Internalization of Moral Standards in Young Children

描述：(改编自研究人员摘要)这个项目的首要目标是阐明非常小的孩子是如何内化规则的， 价值观和行为标准。因此，重点放在早期开发上 良知，这被视为一个日益复杂的系统，包括 道德情感、行为自律、道德理解与道德 赛尔夫。良知是在一种错综复杂的相互作用中形成的 儿童早期气质特征及其与心理健康的关系 照顾者。100名儿童及其父母5年的纵向研究 从7个月到52个月的父母有5个目标。(一)检视 一种密切的、积极的、相互响应的取向在某些方面正在演变 亲子二元论儿童良知的早期发展，(2) 考察孩子的气质在良知发展中的作用， 单独和在与早期关系的相互作用中，(3)探索 亲子话语作为儿童过去行为的重要语境 对于道德社会化，(4)了解父母的人格如何 影响儿童良知发展；(5)早期探索 融合早期家庭网络背景下的良知发展 两性关系。 这项研究汇集了关于情绪、气质、 人际关系、社会化、亲子话语、自传体记忆、 以及家庭的生态环境。它在不同的领域使用了行为观察 自然主义背景，多种标准实验室范例，父母的 收视率，以及父母和孩子的自我报告。衡量标准汇总在 多个层次，以产生健壮的构造。这些分析阐明了原因 负责构造(中介)和多个 使用结构方程建模的因果路径(调节)。诺言 这项研究既是概念性的，也是实践性的。它将清楚地表达和 提炼早期良知的综合理论模型 社会化理论中的建构。良知是一种有效的 内部行为指南是心理健康的关键组成部分，并且 良心不安标志着反社会的发展轨迹。通过 这项工作阐明了适应和不适应的早期发育途径 将加强对早期发育风险性质的了解，以及 它将为可能有助于抵消这些风险的有效干预措施提供信息。

DESCRIPTION: (adapted from investigator's abstract) This project's overarching objective is to elucidate how very young children come to internalize rules, values, and standards of behavior. Thus, the focus is on the early development of conscience, which is seen as an increasingly complex system that encompasses moral emotions, behavioral self-regulation, moral understanding, and the moral self. Conscience develops in the process of an intricate interplay between children's early temperamental characteristics and their relationships with the caregivers. The 5-year longitudinal study of 100 children and both of their parents, followed from 7 to 52 months, has 5 goals. (1) To examine the role of a close, positive, mutually responsive orientation evolving in some parent-child dyads for the early development of children's conscience, (2) To examine the role of children's temperament in the development of conscience, alone and in the interplay with early relationships, (3) To explore parent-child discourse about the child's past behavior as an important context for moral socialization, (4) To understand how parents' personality may influence the development of children's conscience, and (5) To explore early conscience development in the context of the network of integrated early family relationships. This research brings together literatures on emotions, temperament, relationships, socialization, parent-child discourse, autobiographical memory, and ecology of the family. It employs behavioral observations in diverse naturalistic contexts, multiple standard laboratory paradigms, parents' ratings, and parents' and children's self-reports. Measures are aggregated at multiple levels to produce robust constructs. The analyses elucidate causal mechanisms responsible for links among the constructs (mediation) and multiple causal pathways (moderation) using structural equations modeling. The promise of this research is both conceptual and practical. It will articulate and refine a comprehensive theoretical model of early conscience, a central construct in socialization theories. Conscience that serves as an effective internal guide of conduct is a critical component of mental health, and disturbances of conscience mark antisocial developmental trajectories. By elucidating adaptive and maladaptive early developmental pathways, this work will enhance the understanding of the nature of early developmental risks, and it will inform effective interventions that may help offset those risks.