Internal state words: Their relation to moral development and to maternal communications about moral development in the second year of life

Abstract

This paper, through a longitudinal study of four toddlers, examines the regularities in order and age of acquisition of internal state words in relation to emergence of signs of moral awareness and affect. Increases in internal state words occurred after children's peaks in awareness of standards and after the first signs of empathy. Maternal communications about awareness of standards appeared to increase and decrease in a pattern suggesting they were following their children's development. Maternal use of internal state words was rare and did not appear directly to promote children's acquisition of them. Results are discussed in terms of conceptual growth motivating language acquisition. © 1991, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.