Children and Social Exclusion E-Book

Melanie Killen

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Understanding Children's Worlds
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 432

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity explores the origins of prejudice and the emergence of morality to explain why children include some and exclude others.

• Formulates an original theory about children’s experiences with exclusion and how they understand the world of discrimination based on group membership
• Brings together Social Domain Theory and Social Identity Theory to explain how children view exclusion that often results in prejudice, and inclusion that reflects social justice and morality
• Presents new research data consisting of in-depth interviews from childhood to late adolescence, observational findings with peer groups, and experimental paradigms that test how children understand group dynamics and social norms, and show either group bias or morality
• Illustrates data with direct quotes from children along with diagrams depicting their social understanding
• Presents new insights about the origins of prejudice and group bias, as well as morality and fairness, drawn from extensive original data

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Understanding Children's Worlds Series Editor: Judy Dunn

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Series Editor's Preface

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction: Exclusion and Inclusion in Children's Lives

Theories of Social Cognition, Social Relationships, and Exclusion

Types of Exclusion

Goals of the Book

Summary

Chapter 2: The Emergence of Morality in Childhood

Morality in Childhood

What Morality is Not

Criteria, Definitions, and Measurements of Morality

Morality Encompasses Judgment, Emotions, Individuals, and Groups

Social Precursors of Moral Judgment

Moral Judgment and Interaction in Childhood

Morality as Justice

Social Domain Model of Social and Moral Judgment

Moral Generalizability

Morality in the Context of Other Social Concepts: Multifaceted Events

Morality and Theory of Mind

Morality and Social-Cognitive Development

Summary

Chapter 3: Emergence of Social Categorization and Prejudice

Social Categorization as a Precursor of Prejudice

Explicit Biases in Young Children

Cognitive Developmental Approach to Prejudice Development

Development of Implicit Biases

Relation of Implicit Bias to Judgment and Behavior: Is it Prejudice?

Summary

Chapter 4: Group Identity and Prejudice

Is Group Identity Good or Bad?

Social Identity Theory

Social Identity Development Theory

Theory of Social Mind and the Control of Prejudice

Moral or Group Norms and the Control of Prejudice

Processes Underlying the Control of Prejudice

Developmental Subjective Group Dynamics

Morality and Group Identity

Summary

Chapter 5: What We Know about Peer Relations and Exclusion

Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Exclusion: Social Traits and Individual Differences

Intragroup and Intergroup Exclusion: Ingroup/Outgroup Identity

Social Reasoning and Exclusion

Gender Exclusion in Early Childhood: Okay or Unfair?

Comparing Gender and Racial Exclusion: Group Goals and Qualifications

Interviewing Ethnic Minority and Majority Children and Adolescents about Exclusion

Social Reasoning about Exclusion in Adolescence: Crowds, Cliques, and Networks

Social Reasoning about Sexual Prejudice

Exclusion in Interracial Encounters: Lunch Table, Birthday Parties, and Dating

Gender Exclusion in the Family Context: Children's Views about Parental Expectations

Summary

Chapter 6: Intragroup and Intergroup Exclusion: An In-depth Study

Group Dynamics: Conceptions of Groups in the Context of Exclusion

Group Dynamics: Group Identity, Group-Specific Norms, Domain-Specific Norms

Group-Specific Norms

Deviance in Social Groups

Group Identity

Implications for Group Identity in Childhood

Summary

Chapter 7: Peer Exclusion and Group Identity Around the World: The Role of Culture

Cultural Context of Exclusion

Long-Standing Intergroup Cultural Conflicts

Cultures with Intractable and Violent Conflict

Recently Immigrated Groups

Intergroup Exclusion Based on Indigenous Groups

Summary

Chapter 8: Increasing Inclusion, Reducing Prejudice, and Promoting Morality

Intergroup Contact and Reducing Prejudice

Intergroup Contact and Children

Cross-group Friendships and Prejudice

Intergroup Contact and Minority Status Children

Reducing Implicit Biases through Intergroup Contact

Reducing Prejudice through Extended Intergroup Contact

Promoting Inclusion through the Mass Media

Intergroup Contact and Promoting Moral Reasoning in Children

Multicultural Education and Social Exclusion

Factors that Reduce Childhood Bias

Summary

Chapter 9: Integration of Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity: A New Perspective on Social Exclusion

