Emotional Development Final : Olivia Conover

In this clip, researchers are using babies to discover whether morality comes from birth or life experiences growing up. In the first study they tested several babies by using three puppets: one helping the puppet that is struggling and one not helping by being mean. They were then given the chance to select a puppet, more than three fourths of the babies took the nice puppet. This is evidence that babies know right from wrong even at a young age. In WDIAM chapter 7 “Right and Wrong” Nagel brings up the question, “Are right and wrong the same for everyone?” This clip seems to answer the question, yes because in the beginning of life everyone has a general sense of right and wrong. Everyone has a natural instinct of morality, but as people

Babies are born with two important skills to prepare them for empathy – the ability to begin to imitate facial gestures and the automatic responses in which the cries of other infants causes another infant to cry (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). From the first hour after birth, babies can imitate several

*. Feelings of anxiety and guilt are central to the account of moral development provided by _____ theory.

According to Dr. Karen Wynn, humans are in fact born with an ingrained sense of morality. In the classic experiment where a baby sees two scenarios, one with a helpful puppet and one with a mean-spirited one, over 80% choose the kind character when presented with both of them. From primates that roam jungles to dolphins that traverse oceans, even animals have this instinct in their brains. We are all created with this inner sense, so the question is, how does it change in certain people? If all creatures start off with a clean slate, a sympathetic spirit, there must be something that causes them to

At 6 weeks infants develop a social smile, at 3 month laughter and curiosity develop, at 4 months full responsive smiles emerge, from 4-8 months they develop anger, from 9014 months they develop a fear of social events, at 12 months the are fearful of unexpected sights and sounds, and at 18 months they are self-aware, feel pride, shame, and embarrassment. In the first two years, infants develop from reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness. Emotions in infants are produced from their body as opposed to their thoughts. Therefore fast and uncensored reactions are common in infants. During their toddler years, the strength of their emotions will increase.

In order for a child to develop productive social skills, it is important to choose toys to enhance active, imaginative play, and discourage time at the computer or television. A game in which a child is encouraged to think for themselves rather than sit motionless staring at an electronic screen, is better for the development of the child’s social skills (Moore, 2). Time spent with other children, rather the child’s own age or older, will help develop necessary social skills that will stick with the child through adulthood (Roode, 1). From the day they are born, infants and children begin to form relationships, these relationships eventually deepen and enable them to handle future relationships with others outside their initial circle (Roode, 1). The ability for a person to build and further relationships, make moral judgments, etc. can be enhanced with games played with a group of children, stuffed animals, puppets or instruments (Roode, 1).

Through play, children are also able to form relationships with their peers, therefore developing socially. They are able to “learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills” all of which are important skills in a child’s world as well as the adult world (Ginsberg 183). This is especially prevalent in young school age children, who have had relatively few social encounters without the presence of their parents before entering school. These young children will often make life time friends by sharing a popular treat at snack time or borrowing a color crayon to another child who has broken theirs.

Sommerville studied the factors that influence the development of sharing, a pro social behavior. The article discusses how the experience of sharing, like being taught to share, at a young age causes sharing to be facilitated, or replicated. The study believed that regular practice of turn taking could then facilitate sharing. As well as the amount of participation in reciprocal object exchange interactions would impact infants’ sharing behavior. Turn taking is the beginning of sharing behavior. The study started with parents completing a self- report empathy measure and recorded frequency and amount of at home sharing practice. This I felt to was an issue in the study. I wondered how we knew these recordings were accurate since no one was observing the practice and even the amount of empathy parents believed they had. There could be bias results in these recordings. There were also two tasks children were asked to complete. One was sharing where children gave objects to an experimenter; the other was a bucket condition where children just dropped an object into a bucket, there was no social interaction involved. The bucket condition did not contain the reciprocal of object exchange. In other words they did not receive anything after they put the object in the bucket. I believed that those who were taught to share, where they would receive a reciprocal object would be more likely to share. However, this is not true which I found odd. Infants in the sharing condition were in fact, no more likely to share objects than infants that released objects in the bucket condition. In a way it seems that either condition, the sharing or bucket dropping, had almost the same results in training children how to

Tomasello talks about how children were more likely to share their food or valued items than chimpanzees. Whereas chimpanzees don't seem to care much about whether or not another chimpanzee has food or not, humans tend to want to even the playing field and make sure the people around us are taken care of too. In the first chapter, the last point that Tomasello highlights is Reciprocity and Norms. Children learn that in most situations, being not only helpful but cooperative

Paul Bloom a psychologist also professor at Harvard University runs studies per his own baby lab, suggests baby morality to it must come “built-in” and is “part of our biological nature.” Although, he bases this off irrelevant ques in addition claims that to “some” extent is the dark side of “human morality.” But the problem comes towards the end of this video it altogether comes down in the direction as stated by the woman in the video “we’re not taught to hate; we’re born to hate.” The explanation with a study was done starting with young children being obsessed with social comparison, at around 8 years old children develop equal fair, and by 10 years old children grow into becoming extra generous. Due to being educated, enculturation, and

This study brought new knowledge to the field of developmental psychology in understanding the difference in the effect of explicit scaffolding in younger and older infants. Helping rates of young infants increased both during and after explicit scaffolding. In contrast, explicit scaffolding did not increase helping in older infants. The study presented a simple helping scenario in which an object was dropped. Older infants have a better understanding of others’ desires and expectations. This may have made it easier for them to understand the situation and respond appropriately. Thus, the effect of explicit scaffolding was not

At a certain age infants begin to resist the unfamiliar and are very vocal in expressing their feelings (Brazelton, 1992).

During the preschool years, they start to interact with each other by creating complex story lines together. As they do this, they learn to negotiate, cooperate, and share (though some kids don't master the art of sharing until they're 4 to 6 years old). When children disagree about who gets to be the daddy or who will wear the purple dress, they're actually developing important social skills, says Sara Wilford, director of the Early Childhood Program at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. How you can boost social play: Once your child

Oddly enough, I found the TED talk to be far more interesting this week than the Hamlin study. This is not to say that the Hamlin wasn’t interesting, but I found the study of the monkeys’ sense of morality to be far more surprising than the study of babies’ morality. I certainly noticed a connection between the two, though I wouldn’t say I was surprised. My grandfather actually owned a rhesus monkey, so I was fortunate to spend a great deal of time with a monkey as a child. I witnessed first hand the rather advanced cognitive abilities of the monkey de Waal points out in this TED talk. De Waal discusses the evolved morality and the characteristics found in species with an evolved morality, empathy, consolation, pro-social tendencies, reciprocity

Frans de Waal begins his argument by first stating the question as to whether or not a human’s moral actions originated from the psychological and behavioral nature of our evolutionary ancestors. He concludes this thought by saying that our moral actions do, in fact, originate from the psychological and behavioral nature of our evolutionary ancestors. De Waal further argues that the foundations of human morals are found in the primates of today. They are composed of actions and emotions whose evolutionary role assists us in our social organization and unity. In the beginning pages of his book, De Waal