An Evolving and Developing Field of Study: Prosocial Morality from a Biological, Cultural, and Developmental Perspective

Abstract

In the present chapter, we present a conception of morality that highlights relatively microlevel, proximal psychological processes associated with human morality. We assume a social developmental perspective that incorporates biological, psychological, and cultural processes. Briefly, the model depicts a number of antecedent variables that include characteristics of the child (e.g., genetic predispositions, sociocognitive abilities, self-regulation, temperament), peers (e.g., characteristics of the affiliative group), and family (e.g., parenting practices, household structure), school context (e.g., racial/ethnic composition, school engagement), life events (e.g., exposure to major life stressors), and receiving community characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status, employment opportunities, violence rates). However, the effects of these antecedent variables depend on the child's perceptions via a variety of sociocognitive and socioemotive tendencies, including appraisals, moral reasoning, values, empathy, and racial/ethnic identity. Furthermore, these sociocognitive and socioemotive traits may influence the ethnic minority child's perceptions of culture-related stressors, which in turn predict prosocial and antisocial outcomes. Interrelations within each set of variables, interaction effects, and bidirectional relations are not depicted in tae model. The model also emphasizes moral development in youth from different ethnic groups. Although morality cuts across both prosocial and antisocial dimensions, our work has mostly focused on prosocial moral development and we highlight this work. We begin with some definitional issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)