Theories about Peer Relationships

Theories about Social Exclusion

Children as Active Participants

Judgments, Beliefs, Attitudes, Attributions of Emotions, and Behavior

Implicit and Indirect Measures of Prejudice and Exclusion

An Integrative Social-Cognitive Developmental Perspective on Social Exclusion

Social Experience Factors that Promote Inclusion

Exclusion and Prejudice

Summary

References

Index

Understanding Children's Worlds

Series Editor: Judy Dunn

The study of children's development can have a profound influence on how children are brought up, cared for, and educated. Many psychologists argue that, even if our knowledge is incomplete, we have a responsibility to attempt to help those concerned with the care, education, and study of children by making what we know available to them. The central aim of this series is to encourage developmental psychologists to set out the findings and the implications of their research for others – teachers, doctors, social workers, students, and fellow researchers – whose work involves the care, education, and study of young children and their families. The information and the ideas that have grown from recent research form an important resource which should be available to them. This series provides an opportunity for psychologists to present their work in a way that is interesting, intelligible, and substantial, and to discuss what its consequences may be for those who care for, and teach, children: not to offer simple prescriptive advice to other professionals, but to make important and innovative research accessible to them.

Children Doing Mathematics

Terezinha Nunes and Peter Bryant

Children and Emotion

Paul L. Harrisd

Bullying at School

Dan Olweus

How Children Think and Learn, Second Edition

David Wood

Making Decisions about Children, Second Edition

H. Rudolph Schaffer

Children's Talk in Communities and Classrooms

Lynne Vernon-Feagans

Children and Political Violence

Ed Cairns

The Work of the Imagination

Paul Harris

Children in Changing Families

Jan Pryor and Bryan Rodgers

Young Children Learning

Barbara Tizard and Martin Hughes

Children's Friendships

Judy Dunn

How Children Develop Social Understanding

Jeremy Carpendale and Charlie Lewis

Children's Reading and Spelling: Beyond the First Steps

Terezinha Nunes and Peter Bryant

Children and Play

Peter K. Smith

Peer Groups and Children's Development

Christine Howe

This edition first published 2011

© 2011 Melanie Killen and Adam Rutland

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Killen, Melanie.

Children and social exclusion: morality, prejudice, and group identity / Melanie Killen, Adam Rutland.

p. cm. – (Understanding children's worlds; 18)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-7651-4 (hardback)

1. Social integration. 2. Children. 3. Group identity. 4. Identity (Psychology). 5. Prejudices. I. Rutland, Adam. II. Title.

HM683.K55 2011

302.4–dc22

2010047217

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDF 9781444396294; Wiley Online Library 9781444396317; ePub 9781444396300

To Rob, Sasha, and Jacob for their love and affection,

and to Marcia, David, and Sean,

for their love and support (M.K.)

To Rachel, Kate, and Jonathan for their love and

endless inspiration, and to my late father, Peter, who

sadly died during the writing of this book, and Marion,

my mother, and Neil, my brother, for their continuous

love and support (A.R.)

Series Editor's Preface

This series, Understanding Children's Worlds, is concerned with children's social worlds, and their developing understanding of those worlds. The topics of exclusion and prejudice are clearly central to their social experiences, especially to their relationships with other children. What makes some children able to recognize and challenge stereotypic or prejudiced views of others? What experiences, in contrast, reinforce prejudice and bias? How well do we understand the development of individual differences in these early aspects of morality, and what are the trajectories in bias and prejudice from early childhood to adolescence and adulthood?

What is striking about this book is that Melanie Killen and Adam Rutland have brought together a notably wide range of ideas and research findings on these questions, a range that spans developmental psychology and social psychology — it is a bold vision that integrates very different ideas and theoretical approaches. Three themes stand out. First, Killen and Rutland summarize the early emergence of morality: how children view social exclusion as right or wrong, and the growth of their understanding of both explicit prejudicial views and implicit biases. Second, they consider children's ideas on group identity and exclusion, and carefully distinguish prejudice and exclusion. They examine, for instance, how children think about excluding individuals from within their own groups, and how they evaluate exclusion of individuals from a different group (intragroup versus intergroup exclusion). Third, importantly they move on to consider what we know about exclusion in diverse cultures — rather than solely in laboratory studies.

