Social Domain Theory Research Articles

Patterns of adolescent–parent conflicts over schoolwork in Chinese families

ABSTRACT Schoolwork is a significant source of adolescent–parent conflicts in Chinese families. Framed in Smetana’s model of social domain theory and with support from self-determination theory by Deci and Ryan, we used the qualitative methods of grounded theory approach to explore the patterns of adolescent–parent conflicts over schoolwork in Chinese families, as well as the role of parental psychological control and youths’ autonomy development in schoolwork conflicts. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with 28 parents and 35 adolescents in Yinchuan city of Ningxia. Intricate patterns of conflict reasoning and resolution are revealed in (a) parents’ conventional reasoning about schoolwork conflicts as driven by education system in China; (b) parents’ use of explicit and subtle coercive conflict resolution strategies; (c) adolescents’ conventional reasoning about conflicts on academic performance, multifaceted reasoning about conflicts on daily studies, and personal reasoning about conflicts on non-academic activities and (d) the process- and relationship-orientations of adolescents’ conflict resolution strategies. Reactive nature of Chinese teenagers’ conflict reasoning and resolution, as well as the intricate process involving parents’ psychological control and adolescents’ controlled motivation over schoolwork are indicated. Findings are discussed in the cultural context of contemporary China.

Acceptance of Society-Level and Individual-Level Preventive Measures during the COVID-19 Pandemic among College Students in Three Societies

Drawing from social domain theory, this study examined people’s evaluation of society-level disease-prevention regulations (e.g., school closure) and personal precautions (e.g., wearing a facemask) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, as assessed in Spring, 2020. Participants from three countries (United States [US], China, and Japan; N = 528) rated their acceptance of a range of society-level and individual-level preventive measures and then indicated their main reasons for these ratings, which were categorized as moral, societal, personal, and prudential based on social domain theory. Consistent with this theoretical framework, we found both similarities and differences across the three societies. Specifically, we found that, across the three societies, moral considerations predicted higher acceptance of society-level preventive measures, whereas personal considerations predicted lower acceptance of both society-level and individual-level preventive measures. However, a stronger link between societal considerations and higher acceptance of society-level preventive measures was found for Chinese participants than for US and Japanese participants.

The Perspective of Social Cognitive Domain Theory on Social and Moral Judgment of Elementary School Students and Its Implications for Moral Education

The Perspective of Social Cognitive Domain Theory on Social and Moral Judgment of Elementary School Students and Its Implications for Moral Education

Emotional Disclosure and Secrecy in the Development of Autonomous-Related Self among Singaporean Adolescents

Drawing upon the social domain theory regarding adolescents’ information management and the model of family change on cultural orientation toward self-construal development, this qualitative study investigated Singaporean adolescents’ emotional disclosure and secrecy with parents in their negotiation of the development of self-construal. Eighty-two adolescents aged 11–19 described their negative emotional disclosure and secrecy in relation to three factors: (1) the social contexts of emotional experiences, (2) the justifications for disclosure and secrecy, and (3) parents’ reactions. Four contexts of emotional experiences, three overarching categories of justifications, and three primary types of parental reactions were identified. Singaporean adolescents’ emotional disclosure and secrecy examined through the confluence of three factors revealed the processes, successes and challenges associated with the development of autonomous-related self. Findings lend credence to the connection of the social domain theory and model of family change—specifically, the confluence of three factors involving the domains of information, justifications and parental reactions in understanding adolescents’ negotiation of self-construal development through the management of their emotional lives in developed Asian societies with an emphasis on academic achievement. Importantly, results revealed that Singaporean parents need to make adaptations in the way of their autonomy-granting for developing adolescents’ self-reliance within the school context and have implications for education stakeholders in helping adolescents develop a healthy sense of self.

