Emotions, Aggression, and Morality in Children (PDF)

Why do some children's emerging affective tendencies and abilities make them more aggressive over time, while similar processes make most children less aggressive and more morally mature? Furthermore, what kinds of interventions are effective for altering these pathways? To answer these critical questions, this book takes a unique, integrative approach in two important ways. First, it integrates the psychopathology perspective with the developmental perspective, arguing that aggression and morality are two sides of the same basic developmental story. Second, it integrates research on cognitive processes with research on emotional processes. Drawing largely from social information processing and moral domain theories, the chapters demonstrate how early affective experiences and relationships provide a foundation for children's subsequent social cognitive understanding of victimization, harm, and moral intentionality. The book consists of three parts. Part I provides theoretical foundations, including the role of emotion in early conscience, empathic tendencies, and how principles of fairness and concern emerge from early parent-child and peer-peer interactions. Part II discusses factors influencing aggression and morality, from neuroscience to culture. Part III discusses implications for assessment and intervention. Bringing together a number of international scholars, this book will appeal to all researchers, clinicians, educators, and policy experts interested in understanding how emotions affect the development of children's morality and aggression.