Subbotsky E.V., Chesnokova O.B. Social intelligence and child’s moral development

Subbotsky E.V., Chesnokova O.B. Social intelligence and child’s moral development // Preschool Education Today. 2011, Issue 5 - p. 88-92.

This work is licensed under a Сreative Commons Atribiution - NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

2011, 5

Olga B. Chesnokova
PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor of Department of Developmental Psychology of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia)

Eugene V. Subbotsky
Dr. Sci. (Psychol.), Reader (emeritus) in Developmental Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom, Moscow, Russian Federation; London, United Kingdom

Abstract

The problems of social intelligence in the form of deception and manipulation in adults and children are described. The article shows that application of social intelligence in the form of deception is not considered immoral among grownups, if such application is aimed at other people’s wellbeing or against evil (external aspect). The authors describe three scenarios of children’s inner motivation development. The first, and the simplest one, is interiorization of external control. It assumes that grownups discover deception and introduce disciplinary measures. This restores compliant conduct, however shifting a child’s autonomous moral choice to the normative area of socially controlled behaviour. The second possible scenario – is “cognitive identification”. As the number of cases suitable for the child reaching his goals by deception grows, and the contradiction between the “private” and “public” self-image child tried to reduce this conflict (cognitive dissonance). To do it child identifies himself with his “public” self-image in the same way that children identify with the role of a boy or girl. The third scenario is the “emotional identification”: children whose parents are usually loving, understanding the needs of the child exhibit mature forms of moral and social behavior. Conversely, parents who pay little attention to children, who are emotionally cool and focus on punishment in the process of moral education, usually have children who are low on the scale of socio-moral maturity. In children, the use of social intelligence for deception of grownups constitutes the necessary predecessor of autonomous moral choice and subsequent development of inner moral motivation (inner aspect).