Moral Development in Middle Childhood Period in Turkey According to Social Domain Theory

Ahlaki gelişim toplumdan topluma değişim gösteren bir kavramdır. Her toplumun kendi ahlaki normları vardır ve bu normlara uyulmaması durumunda uymayan kişiye karşı toplumsal bir tepki geliştirilir. Ahlaki gelişim çalışmalarında Kohlberg’in çalışmalarına literatürde geniş yer verilmektedir. Ancak Kohlberg ahlakın toplumdan topluma değişen değer yargıları olduğundan bahsetmemektedir. Toplumsal alan kuramına göre Ahlaki gelişim çalışmaları literatürde kendine yeni yeni yer bulmaya başlamıştır. Bu durum çalışmasının amacı, ilkokula devam eden, orta çocukluk dönemindeki öğrencilerin Toplumsal Alan Kuramına göre ahlak gelişimlerini anlamaktır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu 2018-2019 eğitim öğretim yılında ilkokulda eğitimine devam eden 1,2,3,4. Sınıftan 60 çocuktur. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen 6 varsayımsal hikaye oluşturmaktadır. Yapılan içerik analizi sonucunda, çocukların büyük kural ihlali yerine küçük kural ihlalini tercih ettiği; çocukların kardeşini kurtarmak için bile hırsızlığın doğru bir davranış olmadığını belirttikleri, adaletli seçimler yapmanın doğru bir davranış olduğunu, çocukların istedikleri oyuncakla oynayabilmesi gerektiğini ve oyuncak seçimine saygı duyulması gerektiğini, ebeveynlerin müdahalesinin doğru bir davranış olamadığını, son olarak çocukların, kuralların her zaman geçerli olduğunu, her durumda uyulması gerektiğini belirlenmiştir.

Why do preschoolers perpetuate inequalities? Theoretical perspectives on inequity preferences in the face of emerging concerns for equality

Recent research has shown that preschool children tend to preferentially allocate resources to rich than to poor others. The findings that young children tend to perpetuate inequalities are puzzling given classical developmental theories that largely focused on the emergence of equality and equity in childhood. In this review, we first sketch the early ontogeny of fairness concerns before providing an overview on studies reporting perpetuation of inequality in young children. We review four classical theories (Piaget, Kohlberg, Damon, Social Domain Theory) and discuss how they would account for this phenomenon. We then introduce four recent theoretical models that directly speak to the underlying psychological processes; the affective preference model, the reciprocity-based strategic model, the numerical matching model, and the normative model. We highlight the key tenets of each model, their relation to other developmental processes, and the strength of the empirical evidence. From each model, we derive specific hypotheses. Finally, in an integrative section we discuss how the models might relate to each other, highlight connections to other research areas, and present avenues for future research.

Contributions of Social Domain Theory for the Study of Exclusion: a Systematic Literature Review

Considering the negative impact that exclusion can have on individuals and society, psychology has invested in research in the area, from different theoretical perspectives. In the breadth of possibilities surrounding this area of knowledge, this article aimed to characterize the contributions of social domain theory (SDT) for the study of exclusion, through a systematic literature review based on the questions: what contributions to exclusion studies have been made by SDT and what methods are being used by researchers in this area for data collection and analysis? To respond, we searched for scientific articles on virtual platforms (SciELO, PePSIC, LILACS, and Capes Periodicals) and retrieved 19 articles after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results showed that the theory’s main contributions for the study were diversity of themes found, although sexism and racism were the main types of prejudice researched as motivations for exclusions; judgments about situations of exclusion were associated with differences due to sociodemographic variables, the characteristics of the exclusion, and the context; studies on the role of emotions in judgments were also identified. Regarding the method used by the SDT studies on exclusion, there was a prevalence of cross-sectional and quantitative studies conducted with children and adolescents of the USA. This review showed that, despite SDT being recent and the inexistence of national articles following the adopted criteria, SDT has invested in studies that seek to comprehend which individual and contextual factors influence the acceptance or rejection of a prejudiced attitude of exclusion.