Particularly valuable, they then consider interventions that attempt to promote positive inclusion and a sense of shared identity among children from different groups. They assess how successful programs that vary intergroup contact, media exposure, and, importantly, cross-group friendship can be. Their integration of the ideas and findings of social and developmental psychology does indeed shed light on the developmental programs which, they argue, are fundamental for progress towards a fairer society.

Judy Dunn

Preface

Exclusion and inclusion are pervasive in children's lives and continue throughout adulthood. Understanding why exclusion happens, how children think about it, and what it means for social development involves an analysis of individuals, groups, and relationships. Writing this book from our various perspectives, which included social cognition, moral development, social identity, and intergroup attitudes, we took a new view on exclusion and inclusion in children's lives, one that enabled us to reflect on its fundamental role in social development. We have described how it is that through experiencing exclusion and inclusion, children develop morality (when to include, when not to exclude, and why) and form social identity (what groups do I belong to, what group norms do I care about?).

As a result of these developmental processes, children become capable of challenging or reinforcing prejudicial attitudes and stereotypic beliefs (sometimes explicitly and often implicitly). This is because children who develop social identity without invoking moral judgments appear to justify exclusion in contexts that reflect prejudice, discrimination, and bias. Yet children who develop an understanding of group dynamics and balance these concerns with fairness and equality are well positioned to reject or challenge stereotypic expectations and prejudicial beliefs. The factors and sources of experience that contribute to these diverse trajectories and perspectives reflect the core of this book. The tension between morality and social identity is complex, which makes it an intriguing and compelling topic to write about.

We emerged from this project with a strong sense that much is at stake in understanding children's perspectives about exclusion and inclusion because of the different consequences to social exclusion and inclusion. Issues as important as social justice and fairness are invoked. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are unfortunate outcomes of exclusion decisions that are made without a balance of all of the factors that are implicated. Thus, exclusion takes many forms throughout social life and its meaning is vast and varied.

We began this book as an integrative collaboration, crossing the boundaries of developmental and social psychology to understand exclusion in the child. Over the past 10 years, researchers in the fields of developmental, social, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology have investigated ingroup bias and outgroup threat in their research designs and empirical projects; at the same time, researchers from many different subfields of social science have delved into morality and moral judgment in the child. The convergence of interest on these topics from such diverse areas is astounding and engaging. We found that the areas of intergroup attitudes and morality were often dichotomized, however, and not well integrated. Even closer to our own areas of study, we have found that developmental research has not traditionally examined morality in the context of intergroup relations, and social psychology research on social identity has not typically studied moral reasoning. Thus, one aim of this book was to take an integrative approach for describing how intergroup attitudes, morality, and social identity emerge in the child and create the conditions for exclusion and inclusion.

We would like to thank our respective colleagues and graduate students for discussions and collaborations on the topics in this book. Melanie Killen thanks her colleagues Dominic Abrams, William Arsenio, Natasha Cabrera, Robert Coplan, David Crystal, Ileana Enesco, Nathan Fox, Silvia Guerrero, Dan Hart, Charles Helwig, Stacey Horn, Peter Kahn, Sheri Levy, Tina Malti, Clark McKown, Drew Nesdale, Larry Nucci, Ken Rubin, Martin Ruck, Judi Smetana, Charles Stangor, Elliot Turiel, Cecilia Wainryb, Allan Wigfield, and Amanda Woodward for many collaborations and conversations about social cognition, social development, morality, and exclusion, as well as for many research collaborations that served as the basis for most of her research. In addition, she is grateful to William Damon and Elliot Turiel for inspiring her to study the development of morality, and for providing an intellectually engaging community in graduate school, one that has endured for several decades post-graduate, to Jonas Langer for his encouragement, to Judi Smetana for her mentorship, and to Larry Nucci for his guidance. Melanie Killen also thanks her former doctoral students for their many contributions to the research program on social and moral development, for pushing the research agenda into new and original research directions, and for becoming collaborators on many of the research projects described in this book, Alicia Ardila-Rey, Alaina Brenick, Christina Edmonds, Stacey Horn, Jennie Lee-Kim, Nancy Geyelin Margie, Heidi McGlothlin, Yoonjung Park, Christine Theimer Schuette, and Stefanie Sinno, and her current doctoral students Shelby Cooley, Alexandra Henning, Aline Hitti, Megan Clark Kelly, Kelly Lynn Mulvey, and Cameron Richardson, as well as Alexander O'Connor (at UC Berkeley), for their current participation in ongoing research avenues as well as for their lively discussions, feedback, and contributions on all phases of the research program. Thanks are extended to Joan Karr Tycko, who created the illustrations for the social exclusion studies described in chapter 6, and who provided helpful assistance on the development of the stimulus materials.

