Measures Of Social Development Research Articles

Conceptual Development in the Moral and Conventional Domains: Implications for Values Education

This article reviews recent research and related theory indicating that individuals’ conceptions of social convention and morality are constructed with in distinct developmental systems emerging out of qualitatively differing environmental interactions. The research indicates that people of all ages distinguish between those actions (moral) having an intrinsic effect upon the rights or well-being of others, and actions (social conventional) whose propriety is determined by the societal context (i.e., implicit or explicit societal norms). In addition, the research demonstrates that concepts about morality and convention follow independent and distinct developmental patterns. The article discusses the limits of current values education programs (e.g., Kohlbergian, values clarification) in terms of their failure to coordinate the teaching of social values with students’ differential conceptions of morality and convention. In addition, the article presents implications for classroom management procedures, the design of social values curricula, and the measurement of social development, which flow from the position that values education differentially address the development of conceptions of morality and social convention.

Poverty, Politics, and Fertility: The Anomaly of Kerala

IO n the surface, the small state of Kerala, located at the southwestern tip of the Indian peninsula, gives little impression that it is playing a significant and exciting role in the Indian demographic context. It is a poor state, even by Indian standards; its per capita income of U.S. $80 is substantially lower than the all-India average of U.S. $110. The daily per capita calorie intake is well below the all-India average;1 on this basis, 90 per cent of the population of Kerala has been classified as malnourished.2 With a population of 21 million in an area of 38,864 square kilometers, the state is extremely crowded. The population density (550 persons per sq km) exceeds even that of Bangladesh (530 persons per sq km). In addition, since its formation in 1956, Kerala's political history has been stormy, including a three-year period of Communist rule. Perhaps because of its history of political turbulence, Kerala has not received much special attention from Indian development planners. Expec,tationsand inputs-have been highest for Maharashtra State, the most industrially advanced state, of which India's premier city of Bombay is a bustling seaport, and Punjab State, the most agriculturally advanced state and home of the Green Revolution. Nevertheless, Kerala has managed to surpass not only these states, but all the Indian states in certain important measures of social development. For example, 60.2 percent of Kerala citizens are literate, compared to 29 percent of all Indians. Life expectancy at birth is 60.9 years, compared to 46.5 for all-India. The crude death rate is 9.2, whereas for all-India it is 16.9. Kerala has an infant mortality rate of 55, compared to 122 for allIndia, and the crude birth rate is 31.9, whereas for all-India it is 37. The anomaly that Kerala presents now becomes clear. It is extraordinary to see such low mortality and fertility rates associated with such high levels of poverty, malnutrition, and population density. How can a population with levels of income and nutrition among the lowest in the world achieve levels of fertility and mortality substantially lower than surrounding populations with similar cultural backgrounds but higher incomes and caloric intakes? Such peculiar demographic behavior is particularly

PEER INTERACTION AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

RARDIN, DONALD R., and MOAN, CHARLES E. Peer Interaction and Cognitive Development. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1685-1699. 81 children from 1 classroom each of kindergarten, first, second, and third grades were ranked on measures of popularity, cognitive and social development. The measure of social development, developed for this study, consisted of combined ratings from 4 measures: Reason for Friendship, Stability of Friendship, Names Not Known, and Congruency of Friendships. The 2 measures of physical concept development were conservation and classification. Piaget proposed that, during the grades studied, physical and social concepts are closely related to each other and are parallel in their development. He also proposed that various systems of cognition are becoming interconnected during this period and that peer interaction is a causal force helping to bring about this qualitative change in cognition. 2 hypotheses, based on these formulations, were examined. The first, that peer relations develop in a manner parallel to the development of physical concepts, was significantly supported. Both cognitive and social skills progress from kindergarten through the third grade in a similar manner. A second hypothesis was that a child's cognitive development would be directly affected by the quality of his peer relations, as judged by popularity rankings. Popularity was found to be closely related to social development, but its relations to measures of physical concept development were relatively minor.