloring paper.

Bobo doll

Controls:

• Children were matched for pre-existing aggression levels by the experimenter and nursery teacher independently rating 51 children on a scale of 0 - 5 (5 being very aggressive). There was very good agreement between the teacher and experimenter (0.89).
   -eg. A child rated as 5 (very aggressive) was matched with another child rated 5 (with one going to the 'aggressive' condition and one going to the 'non-aggressive' condition).
• The toys in room 1, 2 and 3 were always the same and always in the same position when a child entered the room. 
• The actions of the aggressive model was always the same, in the same order and for the same length of time. 
• Observers watching through the two way mirror were unaware of which condition the child was in while observing to prevent bias.
• The 20 minute session was divided into 5 second intervals, giving 240 response 'units'. 
• Observers had a inter-rater reliability rate in the 0.9 range.

Procedure:

1. Each child was shown to room 1. He/She played with the potato prints and stickers to settle in. 
2. The child was taken to the other side of the room where they were shown to either of the two conditions for 10 minutes: aggressive or non aggressive.
    -Aggressive condition: Model would sit on, throw the bobo doll (Verbal aggressive: "throw him in the air") punch in the nose ("sock it on the nose"), hit the bobo doll with the mallet ("hit him down") and kick the bobo doll around the room ("kick him").
    -Non-aggressive condition: Adults assembled toy and did not interact with the bobo doll.
    -Control condition: No adult in the room.
3. Child was then taken to room 2 for Mild aggression arousal (to annoy children and increase aggressive behavior). He/She played with the toys for around 2 minutes before the toys got taken away from the child and he/she was told they were not allowed to play with anymore as they were "the very best toys" and had been reserved for other children.
4. Testing for delayed imitation. Room 3 (test room) contained non-aggressive and aggressive toys (eg. dart guns - aggressive gun play). The experimenter was in the room occupied with paperwork, while two observers watched through a two way mirror. Children were observed playing for the next 20 minutes.

Results:

• Results were in 6 response categories for both female and male children:
  - Imitative physical aggression
  - Imitative verbal aggression
  - Mallet aggression
  - Punches bobo doll
  - Non-imitative aggression
  - Aggressive gun play
• Imitative aggression: Physical and verbal aggression to that modeled in the procedure
• Non-imitative aggression: New aggressive acts not demonstrated by model
• Quantitative data

Results table

• Significant results:
  Male imitative physical aggression with male model: 25.8
  Female imitative verbal aggression with female model: 13.7
  Male mallet aggression with male model: 28.8
  Male Non-imitative aggression with male model: 36.7

Findings:

• Significantly more instances of aggression in the aggressive group than the non aggressive group.
• Boys followed the male model more when it came to physical aggression.
• Girls followed the female model more in verbal aggression.
   This may be because since a young age we are taught that men are meant to be more masculine.
• Children in all groups, boys and girls, showed aggressive gun-play even though this was not observed in Room 1 (exposure) - non-imitative aggression.

Conclusion: Behavior that is observed is likely to be imitated - Bandura's 'observational learning' theory is supported. 

Strengths:

• Laboratory experiment - High levels of control - Reliable, can be redone, EVs rare
   -Same toys in the same position for each child
   -Models did the same procedure for each condition for each child
   -All variables besides conditions in the IV controlled
   -Observers did not know which condition they were recording results for, so no bias.
•  -Standardized procedure, can be repeated again to test for reliability of results
• Valid - IV directly affects DV - Observation of models determining child's level of aggression
• Quantitative data - Objective, can be analysed
   -Number of responses marked for each response category to show aggression in children clearly shows that the children who experienced the aggressive condition show more aggression.

Weaknesses:

• Laboratory experiment - Lacks mundane realism - Not normal daily life activity
   -Children do not usually sit there and watch adults play without joining in
   -Children and model are strangers
   -Child and model do not interact
• Quantitative data - We don't know why the children chose to be aggressive
• Snapshot study - Results recorded immediately after experiment, which was also a single experiment - can one experience cause long term effects?

Ethics: 

• Use of children in experiments is unethical because they cannot give consent
• This experiment could have left long term psychological damage on the children
• Children left the experiment psychologically different then before the experiment