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AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF
MORAL RESPONSES OF 12 YEAR OLD BOYS AND
MORAL RESPONSES OF THEIR FATHERS AND

MOTHERS

Thai: for the Dogma of M. A.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
.10 Anne H. Lifshin
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ABSTRACT

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF
MORAL RESPONSES OF 12 YEAR OLD BOYS
AND MORAL RESPONSES OF THEIR
FATHERS AND MOTHERS

by Jo Anne H. Lifshin

Investigations of children's moral responses
explicitly or implicitly recognize the acquisition of
moral standards through incorporation of parents' stand-
ards. This modeling is assumed to assure continuation of
the parent's love and may be directly reinforced. This
research was designed to investigate the relationship be-
tween moral responses of twelve year old boys and their
parents' moral responses. The investigation focused on
relationships between the boys' responses and their mothers'
and fathers' reports of their own responses at age twelve,
the average of these responses, perceptions of the child's
responses by the father and mother, and the average of
these perceptions. In addition to a total guilt score
and scores for three areas of transgression, the following
forms of moral responses were assessed: direct acknow-
ledgment, indirect manifestations, defense mechanisms,
and externalization.

It was hypothesized that significant relationships

would be found between boys' moral response scores and

Jo Anne H. Lifshin

were more consistently interrelated than children's
or mothers' scores.

Patterns of significant relationships were found for
forms of moral response. Fathers' indirect manifestations
were generally related to children's scores, and mothers'
defense mechanisms were highly related to children's
responses. Resistance to temptation data showed a
significant relationship only between children's responses
and mothers' perceptions of children's responses to
disobedience. Generally greater similarity was found
between children's responses and parents' reports of
their own responses at 12 than between children's responses
and parents' perceptions of their responses.

The anaclitic model of identification, as postulated
by social learning theory, was more directly supported by
the data than was defensive identification, particularly
in reference to death wishes and disobedience. It was
concluded that the mother may provide a more nurturant
object, whose continued love is dependent on conformity
to her standard, and the child may respond more to this
reinforcement than to motivation for global incorporation
of the father's standards. The research findings
suggested that the father may present a less situation-
ally dependent model for moral standards than the mother
and may be more influential in culturally determined
situations. It was also suggested that the child may model

his superego on the parent's superego as indicated by

Jo Anne H. Lifshin

their parents' corresponding scores. Greater similarity
was predicted between boys' responses and fathers' re—
sponses than between boys' responses and mothers' re—
sponses.

Twenty-six 12 year old, seventh grade boys from
Traverse City Junior High School and their fathers and
mothers participated in the research. Story completion
items from Allinsmith (2), concerning death wishes,
theft and disobedience, with related forced choice
questions derived from possible responses to stories,
were administered to the boys at school. The same items
were responded to by parents for self at twelve years
and perceptions of child's responses. Pearson product
moment correlation coefficients and phi coefficients,
where appropriate, were computed for guilt and resistance
to temptation data.

Findings showed limited support for hypotheses of
significant relationships between children's and parents'
responses for moral areas and forms of moral response.

No relationship was found between total guilt of boys and
total guilt scores of parents.

Major findings included greater mother—child
similarity than father—child similarity; this finding
was non-supportive of the hypothesized relationship, which
was derived from-the psychoanalytic theory of identifica-
tion. Greater mother-child similarity appeared for death

wishes-and disobedience than for theft. Fathers' scores

Jo Anne H. Lifshin

greater similarity between parents' and children's in-
directly manifested responses than between their di-
rectly acknowledged responses.

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AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF
MORAL RESPONSES OF 12 YEAR OLD BOYS
AND MORAL RESPONSES OF THEIR

FATHERS AND MOTHERS

By

Jo Anne H. Lifshin

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTERS OF ARTS

Department of Psychology

1966

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The writer expresses her appreciation to Dr. Lucy
R. Ferguson, who in her direction of the research,
provided invaluable suggestions, encouragement and
constructive criticism. Appreciation is also accorded to
Dr. William Stellwagen for statistical advice and reading
of the thesis, and to Dr. John Hurley for assistance
and reading of the thesis. The writer wishes to
acknowledge the assistance of Mrs. Carole Dilling, Mrs.
Judy VanEvra and Mr. Harold Sommerschield in development
of the instrument. Recognition is also given to other
members of the staff and graduate students of the
Department of Psychology for helpful discussion of the
thesis. The Michigan State University Department of
Psychology is thanked for making computer time available
for analysis of data.

To Mr. Keith Evans, and Mr. Gene Bourdo, Counsellors,
and Mr. Walter Thompson, Principal, of the Traverse City
Junior High School, the writer expresses appreciation for
cooperation and assistance in administration of the
instrument. Special appreciation is extended to the
children and parents who participated in the research and
to the pretest subjects who gave freely of their time.

Sincere appreciation is given to the writer's husband,
Arthur Lifshin, for advice, assistance and encouragement.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF APPENDICES

Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Theoretical Considerations

Review of Relevant Research:
Identification . .

Review of Relevant Research: Moral
Responses.

Sex Differences in Moral Responses

Parental Antecedents of Moral
Responses.

Influences of Maturation and Peer
Factors on Moral Development .

Global Versus Specific Acquisition
of Moral Standards.

