Do children view punishment as rehabilitative? A new study takes a look
2021-01-19
(Press-News.org) The United States incarcerates more residents than any other country, however there is limited research that examines how people view such punishment, and whether views about punishment change with development. Previous research on this topic raises two very different possibilities: 1) children are typically more optimistic than adults, making them more likely to report that people's moral character improves following punishment, and 2) children are more likely than adults to report that others' characteristics - including moral traits - are unchangeable, making them less likely than adults to report that punishment affects moral growth. Researchers probed these contrasting possibilities further in two studies exploring children's and adults' views about the impact of punishment on perceived moral character.
This work was conducted by researchers at Columbia University. It appears in Child Development, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.
"Children in our study reported that punishment - regardless of how severe - caused positive moral change among 'mean' individuals," said James P. Dunlea, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. "Unlike children, adults expected that 'nice' individuals' positive qualities worsened following punishment."
The samples collected in each of the studies was relatively diverse in terms of children's and adults' race/ethnicity. While "White or European American" was the category most often identified in each of the studies, the samples also included "Black or African-American," "Asian or Asian-American," "Native-American or Pacific Islander," and "multi-racial" adults and children.
The first study included 94 children between the ages of six and eight years old and 94 adults between 18 and 52 years old. Children and adults in the current work were given descriptions about morally good ("nice") and morally bad ("mean") individuals who were punished for breaking the law (went to prison) or control characters who went on a business trip. Children in the punishment condition saw a series of PowerPoint animations depicting the punished individual entering and then being driven away from his home by a police car. Children in the control condition were shown animations depicting the individual entering and then being carried away from his home by an airplane. Adults in each condition read descriptions of the scenarios. Participants in both age groups were asked to rate the moral character of the individual using a five-point scale; they did so at the beginning of the incarceration/trip and after the incarceration/trip. Findings from the first study showed that children, but not adults, reported that "mean" individuals became "nicer" after one especially severe form of punishment (incarceration). Moreover, adults, unlike children, reported that "nice" individuals became less "nice" following incarceration. Experimenters interviewed children in-person; adults completed the study online.
The second study focused on 77 children (no adults) between six and eight years old. Experimenters showed children pairs of individuals on a laptop and then were asked questions about them. One individual in each pair was described as receiving a relatively severe punishment (going to jail after committing a transgression) whereas the other individual was described as receiving a relatively less severe punishment (going to time-out after committing a transgression). Experimenters specified that each individual in the pair committed the same transgression.
Experimenters asked children to rate the moral character of the punished individuals before punishment and after punishment. Children also rated the perceived severity of each punishment. Despite acknowledging that incarceration is a more severe type of punishment than time-out, children reported that "mean" individuals became "nicer" regardless of punishment type; a difference in the perceived magnitude of change did not emerge across punishment types.
"These findings suggest that with age, people in the United States become increasingly pessimistic about the impact of punishment on moral character," said Larisa Heiphetz, co-author, and assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. "Our work suggests that these adults may believe that redemption is not for everyone or at the very least, that a specific form of severe punishment (incarceration) is not the way for it to be achieved."
The authors acknowledge that their current research did not focus on why children and adults reported different views of the impact of severe punishment on moral character. They suggest that future research should consider why adults view punishment severity as an obstruction to moral improvement.
INFORMATION:
This research was supported by the John Templeton Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation.
Summarized from Child Development, Children's and Adults' Views of Punishment as a Path to Redemption by Dunlea, J.P. and Heiphetz, L. (Columbia University). Copyright 2021 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-01-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have been faced with challenging circumstances to balance work, household, care of children and support of distance learning for school-age children without help from their regular support systems such as schools, childcare, and often other family members as well. A new longitudinal study in Germany examined day-to-day parenting behavior during the restrictions and closures caused by the pandemic from the end of March until the end of April 2020. Research showed that autonomy-supportive parenting (offering meaningful choices when possible) contributed to positive well-being for both children and parents.
The findings were published in a Child Development article ...
