The affective experiences of empathy, shame, and guilt have been identified as those most relevant to the development of moral motivation and moral behavior. It has been postulated that these cognitive/affective experiences serve to motivate moral and altruistic social behavior, while inhibiting the expression of aggressive, antisocial impulses.…

Psychologists and laymen alike often use the terms "shame" and "guilt" interchangeably. Guilt is an affective state most often associated with a focus on some past behaviors which the subject finds inconsistent with a set of internalized standards which are often, but not necessarily moral in nature. Shame involves less of a…

Traditionally, "masculine" males and "feminine" females are seen as being the most mentally healthy individuals. Recently this view has been challenged by Sandra Bem and other researchers in the area of sex role identity. Bem (1975) maintains that those individuals whose behavioral and emotional repertoires incorporate aspects…

The relation of moral reasoning to moral behavior has been the subject of a substantial number of empirical studies; it may be more productive to employ a configuration of characteristics to predict moral behavior. To investigate the relation of moral reasoning and personality variables to moral behavior, 74 undergraduates, 30 males and 44…

An experiment designed to study the relationship between moral behavior and level of moral development is described. Subjects in the experiment were faced with the choice of either remaining uninvolved observers or intervening to help another student. Their choice was affected by the presence of an authority figure which discouraged any…

While human emotions are often considered instinctive, this paper examines the notion that indifference to events or circumstances which might seem to have a prima facie claim to emotional significance is related to the narrative construction of those events or circumstances in the life of the observer, and is not a result of absolute stimulus…

Human development from about ages 2 to 5 is presented in terms of the history of a child conceptualized in terms of stimulus and response functions and his interactions in current situations which consist of organismic, physical, and social conditions. The concepts describing the changes that occur during this developmental period, such as…

A study was based on retrospective descriptions obtained from interviews with a large number of teachers who have taught for over 20 years. Three areas of change in students were consistently noted in the descriptions: children today know more, are freer, and grow up more rapidly. More autonomous, and armed with greater knowledge, children emerge…