Relationship Between Resistance to
Temptation and Guilt

Cultural Influences

A Methodological Note and Conclusion.

III. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESES
Hypotheses
IV. METHODS

Sampling
Instrument

iii

Page

ii

vii

10
20
2O
23
31
37
38
A6
50
51
52

52
53

Chapter Page

Pretesting . . . . . . . . . 55
Collection of Data . . . . . . . 55
Analysis of Data . . . . . . . . 56
V. RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Internal Consistency. . . . . . . 58
Resistance to Temptation . . . . 68
Comparison of Child Guilt Versus
Parent Guilt Moral Areas . . . . 71
Forms of Moral Response. . . . . 75
Moral Areas Versus Forms of Moral
Responses . . . . . 79
Mother Versus Father Comparisons. . . 81
VI. DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . 86
General Considerations . . . 86
Child Similarity to Mother as Opposed
to Similarity to Father. . . . 88
Identification with the Parent's
Superego. . . . 90
Differential Roles of Parents. in.
Transmission of Standards . . . . 92
Peer Factors . . . . . . . . . 93
Bias of Sample. . .- . . . . 9“
Comments on the Instrument. . . . . 95
Attempts at Integration. . . . . . 96
Further Considerations . . . . . . 97
VII. SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
BIBLIOGRAPHY. . . . . . .- . . . . . . 108
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. (A through G) Internal Consistency of
Guilt Scores . . . . . . . 59-65

2. Internal Consistency of Resistence to
Temptation Versus Guilt for Theft and
Disobedience . . . . . . . . . . 66

3. Comparison of Child's Resistance to
Temptation Versus Parents' Resistance to
Temptation. . . . . . . . . . . 69

A. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores and
Parents' Resistance to Temptation . . . 7O

5. Comparison of Child's Resistance to
Temptation and Parents' Guilt Scores . . 72

6. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for
Moral Areas and Parents' Guilt Scores
at Twelve for Moral Areas. . . . . . 73

7. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for
Moral Areas and Parents' Predictions of
Child's Guilt Scores for Moral Areas . . 7A

8. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for
Forms of Moral Response and Parents'
Guilt Scores at Twelve for Forms of
Moral Response . . . . . . . . . 76

9. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for
Forms of Moral Response and Parents'
Predictions of Child's Guilt Scores for
Forms of Moral Response . . . . . . 78

10. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for
Moral Areas and Parents' Guilt Scores
for Forms of Moral Response . . . . . 8O

11. Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for
Forms of Moral Response and Parents'
Guilt Scores for Moral Areas. . . . . 82

Table Page

12. (A and B) Comparison of Mother's Guilt
Scores Versus Father's Guilt Scores . . 83-8A

vi

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page
A. Description of Sample . . . . . . . . 117
B. Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . 120

vii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The psychoanalytic model of superego develOpment
posits an intimate relationship between standards and
prohibitions of parents and standards represented in the
child's internalized superego. Global incorporation of
the same sex parent's standards is purported to arise
from motivation stemming from the Oedipus situation (27).
Social learning theory brings together psychoanalytic
concepts, learning principles and social science postulates
to describe the development of self-control in a manner
conducive to the formulation of testable hypotheses (23).
Theoretical statements regarding observational learning
and child-rearing antecedents which facilitate the
development of moral standards provide for application
of learning theory principles to the process, retaining
the general emphasis of psychoanalysis with (23) or
without (10) utilization of concepts such as the superego.
Recent investigations (39) emphasize the importance of
developmental changes in the acquisition of moral
responses. Child—rearing antecedents, responses to
temptation situations and various contingencies of
reaction to transgression have been the predominant

emphases of recent investigations of moral responses.

1

This research is designed to investigate the
relationship of moral reSponses of twelve year old boys
and their fathers and mothers as manifested in story
completion items and related objective questions
eliciting responses to situations involving death
wishes, theft and disobedience. It is proposed that a
significant relationship exists between children's
moral responses.in three moral areas and the moral
responses of their parents at twelve in these areas,
and that the relationship is higher for the same moral
area than between areas. It is also proposed that a
significant relationship exists between children's forms
of moral response, defined as resistance to temptation,
direct acknowledgement, indirect manifestations,
defensive distortion, and externalization, and parents'
forms of moral response, and that the relationship is
higher for the same form of moral response than between
forms of moral response. These predictions are also
made for the comparison of children's moral responses
and parents' perceptions of children's responses. Based
upon the psychoanalytic theory of superego development,
it is proposed that the moral responses to be investigated
will show greater father—child similarity than mother—

child similarity.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Theoretical Considerations

 

The present investigation concerns a comparison of
moral responses of twelve year old boys and their parents.
Differing theoretical explanations of the acquisition of
internalized standards postulate variations in the rela-
tive influence on this process of psychodynamic factors,
maturation, cultural expectations, and family interaction.
These theoretical differences provide differing predictions
for the relative similarity of boys' responses to those of
their mothers and fathers and for consistency of responses
across moral areas. The psychoanalytic and social learn-
ing theories emphasize early incorporation or acquisition
through reinforcement and propose that these standards,
once acquired, remain operative. Psychoanalytic theory
emphasizes anaclitic identification as important in
early development of moral standards and as continuing
to influence the superego of the girl but places primary
emphasis on identification with the aggressor as an
explanation of global incorporation of the same sex
parent's standards (27, 35, 39). The importance of
reinforcement and the relevance of the situation

appear in social learning theory (10). Developmental

theory proposes that changes in moral Judgment occur as a
function of the development of cognitive processes with age
and would predict differences in responses to transgression
situations as-the child achieves greater cognitive

maturity (39).

