Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND CORE CONCEPTS
- PART II THE ROOTS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED IN CONTRAST TO PASSIVITY
- PART III HOW CHILDREN BECOME CARING AND HELPFUL RATHER THAN HOSTILE AND AGGRESSIVE
- 10 The Origins of Caring, Helping, and Nonaggression: Parental Socialization, the Family System, and Cultural Influence
- 11 Natural Socialization: The Role of Experience or Learning by Doing
- 12 The Origins of Hostility and Aggression
- 13 Cultural–Societal Roots of Violence: Youth Violence
- 14 Bystanders and Bullying
- 15 Students' Experience of Bullying and Other Aspects of Their Lives in Middle School in Belchertown: Report Summary
- 16 Passive and Active Bystandership across Grades in Response to Students Bullying Other Students
- 17 Self-Esteem and Aggression
- 18 Father–Daughter Incest
- 19 Reducing Boys' Aggression: Learning to Fulfill Basic Needs Constructively
- 20 Creating Caring Schools: Design and Content of a Program to Develop Caring, Helping, Positive Self-Esteem, and Nonviolence
- PART IV THE ORIGINS OF GENOCIDE, MASS KILLING, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE
- PART V THE AFTERMATH OF MASS VIOLENCE: TRAUMA, HEALING, PREVENTION, AND RECONCILIATION
- PART VI CREATING CARING, MORALLY INCLUSIVE, PEACEFUL SOCIETIES
- Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?
- Index
- References
10 - The Origins of Caring, Helping, and Nonaggression: Parental Socialization, the Family System, and Cultural Influence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND CORE CONCEPTS
- PART II THE ROOTS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED IN CONTRAST TO PASSIVITY
- PART III HOW CHILDREN BECOME CARING AND HELPFUL RATHER THAN HOSTILE AND AGGRESSIVE
- 10 The Origins of Caring, Helping, and Nonaggression: Parental Socialization, the Family System, and Cultural Influence
- 11 Natural Socialization: The Role of Experience or Learning by Doing
- 12 The Origins of Hostility and Aggression
- 13 Cultural–Societal Roots of Violence: Youth Violence
- 14 Bystanders and Bullying
- 15 Students' Experience of Bullying and Other Aspects of Their Lives in Middle School in Belchertown: Report Summary
- 16 Passive and Active Bystandership across Grades in Response to Students Bullying Other Students
- 17 Self-Esteem and Aggression
- 18 Father–Daughter Incest
- 19 Reducing Boys' Aggression: Learning to Fulfill Basic Needs Constructively
- 20 Creating Caring Schools: Design and Content of a Program to Develop Caring, Helping, Positive Self-Esteem, and Nonviolence
- PART IV THE ORIGINS OF GENOCIDE, MASS KILLING, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE
- PART V THE AFTERMATH OF MASS VIOLENCE: TRAUMA, HEALING, PREVENTION, AND RECONCILIATION
- PART VI CREATING CARING, MORALLY INCLUSIVE, PEACEFUL SOCIETIES
- Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?
- Index
- References
Summary
What kind of socialization is required to raise caring, cooperative, helpful persons? What kinds of experiences are necessary for the development of characteristics that help people deal with crises by turning toward rather than against others, by inclusion rather than exclusion? What will help them resist movements, ideologies, and group influences that lead to confrontation and violence? How can they become self-assertive, able to stand up for their own rights and pursue their own goals, but also consider the rights, needs, and goals of others? What kind of socialization is required to develop people who are willing to make sacrifices to help others?
The way children are socialized is a basic manifestation of the culture and its institutions. Through socialization the culture recreates itself or creates itself anew. In order to socialize children in ways that lead to caring and nonaggression, a society (and its individual members) must value these characteristics. Currently, this is the case to a limited degree only in most countries; as compared with wealth, personal success, or patriotism, the relative value of caring about and helping others tends to be low. Therefore, changes in the socialization of children and in the values and institutions of society must progress simultaneously, supporting and reinforcing each other.
Sociobiologists (Trivers 1971; Wilson 1975) have proposed that altruism, the willingness to sacrifice in order to benefit others, is part of the human genetic makeup.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychology of Good and EvilWhy Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others, pp. 159 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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