MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND VIOLENCE:Symbolic functioning, Formal operational stage

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Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Lesson 17

MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND VIOLENCE

Objectives

To understand the theory of Moral Development and adult violence

To understand the basic concepts of Bio-Psychological Model

To understand the basic concepts of Attachment theory about violence

To understand the basic concepts of Adler's Model

To understand the basic concepts of Michel Foucault's Model

Moral development

Moral development is the process through which children develop proper attitudes and behaviors toward

other people in society, based on social and cultural norms, rules, and laws.

Moral development is a concern for every parent. Teaching a child to distinguish right from wrong and

to behave accordingly is a goal of parenting. Moral development is a complex issue that--since the

beginning of human civilization--has been a topic of discussion among some of the world's most

distinguished psychologists, theologians, and culture theorists. It was not studied scientifically until the

late 1950s.

Piaget's Theory of Moral Reasoning

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, explored how children developed moral reasoning. He rejected the

idea that children learn and internalize the rules and morals of society by being given the rules and

forced to adhere to them. Through his research on how children formed their judgments about moral

behavior, he recognized that children learn morality best by having to deal with others in groups. He

reasoned that there was a process by which children conform to society's norms of what is right and

wrong, and that the process was active rather than passive.

Piaget found two main differences in how children thought about moral behavior. Very young children's

thinking is based on how actions affected them or what the results of an action were. For example,

young children will say that when trying to reach a forbidden cookie jar, breaking 10 cups is worse than

breaking one.

They also recognize the purity of rules. For example, they understand that they cannot make up new

rules to a game; they have to play by what the rule book says or what is commonly known to be the

rules. Piaget called this "moral realism with objective responsibility." It explains why young children

are concerned with outcomes rather than intentions.

Older children look at motives behind actions rather than consequences of actions. They are also able to

examine rules, determining whether they are fair or not, and apply these rules and their modifications to

situations requiring negotiation, assuring that everyone affected by the rules is treated fairly. Piaget felt

that the best moral learning came from these cooperative decision-making and problem-solving events.

He also believed that children developed moral reasoning quickly and at an early age.

Piaget proposed four developmental stages

1. Sensori-motor stage

2. Re operational stage

3. Concrete operational stage

4. Formal operational stage

According to Piaget, this child is in the sensorimotor stage and

primarily explores the world with senses (mouth and body

movements) rather than through mental operations. Infants are

born with a set of congenital reflexes, according to Piaget, in

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addition to a drive to explore their world. Their initial schemes are formed through differentiation of the

congenital reflexes.

According to Piaget, the Pre-Operational stage of development follows the Sensorimotor stage and

occurs between 2-7 years of age. It includes the following processes:

Symbolic functioning - is characterised by the use of mental symbols, words, or pictures, which the

child uses to represent something which is not physically present.

Centration - is characterized by a child focusing or attending to only one aspect of a stimulus or

situation. For example, in pouring a quantity of liquid from a narrow beaker into a shallow dish, a

preschool child might judge the quantity of liquid to have decreased, because it is "lower"--that is, the

child attends to the height of the water, but not to the compensating increase in the diameter of the

container.

Language acquirement is another mark of this stage.

Intuitive thought - occurs when the child is able to believe in something without knowing why she or

he believes it.

The Concrete operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget's theory.

This stage, which follows the Preoperational stage, occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 years and is

characterized by the appropriate use of logic and abstract concepts like love, hate, pain happiness and

children starts pointing out the right and wrong deeds of their parents. this stage is very critical from the

moral development.

Formal operational stage

The formal operational stage is the fourth and final of the stages of cognitive development of Piaget's

theory. This stage, which follows the Concrete Operational stage, commences at around 11 years of age

(puberty) and continues into adulthood. It is characterized by acquisition of the ability to think abstractly

and draw conclusions from the information available. During this stage the young adult functions in a

cognitively normal manner and therefore is able to understand such things in a better way as love,

"shades of gray", and values. And if a person develops inability to understand the link of one's own

rights and other people's right and do not care for other people's rights, can result in aggression and

violence.

Main concepts relevant to violence

Without formal operations you can't have moral reasoning.

Moral reasoning includes awareness of rights of others.

Since I have rights, you also must have rights.

BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL

Why Do Individuals Engage in Crime?