A new dimensional measure of antisocial behaviour evaluation (ASBE)

ABSTRACT Adolescent thinking about the wrongness of antisocial behaviours plays a key role in their own engagement in antisocial conducts. Nevertheless, measures assessing adolescent antisocial evaluations are not common in literature. Informed by the social domain theory and using adolescent actual thinking about antisocial behaviours, this study developed and validated a new dimensional scale of antisocial behaviour evaluation (ASBE) with two sub-samples of Italian adolescents (Total N = 678; M age = 15.48, SD = 1.61; 291 males). Applying the exploratory factor analysis within the confirmatory factor analysis framework (abbreviated, E/CFA), we found four correlated dimensions of ASBE: The impersonal dimension, including violations carried out against social and legal norms, without any direct contact with other people; the interpersonal dimension, reflecting violations that imply harming other persons; the personal-risky dimension, containing items that refer to violations whose consequences primarily affect one’s own safety and health; the loyalty dimension, representing violations that concern reciprocity and loyalty among peers and friends. The scale showed a good internal consistency and validity. The results support a promising use of this new measure for assessing adolescent antisocial thinking and investigating its associations with social cognition, moral reasoning and behaviour.

Developmental changes in parental authority legitimacy and over-time associations with adjustment: Differences in parent, first-born, and second-born perspectives.

Discrepancies in first- (M = 14.97 years, SD = 1.82) and second-born adolescents' (M = 12.20 years, SD = 1.90 years) and their parents' perceptions of parental authority legitimacy (PAL) were examined in a longitudinal sample of 145 predominantly White, middle-class, U.S. families. Utilizing a growth curve modeling approach, changes in the discrepancies between parents' and both first- and second-born adolescents' ratings of PAL over the course of 4 years were examined separately by the social-cognitive domain of the issues (social domain theory; Smetana, 2011; Turiel, 2002). We found that discrepancies between parents and first-borns increased over time for personal and multifaceted issues, whereas discrepancies for second-born adolescents increased over socially regulated issues. Additionally, larger initial discrepancies between parents and both adolescents over socially regulated issues (i.e., moral and conventional) were associated with greater depressive symptoms, while decreases in discrepancies over time were generally associated with better adjustment outcomes but with some domain and birth order differentiation. Discussion focuses on the developmental appropriateness (or inappropriateness) of family member perception differences in authority legitimacy over the course of adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Development of Moral and Social Judgments: Social Contexts and Processes of Coordination

The research presented in this essay is grounded in Social Domain Theory. Research provides substantial evidence that children’s social development is characterized by the formation of distinctly different systems of thought, including those in the moral, social-conventional, and personal domains. A main focus here is on morality, defined as involving understandings of welfare, justice, and rights, which are applied across societal contexts. Social conventions are uniformities within social systems, serving to provide uniform expectations. The domains constitute different configurations of thinking and developmental changes occur within each domain. However, decisions in social situational contexts often involve coordination, which is a process of weighing and balancing different and sometimes conflicting considerations. Such social contexts can include conflicts between different moral goals or between moral and societal goals. Processes of coordination are examined in social psychological experiments, as well as developmental studies of topics like honesty, rights, and social inclusion. Coordination is also considered in people’s perspectives on cultural practices of unfairness and inequality. Psychological research in patriarchal societies shows that females, who are subjected to inequalities evaluate those cultural practices as unfair. Anthropological research documents that females engage in acts of opposition and moral resistance regarding perceived unfair cultural practices.

