Type Of Cognitive Processing Of Social Information And Adolescent’s Moral Judgments

Abstract

As a central task of adolescent development, the process of self-determination is realized in an information-driven society. Digital socialization restructures the model and forms of building communication with significant others and, primarily, with peers. It is imperative to analyze the moral regulation of interactions in the context of intensified Internet communication. The aim of our study was to investigate moral development typical of adolescents that employ various cognitive types of social information processing during their communication in social media. The study involved 224 adolescents aged 13-18 years. A battery of methods included techniques for determining cognitive ways of evaluating social information from the Internet, assessing the level of moral development (moral judgments and moral responsibility), and features of personal core beliefs. The outcomes are based on classification of the cognitive types of social information processing in adolescents in social media targeted for teenage audiences: “Behaviorists”, “Analysts”, “Effective doers”. An analysis of the moral development features in teens with different types of cognitive information processing found out that the group of effective doers is more focused on postconventional moral judgments and recognition of moral responsibility for one’s actions. Adolescents with ineffective cognitive ways of social information processing (“Behaviorists” and “Analysts”) demonstrate preferences towards the preconventional level of moral development and are less willing to accept moral responsibility while recognizing the fact that misconduct is punishable. It was shown that the basic assumption “Belief in good luck” is more typical of adolescents with an “effective” cognitive type of social information processing.