In the psychoanalytic theory the early stages of
the superego consist of introjection of the parent's
prohibitions (27). These forerunners of the superego
threaten the child with punishment but are weak and may
be circumvented easily. The prohibitions do not yet
possess a unified organized character. Object choice
develops initially, according to psychoanalytic theory,
when the libido attaches to a person, probably to the
Opposite sex parent. Libidinal_wishes toward the Opposite
sex parent are accompanied by frustration and hostility
toward the same sex parent. The actual introjection of
parental values into the superego develops, following the
resolution of the Oedipal situation, by incorporation of
the values of the model. Fenichel (27) notes that the
superego serves as a protective source as well as a
punitive source.

The psychoanalytic approach thus prOposes a global
incorporation of parental standards; and by implication,
adOption of the standards of the parent would be expected
to be unified across the moral areas assessed in this
research. Bronfenbrenner (16) found this global or

gestalt concept neglected in learning theories. Theorists

concerned with secondary reinforcement (51) and observa-
tional learning (10) in the development of self—control
emphasize aspects of the child's interaction with the
environment which facilitate acquisition of responses
like those of the identification model. These theorists
provide for the possibility of situational differences in
similarity of responses. Prominence is given to
observable phenomena and explanations of phenomena based.
on learning principles rather than hypothesized constructs
of personality. Bandura and Walters (10) consider
concepts such as the "superego" superfluous in the light
of laboratory studies in which an animal may be trained
to inhibit behavior the experimenter arbitrarily selects
as deviant. A further difference arises in the social
learning theorists' prOposition that identification is
not the sole means of acquisition of self-control.
Bandura and his associates (7, 8, 9, 10) find the
develOpment of self-control describable in terms of
imitation of models, direct reinforcement and presentation
of prosocial alternatives. Investigation of differential
patterns of reinforcement and modeling cues provide an
adequate framework for explanation of maintenance of
external and internal sanctions, according to Bandura
and Walters (10). Within the social learning framework,

similarity of children's responses to those of either

parent may be explained as acquisition through reinforce-
ment and imitation, and the similarity need not be
global in nature.

Anaclitic identification is considered to provide
greater explanatory potential than identification with
the aggressor by social learning theorists. In general
(59), the mother, who is assumed to be the preliminary
identification object for both sexes, gradually withdraws
herself and the secondary rewards to which the child is
accustomed and the child begins to imitate the mother. ,
Sears (58) finds a nurturant interaction between the
caretaking adult and the child necessary for identification.
Bronfenbrenner (16) suggests that anaclitic identification
may lead to emulation of standards while identification
with the aggressor leads to adOption of parental
motives or acts. Kohlberg (39) reports greater support
for the importance of anaclitic identification as the more
basic in development of standards than identification with
the aggressor, particularly for girls. The implication of
the psychoanalytic theory of identification is that the
twelve year old boy would be expected to have identified
with the father through identification with the aggressor,
excluding complicating factors. The social learning
theorists would suggest that factors concerning Character-
istics of the model and reinforcement influence identifica-

tion, and the controller of resources rather than the

competitor for resources may be the dominant identification
model. Social learning theory provides for the possibility
that the mother may exert greater influence on the boy's
internal standards than the father, depending on reinforce—
ment contingencies and the family interaction.l

Differences appear within learning theory explanations
of identification in regard to the importance of direct
reinforcement. Mowrer (51) postulates two kinds of
identification, deveIOpmental and defensive. His
develOpmental identification is considered similar to
anaclitic identification and includes much that is called
imitation. The observer, according to Mowrer, must be
directly or vicariously rewarded by sensory consequences
to the self of the model's instrumental response. Dollard
and Miller (23) emphasize habit generalization as a basis
for deveIOpment of "conscience.” The importance of a
motivated subject and positive reinforcement for matching
correct responses through trial and error in the
identification process are stressed (A8). Certain
conditions of parental punishment create anxiety which is
carried into future situations and inhibits deviation,
regardless of the current situational punishments and
rewards. Bandura (7, 10) proposes that the child may learn
to inhibit, to aggress or to punisn himself through
observational learning without direct mediation of

instrumental learning. The child's responses, therefore,

need not be directly reinforced in the temptation situation
for learned reSponses to occur, providing the response

has been rewarded previously or learned through observation.
This would suggest that the responses which the child
manifests in transgression situations may not correspond
directly to the parent's expectations or awareness of those
of the child's responses which he reinforces. Psychoanalytic
theory, utilizing subconscious manifestations, would concur
that responses that the child incorporates from the parent
may be outside the parent's conscious awareness. The
parents' predictions of children's responses might be
independent of the children's actual responses.