2021-01-19
AUGUSTA, Ga. (Jan. 19, 2021) - A look at RNA tells us what our genes are telling our cells to do, and scientists say looking directly at the RNA of brain tumor cells appears to provide objective, efficient evidence to better classify a tumor and the most effective treatments.
Gliomas are the most common brain tumor type in adults, they have a wide range of possible outcomes and three subtypes, from the generally more treatable astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas to the typically more lethal glioblastomas.
Medical College of Georgia scientists report in the journal Scientific Reports that their method, which produces what is ...
2021-01-19
Philadelphia, January 19, 2021 - Early life experiences can have an outsized effect on brain development and neurobiological health. New research is showing that those effects can be passed down to subsequent generations, reporting that the infant children of mothers who had experienced childhood emotional neglect displayed altered brain circuitry involved in fear responses and anxiety.
The study appears in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier.
"These results show that our brain development is not only shaped by what happens in our own life, ...
2021-01-19
LA JOLLA, CALIF. - Jan 20, 2020 - Scientists have identified two drugs that are potent against acute myeloid leukemia (AML) when combined, but only weakly effective when used alone. The researchers were able to significantly enhance cancer cell death by jointly administering the drugs that are only partially effective when used as single-agent therapies. The study, a collaboration between Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and the University of Glasgow, was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
"Our study shows that two types of drugs, MDM2 inhibitors and BET inhibitors, work synergistically to promote significant anti-leukemia activity," says Peter Adams, Ph.D., a professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys and senior author of the study. "The results ...
2021-01-19
New research has demonstrated that a simple, cheap test can help identify who is at risk of developing colorectal cancer, aiding early diagnosis and potentially saving lives.
Led by the University of Exeter, and supported by the Peninsula and the Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon, and Gloucestershire Cancer Alliances, and by the Cancer Research UK CanTest Collaborative, a new study published today in the British Journal of Cancer examined data from nearly 4,000 patients aged 50 and over. The study involved all healthcare providers in the South West of England taking a new approach. ...
2021-01-19
Successive governments' approach to obesity policies has destined them to fail, say researchers.
Government obesity policies in England over the past three decades have largely failed because of problems with implementation, lack of learning from past successes or failures, and a reliance on trying to persuade individuals to change their behaviour rather than tackling unhealthy environments. This is the conclusion of new research by a team at the University of Cambridge funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research.
The researchers say their findings may help to explain why, after nearly thirty years of government obesity policies, obesity prevalence in England has not fallen and substantial inequalities persist. According to a report by NHS Digital in May 2020, ...
2021-01-19
Young Seychelles warblers fare better if their elderly parents have help raising them, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Groningen.
Seychelles warblers, a cooperatively breeding species of songbird that lives in small family groups, share the care of young between parents and helpers. This collaboration can compensate for a decline in the ability of elderly parents to provide sufficient care, the researchers found. It may also promote more social behaviour in family groups with older parents.
The findings help explain why social species, such as humans, often do better if they live in groups and cooperate to raise offspring.
The ...
2021-01-19
Fried-food intake is linked to a heightened risk of major heart disease and stroke, finds a pooled analysis of the available research data, published online in the journal Heart.
And the risk rises with each additional 114 g weekly serving, the analysis indicates.
It's clear that the Western diet doesn't promote good cardiovascular health, but it's not clear exactly what contribution fried food might make to the risks of serious heart disease and stroke, say the researchers.
To shed some light on this, they trawled research databases, looking for relevant studies published up to April 2020, and found 19.
They pooled the data from 17, involving 562,445 participants ...
2021-01-19
We should err on the side of caution and stop the global roll out of 5G (fifth generation) telecoms networks until we are certain this technology is completely safe, urges an expert in an opinion piece published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
There are no health concerns about 5G and COVID-19, despite what conspiracy theorists have suggested.
But the transmitter density required for 5G means that more people will be exposed to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs), and at levels that emerging evidence suggests, are potentially harmful to health, argues Professor John William Frank, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh.
The ...
2021-01-19
Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.
1. Primary care physicians account for a minority of spending on low-value care
Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6257
URL goes live ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Do children view punishment as rehabilitative? A new study takes a look