The Influence of Power on U.S. and Chinese Individuals’ Judgments and Reasoning About Intrasocietal Conflicts

This study used a social domain theory framework to investigate Chinese and U.S. individuals’ evaluations of intrasocietal conflicts (defined as situations where some individuals’ rights clash with collective interests), and how those evaluations might be influenced by concepts of high versus low power. Undergraduate students in both the United States ( n = 92) and China ( n = 98) received either a high-power or a low-power prime and then evaluated (a) the acceptability of actions taken by different parties in hypothetical scenarios about intrasocietal conflicts, (b) moral and societal justifications for these actions, and (c) the appropriateness of actions by outside, third parties aimed at affirming individual rights. Results showed that moral justifications for individual actions were positively associated with pro-individual-rights judgments in both societies, regardless of power condition. In addition, U.S. individuals primed with high power and Chinese participants primed with low power showed lower support for third-party actions, based on societal concerns from the collective perspective. Chinese participants primed with high power also accepted collective actions based on moral and societal concerns. These results extend social domain theory by demonstrating how different power concepts affect the relative importance of moral versus societal concerns in individuals’ judgments, especially when evaluating third-party actions.

Does Situation Matter in Conceptions of Children’s Nurturance and Self-determination Rights?

Recent work regarding children’s rights has advocated for research in non-Western settings and with participants who are ethnic/racial minorities. We addressed these issues through secondary analysis of interviews with 63 mixed-race South African children (9-, 11-, and 13-year olds) and their mothers. Participants’ responses to hypothetical vignettes depicting children’s nurturance and self-determination rights scenarios were coded using social cognitive domain theory and subsequently analysed with mixed-design anovas. Outcomes figured prominently in children’s and mothers’ reasoning. Moral reasoning was primarily invoked when discussing the right to privacy, extending earlier work and suggesting the importance of privacy across cultural contexts.

The socializing role of logical consequences, mild punishments, and reasoning in rule‐breaking contexts involving multifaceted issues

AbstractExperimental studies focusing on the socialization role of parental authority exertion in persistent rule‐breaking contexts involving non‐personal issues have recently shown the advantages of using logical consequences over alternative strategies (mild punishments, reasoning, and no‐authority). Using an experimental vignette approach and a sample of 214 adolescents (Mage = 15.28 years), the present study extended these findings by comparing the same parental interventions in a rule‐breaking setting involving a multifaceted issue. Specifically, and based on research anchored in social domain theory, we evaluated how adolescents' perceptions of the issue underlying the multifaceted transgression (personal vs. non‐personal) moderated the effects of authority exertion strategies on socialization indicators. When adolescents perceived the transgression as a non‐personal issue, past results were replicated and enhanced. Adolescents rated the logical consequence as at least as effective as the mild punishment to prevent future transgressions (i.e., more so than reasoning and no‐authority) and as the most acceptable strategy. Furthermore, contrary to the mild punishment, they did not perceive the logical consequence as more autonomy‐thwarting than reasoning. In contrast, adolescents who categorized the transgression as a personal matter rated the logical consequence less favorably, leaving reasoning as a preferred form of intervention. Implications for optimal parenting are discussed.

A randomized controlled trial of training of affect recognition (TAR) in schizophrenia shows lasting effects for theory of mind.

Schizophrenia is characterized by social cognitive impairments that predict functioning. Social cognitive training aims to target these impairments. Although it can improve the targeted social cognitive domain, it is unclear if the training generalizes to non-targeted domains and to functioning, with lasting effects. This randomized controlled trial examined the effect of a targeted facial affect recognition training program, Training of Affect Recognition (TAR), in persons with schizophrenia. Individuals with schizophrenia were randomized to receive treatment as usual and TAR (n = 24) or treatment as usual (n = 24) after assessments with a comprehensive protocol at baseline (T1). Participants were reassessed immediately after the intervention period (T2: after 8weeks) and at 3-month follow-up (T3). The protocol included tests of social cognition (facial or body affect recognition, theory of mind), nonsocial cognition (Matrics Consensus Cognitive Battery), clinical symptoms (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia), functioning (self-reported, social or nonsocial functional capacity), self-esteem, self-efficacy and insight. Linear mixed models yielded a significant group × time interaction effect for a non-targeted social cognitive domain (theory of mind) and a trend-level effect for social functional capacity with the intervention group performing better over time. No beneficial effects on nonsocial cognition, other measures of functioning, clinical symptoms, or self-esteem/self-efficacy appeared for the TAR program. This study provides evidence for transfer and durability effects of facial affect recognition training to theory of mind, but also highlights the need for additional treatments to achieve functional benefits.