The issue of identification with the controller or
consumer of resources appears in consideration of
identification with the same sex or opposite sex parent.
Psychoanalytic theory predicts that the consumer of rewards
is the identification object following resolution of the
Oedipus situation. Most social learning theory discussions
emphasize the controller of resources or a combination.
Variations from learning theory include Whiting's (69)
status envy theory which postulates that the child
substitutes self—love when love of another is withheld.

The child imitates evaluative behavior of consumer
adults as in defensive identification. Power theory
(16, A5, 52) stresses the use of role playing in fantasy

to gain reward. Threat develOps avoidance behavior, and

decreases attractiveness; reward increases attractiveness
and the child gains secondary rewards through association
with reward. Parson's role theory (16) suggests that the
child identifies with the reciprocal role relation
functional for the child at a particular time rather than
with the parent as a total person. The power theories
and role theory emphasize identification with the
controller of resources.

Leavitt (40) provides a framework for inclusion of
conditioning and psychodynamic factors in the development
of the superego. According to Leavitt, anxieties due to the
repressed constitute the earliest manifestations of
unconscious components of the superego. Conditioned
fears early in life result in subsequent anxiety reactions
and increased vigilance; feelings of unworthiness and
inferiority may be repressed, but only shame remains
conscious.

Deve10pmental theory addresses its investigations to
changes in moral judgment with increasing age. Developmental
theory would predict that twelve year old boys would have
attained reciprocal or "reversible" thought and would
evaluate moral situations in a manner more similar to
adults than to young children. This approach also accords
importance to the influence of interaction with peers in the
develOpment of moral judgment. Maturational changes in
moral learning have been investigated by increasing numbers

of psychologists but the approach is based primarily on

10

the theory and observations of Piaget. Piaget, according
to Kohlberg (39) specifies a changing concept of morality
consequent with increasing age and cognitive development.
Twelve year old boys would be expected to have passed
the stage at which moral judgment is dependent solely
on the possiblity of punishment by an adult. The
egocentrism of the child and confusion of subjective
phenomena with objective things leads to a view of moral
rules as fixed external things.

The child later moves toward mutual respect, a
sense of justice as reciprocity between individuals (39).
Peer group interaction is extremely important in the
development of moral judgment; interaction with the peer
group and the logical capacity for nonegocentric,
reciprocal or "reversible" thought provide the basis for

deveIOpment through chronological age of the child.

Review of Relevant Research: Identification

 

Several investigators of psychological phenomena have
focused recently upon the similarity of children's
responses to those of parents and other adults in observed
laboratory situations and through various objective and
projective measures. A broad range of specific phenomena
have been selected for assessment of identification.
Although little empirical research has focused on
similarity of moral responses, several studies are relevant
to this research in terms of acquisition of identification

and characteristics of identification in early adolescence.

ll

Brodbeck (15) investigated the similarity of children's
moral values to those of their parents through administration
of a Parent Description Test and a Values Test. Ten to
fourteen year old subjects made positive or negative moral
evaluations about items for themselves and to describe their
parents. Brodbeck found a reversal in relative influence
of parents for boys as they progress into adolescence, which
was interpreted as partly due to anxiety over separation
between the mother and the adolescent boy. Mothers seemed
to have equal influence on boys and girls; Brodbeck did not
obtain consistent findings that mothers influence standards
of conduct of girls more than boys. It was concluded that
the major way in which conscience is sex typed is through
greater influence of the father on boys' moral views than
on girls' moral views. The absolute amount of identifica—
tion with the father, defined as conscience learning as
influenced by the father, is sex typed. This study
partially confirmed the notion of the superego and
suggested that some factor comes to the fore in adolescence
for continued parental influence through adolescence.

The current investigation was limited to boys in
View of research findings which indicate relevant
differences in identification and moral development for
boys and girls. Theoretically anticipated differences in
the acquisition of identification by boys and girls find

support in Brodbeck's study and in other research. Sears,

l2

Rau and Alpert (59) found support for a constellation of
behavior in girls representing a product of a process such
as anaclitic identification. High parental demands and
the use of models and labels were found relevant to the
process and supported the developmental aspect of the
theory. No support was obtained for the influence of
warmth and nurturance. Fairly strong evidence was found
that love-oriented discipline was negatively related to
the constellation. This evidence was not supported for
boys, suggesting identifiable differences in the
identification process for boys and girls.

Boys were found to make more sex apprOpriate choices
than girls on a toy preference test, especially in later
years (20) when kindergarten to fourth grade subjects were
tested. An orderly increase in the number of sex appropriate
choices was found for both sexes from kindergarten through
third grade with fourth graders making fewer appropriate
choices than third graders, suggesting developmental
changes consistent with Brodbeck's findings. Emmerich (25)
found that children tended to identify more with the same
sex parent in doll play, but this finding was significant
only for boys. Sex typing also was found significant for
boys, but both sexes saw the mother as more nurturant and
less controlling than the father. Mussen and Distler (52)
report that highly identified boys perceive fathers as
more highly rewarding and punitive in kindergarten,but as

adolescence (37) highly identified boys perceive fathers

13

as non-punitive and non-restrictive. Thus, perceptions of
the parent change, which may correspond to differences in
relative strength of father identification as reported by
Brodbeck and DeLucia. The implication of the previously
cited research is that the research sample, gained from

a relatively heterogeneous, non—clinic pOpulation, would
be expected to be more highly identified with the father
than with the mother, especially in areas which are
culturally sex typed, although there is some indication
that cross- -sex identification may increase in early
adolescence.

