Describe how the developmental themes from the text (active-passive; continuity-discontinuity; holistic; and nature-nurture) are evident throughout the development of aggression, altruism, and morality

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The child's active participation in his or her own development was illustrated by the discussion of proactive aggressors and proactive victims. Children think and behave in ways that serve to promote and maintain their status as aggressor or victim, but not all children are classified this way. An example of all children playing an active role in their development is Dodge's social information-processing model of aggression. Recall that this model proposes that all children are active in thinking about situations that may or may not lead them to behave aggressively and that the cycle of information processing children use leads to the development of children's thinking about and acting out aggression.

Sex differences in aggressive behavior illustrate the combined influence of nature and nurture on development. Sex differences in aggression are partly attributable to gender differences in testosterone (a biological or nature influence), but sex differences are also clearly dependent on gender typing and gender differences in social learning (an environmental or nurture influence). Clearly, both nature and nurture combine to influence this aspect of social development!

The qualitative and quantitative nature of developmental change was of special significance in this chapter because each topic illustrated the complexity of qualitative/quantitative interactions and the fact that qualitative changes are often seen after a series of quantitative changes in behavior. For example, both moral reasoning and aggressive behavior change qualitatively as children progress through stages that differ in form or type from earlier stages. However, each of these different stages is achieved after a series of quantitative changes as children experience social interaction and cognitive development.

Finally, the holistic nature of child development was illustrated in each topic, as children's cognitive function was seen to derive from and contribute to their social experiences. This relationship was stated explicitly in Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning. Recall that Kohlberg proposed that children progress through stages of moral reasoning in an invariant order and that their progression through stages is mediated both by their cognitive development and by their social interactions with peers. For Kohlberg, cognition and social interaction are inseparable in guiding moral development.