Concepções educativas morais de crianças e adolescentes: diálogo entre teoria do juízo moral de Piaget e teoria do domínio social de Turiel

Resumo A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo principal a investigação das concepções educativas morais de crianças e adolescentes, focando em suas compreensões acerca do papel dos pais como educadores e formadores. Trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratória, descritiva e de análise qualitativa e quantitativa. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas estruturadas, utilizando um instrumento embasado na teoria do domínio social e na Piagetiana. Participaram 45 sujeitos, de 10 a 13 anos, alunos de uma escola pública de um bairro periférico de um município da Grande São Paulo. Os resultados indicaram: pouca presença de justificativas morais e a grande proporção de justificativas convencionais; obediência mesmo quando não legitimando a autoridade parental; pouca reivindicação por autonomia; notou-se que a legitimidade da autoridade parental, a obrigatoriedade da regra e a obediência da regra predominam, em maior grau, nas situações que foram classificadas previamente como sendo de domínios moral, prudencial e convencional, diferente das situações que envolvem o domínio pessoal. Ao considerar os resultados encontrados, pode-se afirmar que, sob o ponto de vista dos participantes dessa amostra, o papel dos pais está muito relacionado ao estabelecimento de regras sobre todos os conteúdos das interações sociais dos filhos. Além disso, a autoridade deles é frequentemente legitimada, com exceção dos assuntos percebidos como de domínio pessoal. Ao consultar a literatura da área, observa-se que pais e filhos têm percepções diferentes sobre justiça, obediência, autonomia e respeito em suas relações. Sugerem-se novas pesquisas com diversificação da amostragem e a inserção da variável religião, dada a quantidade de justificativas referentes à temática.

Chinese Adolescents’ Conceptions of Teacher’s Authority and Their Relations to Rule Violations in School

Based on the Social Cognitive Domain Theory, the paper explored the adolescents’ conceptions of teacher authority in different domains and their relations to rule violations in school. The main results are: 1) Adolescents viewed moral, conventional, and prudential issues as legitimately subject to teachers’ authority and personal issues as under personal jurisdiction, but they were equivocal about contextually conventional issues. 2) Seventh graders judged all acts as more legitimately subject to teachers’ authority, all rule violations as more negative than did older students. 3) Compared with adolescents from big cities, adolescents from rural area viewed moral, conventional, contextually conventional, and personal issues as more legitimately subject to teacher authority, and endorsed less personal jurisdiction over those issues; but there were no significant differences in moral domain. 4) Male subjects reported more violations in conventional and prudential domain. 5）Adolescents’ older age, less endorsement of legitimacy of teacher authority, and greater dislike for school predicted more teacher- and self-reported misconducts. Implications for moral education from these results were also discussed.