Cultural expectations appear to be highly relevant
to the identification process, and research findings
indicate that cross-sex identification yields greater
penalties for boys than for girls (36). Differential
identification may show that girls identify with
characteristics of the mother which differentiate her
from the girl as an adult, and the boy may identify on
the basis of apprOpriate sex typing (25). Lynn (43)
found research findings generally in agreement with this
hypothesis.

Differential reactions of boys and girls were found
under conditions of normal tension, social stress and
survival (14). Boys are expected to be more active,
decisive and calm; girls can be less decisive and more

dependent.

1U

Kagan (36) stressed the pervasive influence of sex_role
identity and the importance of congruence of one's perceived*
identification and the cultural standard. The importance
of this phenomenon is reflected in considerable investigation
of the relationship of identification and various measures
of adjustment. It is not the intent of this research to
assess the adjustment of the subjects. They were selected
from a non-clinic population, and variations would be
expected to correspond to the distribution within a normal
population. Significant differences have been found
between normal and disturbed subjects in strength of
identification and characteristics of interaction with
the identification model. Beitner (12) found generally
poor identification with both parents among paranoid
schiZOphrenics and anxiety neurotics. Expected
confusion in sex role identification was found among
anxiety neurotics but not paranoid schizophrenics.

High father identification was found by Heilbrun
(32, 33, 3A) to be related to high adjustment for
males, but high mother identification was related to
maladjustment for females. Cross-sex similarity is more
disruptive for males. Stronger mother identification
existed for oldest girls and higher identification was
found among only children. The more boys were identified
with fathers in Lockwood and Guerney's (A2) study, the
better their total, emotional and home adjustment, but

the difference was not significant for females.

15

Among conditions which correspond to differences in
identification, ordinal position effects have been found
to be reflected in greater anxiety in first borns at age
ten with inapprOpriate sex role characteristics, and at
twenty for males with high M.M.P.I. femininity scores when
only two child families were investigated (65). High
father identified upper class subjects showed higher
dominance scores than high father identified lower class
subjects (13).

A substantial body of research shows the family
interaction and particularly parental agreement to be
important in the identification process. Differences
in the relative amount of similarity of children's and
parents' responses could be related to variation in
parental agreement. Carlson (19) found data which
contradicted the supposition that high parent—child
congruence contributes to the child's self-concept and
social adjustment. The type of identification object,
however, was related to adjustment; children identified
with a supporting parent were more self-accepting, less
dependent on current social relationships and more
accepted by peers. This finding is consistent with
findings of parental discipline studies.

Underachievers tend to have lower identification than
achievers (60). Self-perception of underachieving males
also differed from mothers' self-perceptions, and parents

of achievers agreed more than parents of underachievers.

16

Smith (62) found identification related to self—esteem.

He suggested a high relationship of acquiescence to
conformity and identification to be an artifact of data.
Boys low in manifest anxiety (6A) were satisfied with
selves, met perceptions of mothers' ideals for them and
perceived themselves as the kind of person their mothers
wanted them to be. This research investigated only
mothers' perceptions although several findings indicate
that both parents play an integral role in the identifica—
tion process.

Among the conditions which influence identification,
father absence (6, AA, 57) appears to affect masculine
identification in boys detrimentally. Boys from two
parent families were chosen for the sample to avoid
confounding of results from this effect. Lynn and Sawrey
(AA) found that more father—absent boys showed immaturity,
strong strivings toward father identification, being
insecure in identification, and poorer peer adjustment.
Girls were more dependent on mothers. Bach (6) found
father—fantasies of father-absent boys more similar to
those of girls than fantasies of father—present boys.
Sears (57) found some evidence that children identify
with the adult who gives gratification and a trend toward
passive homosexuality among boys reared among women. He

found some contradictory evidence which appears related

17

to Bach's (6) finding that father—typing by the mother
may be a significant influence on the boy's masculine
identification.

Identification phenomena have stimulated laboratory
studies utilizing live and vicarious modeling. Bandura
and his associates (7, 8, 9, 10) have identified
variables which contribute to acquisition of responses
through modeling. The results of these studies would
indicate that responses can be acquired which are
similar to adults other than the parent and that other
factors than motivation arising out of the Oedipus
complex contribute to acquisition of responses. These
findings suggest that variations may arise in similarity
of responses of boys and their parents in differing moral
areas and forms of guilt response. Differences in the
original learning situations would be expected to
contribute to resultant variations in self—control at
adolescence, as for example between theft and disobedience.

Live and symbolic models are reported by Bandura
and his associates (7, 8, 9, 10) to be effective
influences on the acquisition of novel behaviors (modeling
effect), to have an eliciting effect and an inhibitory
effect (10). Preschool children (8) imitated the controller
of resources more than a consumer model, regardless of the
sex of the child. In this case the implication would arise

that the child need not imitate the same sex parent

l8

exclusively. Secondary reinforcement seemed the best
explanatory principle since the controller of resources
was imitated, non-supportive of status envy theory, and
behavior was an amalgam of both models, not supportive
of role thoery. Children exposed to an aggressive model
(9) reproduced much aggression and inhibition resembling
the model. Junior high school children (17) accepted
preferences for a novel subject, deep sea diving, more
often when told a speaker's background was similar to
theirs.

