The Social Cognitive Development of Moral Character

The Social Cognitive Development of Moral Character Daniel K. Lapsley University of Notre Dame (USA) www.nd.edu/~dlapsle1

The Questions What is the psychological foundation of moral character? How should we characterize the moral personality? Or the development of moral character? Social cognitive theory

Three Objectives • Frame the narrative • Outline the social cognitive option • Propose a model for the social cognitive development of moral character

Framing the Narrative • Study of moral rationality within context of personality, selfhood, identity • Topics neglected by cognitive-development tradition (Kohlberg’s stage-and-structure) • Cannot help defeat ethical relativism “One person’s integrity is another person’s stubbornness” • No guidance for moral education The “bag of virtues” problem • “traits” much in doubt Cross-situational consistency not demonstrated

Yet…a growing recognition --moral reasoning cannot be abstracted cleanly from the complex dynamic system of personality of which it is both part and product If “character” is the moral dimension of personality…” it must be compatible with well-attested models of personality But which model?

The “two disciplines” of personality research --Daniel Cervone Which units best conceptualize personality?

Between-person classification Of inter-individual variability “top-down” Latent variable taxonomic systems The “Big Five” traits Neuroticism Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to Experience Within-person Intra-individual Cognitive-affective mechanisms “bottom-up” (specific psychological systems) “social cognitive” units Schemas Scripts Prototypes “Event representations” Two Disciplines of Personality

Assumptions of Social Cognitive Approach • Activation of mental representations is critical for social information-processing • Mental representations include • Knowledge of social situations • Representations of self, others, events • Personal goals, beliefs, expectations • Knowledge of task strategies • Which are conceptualized as schemas, prototypes, scripts, plans, goals

There are individual differences in the availability and accessibility of these knowledge structures

Accessibility and Individual Differences • Accessibility a dimension of individual differences • 3 points • Chronically accessible at higher state of activation (“automaticity”) • Accessibility influenced by situational priming • Emerges from developmental history

Chronic Accessibility and the Moral Personality • Moral person has chronically accessible moral schemas • High level of activation • Dimension of individual differences • Moral v. non-moral schemas • Different moral schemas • Link to “moral identity”?

Empirical Demonstrations Prototypic Moral Character Lapsley & Lasky (Identity, 2001, 1(4), 345-363) Is conceptualization of moral character organized around a cognitive prototype? Recognition memory paradigm Prototype activation biases recognition memory Ss show false recognition of novel items if consistent with activated prototype More false recognition of prototype-consistent (“virtue-central”) traits

Individual differences in moral chronicity Narvaez, Lapsley, Hagele, Lasky, (2006, J.Res.Personality, 40, 966-985) Do Ss with chronically accessible moral schemas make more spontaneous moral trait inferences? Spontaneous trait inference (STI) paradigm (cued-recall) Meaning of events constructed routinely, habitually and unintentionally There are stable individual differences in the types of STIs that are produced e.g., aggressiveness,authoritarianism

Individual Differences in STIs Aggressiveness Zelli et al., 1995, Aggressive Behavior, 21, 405-417) “The policeman pushes Dave out of the way.” Hostile dispositional cues prompt twice as much recall in spontaneous trait inference condition for aggressive Ss than non-aggressive Ss (No difference in recall in a deliberative processing condition) Authoritarianism Uleman et al., 1986, JPSP, 51, 396-403) “The architect loved the excitement of military parades” Implied the trait attribution “patriotric” for authoritarian Ss But non-authoriarians could not reach consensus

Is moral chronicity an individual differences variable that influences production of STIs? Hypothesis Moral chronics (vs. non-chronics) would recall more target sentences when cued with moral dispositional cues (vs. semantic). Non-chronics will recall more sentences when cued with semantic cues (than dispositional cue)

The Developmental Challenge • Social cognitive approach to personality compatible with “developmental systems” • Personality a dynamic cognitive-affective system • In reciprocal interaction with changing ecological contexts • Dispositional signature at P x C • Diversity, plasticity, normative variation

Generalized Event Representations • Early prototypical knowledge structures • Encode routines, rituals, scripts • Working models of early experience • Progressively elaborated • Early episodic memory Basic building blocks of cognitive development (and social cognitive foundation of character)

The Characterological Turn • Event representations transformed into autobiographical memory • Episodic memories reference a self whose story it is • Narratives constructed through dialogue and interrogatories • Helps kids identify key features of their experience and action-guiding scripts • Over-learned, routine, habitual, automatic • Lessons about emotions, relationships and morality

Summary • Psychologize character, virtues • Integration with social cognitive science • Novel facts • Schema accessibility • Individual differences in moral chronicity • Tacit, implicit, automatic features • Early developmental grounding • General event representations • Autobiographical memory

The Social Cognitive Development of Moral Character