Adam Rutland thanks his colleagues Dominic Abrams, Rupert Brown, Lindsey Cameron, Marco Cinnirella, Jennifer Ferrell, Rosa Hossain, Sheri Levy, Peter McGeorge, Alan Milne, Drew Nesdale, Dennis Nigbur, Peter Noack, Joe Pelletier, and Charles Watters for numerous collaborations and lively discussions about social development, prejudice, social identity, group processes, intergroup attitudes, and social exclusion in childhood. Adam Rutland also thanks his former graduate students for all their help in creating an intellectually stimulating environment and furthering his knowledge of intergroup attitudes, social identity, biculturalism, cross-ethnic friendships among children and adolescents, Alison Benbow, Allard Feddes, Sarah FitzRoy, Philipp Jugert, and Caroline Kamu, and his current graduate students Samantha Lee and Claire Powell (also working with Dominic Abrams) for their contribution to our ongoing research program. In addition, we received helpful comments and substantive feedback on the manuscript from Dominic Abrams, Aline Hitti, Stacey Horn, Kelly Lynn Mulvey, Drew Nesdale, Larry Nucci, Yoonjung Park, Stefanie Sinno, Judith Smetana, and Elliot Turiel.

The research described in this book was supported by many external sources, including the National Science Foundation (Developmental and Learning Sciences) and the National Institutes of Health (NICHD) in the United States, to Melanie Killen, and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), British Academy, Nuffield Foundation, and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom, to Adam Rutland. We are very grateful for the support from these funding agencies. The research described in this book was also supported by internal grants from our respective universities for which we are appreciative, the University of Maryland, College Park, US, and the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. We extend our gratitude to Kelly Lynn Mulvey for assisting us with organizational and technical details. We thank Andrew McLeer, Christine Cardone, Constance Adler, and Matt Bennett at Wiley-Blackwell publishers for their editorial and technical advice. Finally, we extend our deep appreciation to Judy Dunn for her support and encouragement throughout the project and for her wisdom and inspiration about the importance of children's lives.

Chapter 1

Introduction: Exclusion and Inclusion in Children's Lives

Acquiring morality, identifying with groups, and developing autonomy provide the foundation for social development in childhood and continue throughout adulthood. Understanding these foundational aspects of development helps to explain why children exclude and include peers, and how it is related to a larger part of becoming a member of a society and culture. When is exclusion legitimate and when it is wrong? What is involved when children exclude other peers and how is this related to exclusion as it happens in the adult world?

While children begin to understand the importance of including peers in their social exchanges, excluding other children from friendships and social groups is complicated. What is complicated is that inclusion is not always desirable, even from an adult perspective, and exclusion is not always wrong. Sports teams, music clubs, and social events often require abilities and talents that are necessary to join, and social events are often arranged in such a way that some type of decision rule about exclusion is used to make it work well. In fact, there are times when it would be viewed as negative to include someone in a group when the individual does not meet the expectations for the group goals (a slow runner will be excluded from a track team). In addition to meeting the criteria for inclusion there are other factors that are considered, which include what makes the group work well. For example, an overly aggressive individual or someone who has unhealthy intentions towards others might be excluded. This type of exclusion is more complicated because it refers to psychological traits which may be inferred by behavior that belies the actual talents of the individual. Moreover, psychological traits are often attributed to individuals based on their group membership (e.g., girls are not competitive) and not their behavior, which then makes an exclusion decision wrong or unfair. Nonetheless, there are clearly times when it is legitimate to exclude others from social groups when the criteria for exclusion are viewed as reasonable to make groups work well.