Weinstein and Deutschberger (67) found that when
confronted with negative and attacking responses, subjects
identified another with their own goals. They evaluate
the other as superior at the task at hand and place
responsibility on his shoulders.

Identification is more likely to occur with an
object of high familiarity and differential empathy (38)
as measured by the child's response to his parent and a
stranger of the same sex in a perceptual recognition task.

The effects of modeling can occur vicariously,
supporting the theoretical statment that observational
learning can occur without direct reinforcement of
instrumental acts. Vicarious aggressive activity (28)
resulted in reduction of subsequent behavior if subjects
were emotionally aroused at the time they engaged in the
activity. Self-esteem differential was found in

subjects' residual hostility (54). Direct and vicarious

19

communication with an aggressor reduced hostility for low
self-esteem subjects but high self-esteem subjects did not
seem to be instigated to aggression.

Maccoby (A5) emphasizes early childhood learning
through role playing, assuming the role of the resource
controlling parents. Bandura (8) found the controller
was imitated more than the consumer adult.

Others than the parent may be imitated. Differences
in the sex of experimenters and the amount of nurturance
given by the experimenter have influenced modeling behavior
(7, 26, 55). A leader who gave attention all the time (55)
'was more effective in eliciting modeling behavior when he
withdrew attention one—half of the time, except for boys
with a male leader. Bandura and Huston (7) confirmed the
predicted facilitating effect of social reward. Although
the rate of imitative discrimination was not influenced by
nurturance or nurturance withdrawal conditions, more
predecision conflict occurred in the non—nurturant group.
The absence of influence of nurturance conditions on
discrimination generally supports the findings of Sears,
Rau and Alpert (59). Investigations of differential
reinforcement values (26) found both high masculine and low
masculine boys conditioned more easily to father content
than mother content but there was a strong relationship
between strong masculine identification and the

reinforcing value of a male experimenter.

20

These research findings suggest that several
factors contribute to the identification process and that
differences in relative strength of identification
parallel variations in family interaction. The character-
istics of the model, in this case, the moral responses
of the parent, reinforcement contingencies and/or
opportunities for modeling and cultural expectations
would be expected to influence resultant moral responses
of the child. The preceding research results indicate
that these several factors interact with complexity, and
thus, while the general expectation of greater father—
son similarity than mother—son similarity would be
supported by research, the studies show no clear—cut
expectations of exclusive identification with the father.
The research findings might be interpreted as resulting
from the presence of conditions not conducive to the
resolution of the Oedipus situation, but the extent of
evidence for the influence of other factors minimizes this
possibility.

Review of Relevant Research: Moral Responses
Sex Differences in Moral Responses

 

 

The majority of research results reported in the
previous section generally supports theoretically
anticipated sex differences in identification. Identifiable
sex differences also appear in levels of guilt and types

of responses following transgression. In view of the

21

sizeable body of research findings which support consistent
differences, restriction of the sample to boys should
eliminate variations in responses attributable to this
variable. Boys' and fathers' responses would be expected
to reflect similarity arising from this variable and to be
differentiated from the mothers' responses in accordance
with the following findings of relevant research.

Brodbeck (15) notes that it is not clear in
psychoanalytic thinking whether motivation coming out of
the Oedipus conflict of the child is solely or decisively
the same motivation as the motivation for conscience
acquisition. Brodbeck reasons that if internalized values
rose solely through Oedipal motivation, values would be
expected to be strongly sex typed. His research findings,
as reported previously, did not definitely support this
expectation.

Sex differences in conscience development may be
attributed to a tendency of parents to treat girls more
nurturantly than boys and to use more love—withdrawal
discipline with girls (58). Sears, gt_al. (58) and
Miller and Swanson (47) have reported higher guilt
levels for girls than boys, and they discuss the relevance
of these findings to the possibility of more frequent use
of love-withdrawal discipline with girls. Bronfenbrenner
(l6) stresses the psychoanalytic postulation that the
girl's superego is never so punitive, never so independent

of emotional ties as the man's. Castration has already

22

had its effect, and the girl's superego develOps out of
anaclitic identification rather than identification with
the aggressor. Brodbeck (15) found that girls show less
disposition to parental influence than boys; this
finding prompted the suggestion that perhaps parents

are less ego involved with girls.

Wright, gt_al. (70) found significant sex
differences for physical punishment and confinement only
as disciplinary techniques. Verbal punishment appeared
significantly more often in girls' stories; girls tended
to apologize more often, and boys gave fixing responses
more often.

Sex differences have appeared in investigations
of resistance to temptation and parental practices as
systematic differences have appeared in levels of guilt
and forms of response to transgression. Burton,

Maccoby and Allinsmith (18) found that severity of
weaning and explanations of the origins of babies were
related positively to resistance to temptation for boys
only, but greater concern for cleanliness by mothers
showed a positive relationship to cheating in a bean bag
game for boys. Delayed long—term bowel training was
positively related to conformity with rules. Theoretical
emphasis on reinforcement contingencies led to the
hypothesis that administration of reward and punishment

before and after the act might influence guilt. There

23

were more cheaters of both sexes with high guilt: Activity
level of the child, up to age two, predicted resistance
to temptation.