A Commentary Reflection of Moral Psychology Based on Embodied Cognition

The rise of embodied cognition in recent ten years has brought about significant influence on the research of moral psychology. On the one hand, the development of neuro-cognitive science has facilitated the research of morality deeply into the mirror neurons of brain, no longer being limited simply on the philosophical speculation; and on the other hand the experimental research of embodied cognition has provided new evidence for some traditional and philosophical moral issues and even made some new recognition of the issues which are different from the traditional interpretations. Tracing back to the research of the Western moral psychology, we find that cognitive rationality and virtual ethics are the two main research lines for moral psychology.（1）J. Piaget and L. Kohlberg opened a way for the research of cognitive development of morality, and their successors have formed new Kohlbergian School, such as the moral judgment theory based on DIT proposed by J. Rest and his colleagues, G. Lind’s dual-aspect theory based on his MCT and KMDD®; the social cognitive domain theory proposed by E. Turiel and his colleagues; the feminine caring ethics advocated by C. Gilligan and N. Noddings; the Social Intuitionist Theory proposed by J. Haidt based on evolutionary psychology, cultural psychology and neuro-cognitive science and so on. (2) The traditional moral philosophy and ethics have opened another way to the research of character education and virtues, such as the American movement of character education facilitated by W, Bennett and T. Lickona and others; the argument between J. Rawls and R. Nozick on moral problems; A. C. MacIntyre’s moral critique to the Western societies and his virtue ethics and so on. Since 21st century the research of embodied cognition has broken through the limitation of the traditional research on moral psychology, attempting to realize the new synthesis of intellect, human body and its environment, and therefore started the embodied research of moral judgment which is unfolded around the three dimensions of physical cleanliness, disgust, body temperature and body movements. I has also assimilated Piaget and Vygotsky’s ideas of psychological development, the theory of conceptual metaphor in cognitive semantics and the theory of evolutionary psychology, and made its theoretical interpretation and exploration for the embodied effect of moral judgment. Since the variable of physical body could have its influence on individual moral judgment by means of one’s emotion and cognitive elements, the moral judgment based on embodied cognition should be integrated with the theories of moral judgment, especially with moral competencies that are the core of moral judgment, and meanwhile the relationship between the embodied cognition and moral intuition should be deeply explored, and the issues such as chronergy, that is, time efficiency, and dynamics taken place when there is the embodied effect should be further examined, the regulated variables of embodied effects while making moral judgment and the individual differences should also be found out through detailed research. And finally we should check out the embodied effects of moral judgment through the cross-cultural comparison.

Callous-unemotional traits moderate the association between children's early moral understanding and aggression: A short-term longitudinal study.

Drawing on the framework of social domain theory, this multi-method, multi-informant longitudinal study examined whether callous-unemotional (CU) tendencies moderated the association between U.S. 4 to 7 year olds' (n = 135; Mage = 5.65, 50% male; 75% White) ability to differentiate hypothetical, prototypical moral and conventional transgressions along theoretical criteria and teacher (n = 49) and parent (n = 128, 91% mothers) ratings of physical aggression. Deficits in domain distinction ability were associated with greater teacher-reported aggression both concurrently and 9 months later, but only for children high in CU traits. No main effects or interactions were found for parent reports. These findings build on a growing body of research demonstrating that children who use aggression in a deliberate and callous manner show deficits in their basic understanding of moral norms. (PsycINFO Database Record

Saudi Arabian children's reasoning about religion-based exclusion.

This study examined how Saudi Arabian children (M=10.50years, SD=1.61, Range=8-10years) evaluate peer exclusion based on religion when the perpetrator of exclusion was a peer or a father. Children believed that it was more acceptable for fathers than for peers to enforce exclusion and were more likely to use social conventional reasons to justify exclusion when the perpetrator was a father. The discussion focuses on how social domain theory needs to take children's cultural community into account. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Research suggests that children do not defer to authority in making decisions about peer exclusion. Children tend to believe that authority figures should not order peer exclusion because it is a moral decision. What does this study add? Unlike children in other collectivist countries, children in Saudi Arabia support peer exclusion ordered by a father more than a peer. Saudi children use social conventional reasoning to justify fathers' support for peer exclusion.

Research on Kohlberg’s Theory and Practice in China

Since 1980s Kohlberg’s theory of moral cognitive development has great influences on Chinese moral education. The Chinese scholars introduced Kohlberg’s theory into Chinaand made some theoretical comments first and then made some empirical research in Chinese schools and universities. More and more empirical and cross-cultural research results jointly made by both Chinese and Western scholars have been published since the beginning of the new century. Post-Kohlberg theories began to be introduced into China, such as DIT, MJT and Social cognitive domain theory and so on. All of these theories have important enlightenment on Chinese moral education and facilitate the reform and innovation of the Chinese moral education to some extent. There are still some arguments with Kohlberg and post-Kohlberg theories in the empirical research made by Chinese scholars and so more research should be needed in the future.