Basic assumption is that people commit crime because they are genetically and biologically predisposed

to commit. This model ignores the importance of environmental factors (only can hinder or foster).they

believe that criminal can not be corrected and totally opposes the humanistic point of view.

It focuses on the effect of the psychological factors on crime. In particular, most of the events and

conditions examined by this model involve relationships with others:

Other people take individuals' valued possessions

Treat them in an aversive manner

Prevent them from achieving their goals through legal channels.

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Biopsychological theories focus less on the social environment and more on the individuals' traits,

especially personality traits. Such theories argue that certain individual traits are conducive to crime.

2003). Two such traits that seem especially conducive to crime are:

Low constraint

Negative emotionality

Low constraint and negative emotionality are major dimensions of the human personality. Individuals

who are low in constraint are impulsive (tend to act without thinking), like to take risks, reject social

norms or rules, and have little concern for the feelings or rights of others. In popular terms, such

individuals might be described as "wild" or "out of control." Individuals who are high in negative

emotionality are easily upset and quick to anger, tend to blame their problems on others, and have an

aggressive or antagonistic interactional style.

Bio-psychological theories also ask why some individuals possess traits like low constraint and negative

emotionality. Such traits are said to be influenced by a range of biological factors. They are partly

inherited from one's parents (that is, genetically transmitted).

Many statesmen and politicians hold this extreme view that criminals can not be corrected. So for an

offender rapist, they would suggest to sterilize that man and death penalty for murder or long sentences

for acute crimes.

Encountered deaths

Police officers holding such extreme views stage encountered deaths for repeated criminals because

they believe that such criminals can not be corrected so should be eliminated.

Main views of Bio-Psychological Model

People are born different

With different genetic make-up

Environment can help or hinder

The predisposition to crime is biological

Such people can't be corrected

Extreme views such as sterilize the rapist

Death penalty for murder

Long sentences for repeat offenders

"Encounter" deaths usually result of such thinking

ATTACHMENT THEORY

This theory resembles psychodynamic model but unlike psychodynamic perspective it is an

environmental theory. This theory proposed that early attachment style of child with parents and care

givers are crucial to determine that what type of person is he would become.

Attachment is defined as an affectional tie that one person or animal forms between him/herself

and another specific one [usually the parent] -- a tie that binds them together in space and endures

over time.

If you are loved and empathasized by you mother in childhood then you are able to love and

empathize with others, early attachment theory looked at some case studies of people who were

violent, wild, offenders and do not respect to other's rights and it was found that all such people

had early separation from mother or father or both. And such separation can be traumatic.

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Trauma of early separation

Trauma leaves a lasting effect. Trauma especially in boys can lead to a numbing of emotions.

Resulting in the Suppression of empathy, compassion, flattening of emotions, like sadness or

happiness. And such boy can resort to cold blooded violence.

Attachment styles and physical abuse

If an infant is beaten up and maltreated by parents or care givers, it is also a kind of trauma for

innocent child and such child while become an adult can target other people for assault, torture and

violence as they do not understand other's emotions and value of rights.

Attachment styles

Secure Attachment - If the child protested the mother's departure and quieted promptly on the

mother's return, accepting comfort from her and returning to exploration, then the child's

relationship to the mother would be classified as a secure attachment.

Avoidant Attachment - If the child showed little to no signs of distress at the mother's departure, a

willingness to explore the toys, and little to no visible response to the mother's return, then the

child-mother relationship would be classified as avoidant.

Ambivalent Attachment - If the child showed sadness on the mother's departure, ability to be

picked up by the stranger and even 'warm' to the stranger, and on the mother's return, some

ambivalence, signs of anger, reluctance to 'warm' to her and return to play, then this child would be

classified as ambivalent.

A mother whose child is securely attached would respond appropriately, promptly and consistently

to the emotional as well as the physical needs of the child. She would help her child to transition and

regulate stress, and as a result, the child would use her as a secure base in the home environment.

A mother whose child has an avoidant attachment would show little response to the child when

distressed. She would discourage her child from crying and encourage independence and exploration.

The avoidantly attached child may have lower quality play than the securely attached child.

A mother whose child is ambivalently attached would be inconsistent with her child, at times be

appropriate and at other times be neglectful to the child. The child raised in an ambivalent

relationship becomes preoccupied with the mother's availability and cannot explore his environment

freely or use his mother as a secure base. The ambivalently attached child is vulnerable to difficulty

coping with life stresses and may display role reversal with the mother.