Kohlberg (39) reports four generalizations from
investigations of sex differences. Girls are more
conforming to rules and authority than boys. There are
no substantial general differences between boys and
girls in conformity to internalized moral standards or
in strength of tendencies to feel guilt after deViation.
There are no clear cut, consistent differences betWeen
boys and girls in measures of total identification with.
the same sex parent or with both parents. Although
several systematic differences have been reported with
some consistency, these generalizations provoke the
question of whether these differences are relatively
specific manifestations of the experience of guilt or

are as extensive as some authors suggest.

Parental Antecedents of Moral Responses

As noted in the theoretical discussion, the child
is assumed by most theorists to emulate parental
standards through incorporation or reinforcement. Several
investigations have related specific parental practices
to guilt and resistance to temptation phenomena.
Specific parental practices would be expected to reflect
cultural expectations, parent-child interaction and the

parent's personality characteristics. Several of these

2“

studies have approached antecedents of externalization
versus internalization of guilt and direct expression
of guilt through confession, etc., versus indirect
expression of guilt. These investigations consider
variables which may influence the preferred use of
varying forms of moral responses and the similarity of
children's reSponses to parents' reported self—
responses as differentiated from parents' expectations
of their sons' moral responses. Those research studies
which conclude that models are important in the
acquisition of forms of moral reSponses provide a bridge
between identification investigations and those of
development of conscience.

Hoffman (35) reports evidence of some common core
of findings that the relatively frequent use of discipline
which encourages induced internal judgment directed
toward compliance, including a broad spectrum of psycholo—
gical techniques, seems to foster develOpment of an
internalized moral orientation. Coercive measures more
frequently contribute to a moral orientation based on
fear of authority. Allinsmith (2) hypothesized that
the parent provides a model of inhibition of aggression
when psychological techniques are used, and of condonement
of aggression when physical punishment is used. Bandura
and his associates' (7, 8, 9, 10) investigations would
also suggest the importance of models in development of

forms of moral response.

25

Bronfenbrenner (16) suggests that the superego of
the child is built on the superego of the parent. Support
for Bronfenbrenner's position appears in Helper's findings
in which high school pupils self—descriptions as compared
with parents' descriptions of self and ideal for the child
showed the child's self-description as similar to the
parent's ideal for the child as the parent's self-
description. The implication from this postulation and
from support for modeling of inhibition or aggression is
that the child may acquire characteristics of the parental
model which the parent does not actively seek to encourage
in the child's behavioral repertoire.

Futher investigation of the internalization versus
externalization of moral responses by Aronfreed (A) showed
the use of induction, psychological discipline, techniques
positively related to a high degree of internally
motivated self-corrective action with the absence of
punishment from external forces. Aronfreed (A), with sixth
grade subjects, varied the object and type of aggression
expressed in a projective story completion technique. He
concluded that moral orientations do not emerge with age
and experience but are stable end results of different
patterns of social reinforcement. Aronfreed (5) also
suggests that a moral response may acquire instrumental
value for reducing anxiety aroused by a transgression through

more than one pattern of reinforcement. Hoffman and

26

Saltzstein, as reported by Hoffman (35), using seventh
grade subjects, found that internalized boys had
parents both of whom were more permissive than
externalized boys' parents. Parents of internalized
boys used less assertion of direct authority, and mothers
of these boys were affectionate. For girls, only the
finding that those who internalized guilt less often
had mothers who threatened to have fathers punish
them achieved significance. These studies were conducted
with subjects of similar age as the sample and thus
would be applicable to variations in externalization and
internalization.

Stein (63) assumed that guilt is composed of
anxiety and self—directed anger. Anxiety has an external
referent and self-directed anger an internal referent.
High coerciveness in socialization and physical discipline
were hypothesized to be associated with external referent
reactions and low coerciveness and psychological discipline
with internal referent reactions. Story completion data
from hospitalized male psychotics and interview data
from their mothers showed seven of ten childrearing measures
and maternal discipline significatnly related to three
measures of superego response. Coerciveness of oral
socialization was significantly related to internal
referents and external referents were found to be related

to an experimental infraction of stealing in a male

27

adolescent sample. Anal coerciveness and violation of
trust were negatively correlated. Superego control was
related to hostile thoughts.

Support for the contribution of psychological
discipline to guilt severity especially around aggression
appeared in Allinsmith's finding (2) with a middle class
college sample, but he did not find this for a junior
high school sample. In a study included in a series
relating child rearing experiences to subjects' internalized
moral needs, Allinsmith and Greening (3) reported that
high guilt was associated with psychological discipline
by the mother. Risk of getting caught was eliminated in
measurement of the amount of guilt shown in connection
with violation of moral norms by a story completion
technique. A questionnaire concerning parental practices
at ten and twelve years provided data for parental
practices for the young adult subjects. The relationships
found were consistent with the authors' previous work.

Greening (29) found turning aggression against the
self to be positively related to harsh physical punishment.
Turning against the self was negatively related to general
punishment but positively related to extensity or the
number of actions, objects and affects which were defined
as immoral. Greening asserts that conflict about aggression
arises when an aggressive impulse arousing event occurs
but the individual is not free to express it because of

moral standards or fear of retaliation.