Key concepts of Attachment Theory

Early attachment crucial for love, caring, affection, empathy.

Early separation from mother/father can be traumatic.

Trauma leaves a lasting effect.

Trauma especially in boys can lead to a numbing of emotions.

Suppressing empathy, compassion.

Causing cold blooded violence.

ADLER'S MODEL

Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor and psychologist, founder of the school of individual

psychology. He was one of Freud's first disciples. He even held important positions in the

psychoanalytical movement initiated by Freud and his supporters. But it is the same person who was

the first great dissident from Freudian psychoanalysis and criticized his purely sexual sense.

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Adler's approach to human personality

Will to power

He saw people as goal oriented, with an urge toward personal growth and wholeness - this is often

summarized as `the will to power'. He did not give to the unconscious the enormous power that Freud

did. Instead he saw social drives, the training arising from ones cultural heritage, and family

influences, as being the prime forces in our behaviour and feelings. But he saw that these primal

influences could be modified by an individual in a personal way, so that each of us develops personal

styles in dealing with our life. This style or stance became an organizing centre around which the

person's life emerged.

Sexual crimes and will to power

Feminist theories understood Adler's views and concluded that rape is not a sexual crime rather it is an

expression of will to power. If a woman rejects a man, he feels a challenge and takes revenge.

Inferiority complex

Is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or

actual inferiority in the afflicted person. It is often subconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted

individuals to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme antisocial

behavior, or both. Unlike a normal feeling of inferiority, which can act as an incentive for achievement,

an inferiority complex is an advanced state of discouragement, often resulting in a retreat from

difficulties.

It was Adler who originated the term `inferiority complex'. This arose out of his view that as babies and

young children, much of our feeling life is a compensation for a sense of inferiority or inadequacy.

He argued that human personality could be explained in separate strands dominated by the guiding

purpose of the individual's unconscious self ideal to convert feelings of inferiority to superiority the

desires of the self ideal were countered by social and ethical demands. If the corrective factors were

disregarded and the individual over-compensated, then an inferiority complex would occur, fostering the

danger of the individual becoming egocentric, power-hungry and aggressive or worse.

Superiority complex

Superiority complex refers to a subconscious neurotic mechanism of compensation developed by

the individual as a result of feelings of inferiority. Those exhibiting the superiority complex

commonly project their feelings onto others they perceive as inferior to themselves. Behaviors related to

this mechanism may include an exaggeratedly positive opinion of one's worth and abilities,

unrealistically high expectations in goals and achievements for oneself and others, vanity, extravagant

style in dressing (with intention of drawing attention), pride, sentimentalism and affected exaltation,

snobbism, a tendency to discredit other's opinions, forcefulness aimed at dominating those considered

as weaker or less important, credulity, and others. We can easily find people with superiority complex in

our society.

Birth order

Birth order is defined as a person's rank by age among his or her siblings. Birth order is commonly

believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development. In childhood a person

may learn to compensate for such feelings by either pushing toward superior performance in some area,

or by aggressive action, or perhaps even withdrawal or non involvement.

Key concepts of Adler' Model

Individual develop a sense of inferiority

Inferiority Complex

Superiority Complex

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Considered the will to power the basic motive of human life

Most crimes are expressions of will to power

"Rape is not a sexual crimes" comes out of this approach

MICHEL FOUCAULT'S MODEL

He is known for his critical studies of various social institutions; most notably psychiatry, medicine,

education and the prison system, as well as his work on the history of sexuality. He presented a

model similar to Roger's model and focused in the evils of society. He presented extreme views

about prisoners by saying that society does not like differences and seeks to create compliance. He

considered Schools as the factories of making people, who are not different from each other.

Prisons Vs Schools

He viewed that there is no difference in schools and prisons as both have a specific starting time

with the ring of bell and specific places for specific works. He considered schools as the

manifestation of society's will to create compliance people, who do not think differently and if they

do not obey authority, would get punishment like prisoners.

Prisons Vs mental hospitals

Michel Foucault viewed no difference in the system and goal of mental hospitals and prisons.

Key Concepts of Foucault's Model

Society has no tolerance for differences

It seeks to create compliance

Schools and prisons are similar institutions perpetuating conformity

Mental institutions are no exceptions

Psychiatry and Psychology are partners in crime

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