28

Lefowitz, g§_al. (Al) reported that peer ratings
and parent interviews indicated that a mean confession
score, a measure of identification, decreased as the
number of physical punishment items increased,
supporting Greening's results. Punishment, however,
enhanced aggression, a finding which is consistent with
other research in the area.

Moral responses show a relationship to parental
practices at varying chronological ages. Sears,
Maccoby and Levin (58) found that the extent to which
kindergarten children characteristically confess, hide
or lie is positively related to mothers' reported use
of love-oriented techniques and negatively related to
object—oriented techniques. Their study emphasizes
the dependence of the effectiveness of love-withdrawal
techniques on the amount of love there to be taken
away.

Sears, Rau and Alpert (59) failed to replicate the
Sears, et_al. findings, the latter based on a larger
sample, that high conscience is associated with love-
oriented discipline only with a warm mother. They did
find strong support for the love-oriented discipline
hypothesis with an interview measure such as that used
by Sears, gt;al.

Parent interviews and an analysis of story comple-
tion items provided data concerning the effect of early

infant experience on later guilt severity in Allinsmith's

29

(2) study. He hypothesized that harsh treatment in infancy
creates excessive aggression later turned inward in
identifying with the parent, which leads to excessive
guilt in violation of prohibitions. Findings included
a curvilinear relationship between stealing and dis-
obedience and guilt severity. Late bowel training and
weaning may be related to high fear, rather than guilt,
again introducing the issue of internalization versus
externalization. Heinicke, as reported by Hoffman (35),
however, found severe weaning related to high guilt
severity for five year old boys when data was obtained
from lengthy free interviews.

Futher support for the relationship between guilt
severity and parental practices appeared in delinquency
studies by Bandura and Walters and Glueck and Glueck, as
reported by Kohlberg (39). These studies indicated
that the use of more punitive, inconsistent and
unreasoning modes of discipline is more characteristic
of parents of delinquents than parents of non-delinquents.

These studies indicate that the strength of guilt
and the particular forms of responses to transgression
may be influenced by parental practices. Hoffman (35)
reports that Hoffman and Mussen and Kagan have found
that parental antecendents are related to pressures
to deviate but not where these pressures are Opposed to

the child's standards and values.

30

Additional story completion stems, constructed by
Allinsmith to elicit resistance or non-resistance to
temptation responses, provided data showing that boys
whose parents explained requests were more inclined to
write stories in which heroes resisted temptation;
subjects' responses were related to the use of explained
requests as Opposed to arbitrary demands by parents.
MacKinnon, as reported by Hoffman (35), using college
age subjects, found a positive relationship between
cheating observed through a one-way screen and physical
punishment by parents. The relationship between
non-cheating and psychological discipline was also
positive.

Hoffman (35) indicates that little consistency
can be found among results of studies relating resistance
to temptation and parental practices. None Of the
studies reported, according to Hoffman, controlled a need
for achievement. This is an important variable in the
comparison of parents' and children's responses to the
same story stems. Hoffman reports that Burton and
Grinder, using eleven and twelve year Old children
in an experimental test situation, found severity of
weaning positively related to resistance to temptation,
but Sears, Rau and Alpert found the relationship to
be negative. Grinder and Sears found resistance to
temptation related to verbal rather than physical means

of control, but Burton found the Opposite. None of these

31

studies replicated MacKinnon's findings that psychological
discipline was related to non-cheating, although
discipline scores were roughly similar.

The overall implication of these studies is that
there are important relationships between parental
practices and guilt and resistance to temptation. These
studies emphasize parental antecedents which give rise
to differing forms of moral response and the complex
array of factors which differentiate resistance to
temptation from guilt following transgression.
Speculations regarding need for achievement and the
importance of children's values and standards in regard
to resistance to temptation suggest the need for further
investigation and control of variables which may
influence results other than those under empirical
consideration. These studies suggest the importance of
modeling parental behavior which may or may not be
directly reinforced by the parent and of which the parent
may not be aware. Therefore, differences may be
expected between the parent's expectations for the
child and the child's actual behavior.

Influences of Maturation and Peer Factors
on Moral Development

 

 

Psychoanalytic and social learning theory approaches
stress the early development of relatively stable forms
of expression of self—control, and the majority of

previously cited research explicitly or implicitly

32

derives from this theoretical View. The develOpmental
approach, however, has been concerned primarily with the
process of moral development and has sought to identify
and integrate stages of moral judgment. These investiga-
tions have emphasized the cognitive aspects Of social
control (39). Differing forms of response to transgression
and differing rationales for resistance to temptation
would be expected, according to develOpmental theory,

for twelve year olds than would be expected for a younger
group such as Heinicke's or Sears' samples Of five year
olds.

There is some evidence, as reported by Kohlberg (39)
from Kohlberg and Brener, that the internalization of
conscience may be completed later in childhood than is
assumed in psychoanalytic and learning theories. Wright,
Hill and Alpert (70) found regular and significant
increases in all of the following categories in response
to cartoon—story completion items: fixing, apology,
spontaneous confession, moralizing, not being caught,
being caught but not punished, and being forgiven.

"The first four of these," according to Wright, gg_al.
(70, p. 7), "are presumed to be indicators of strong
conscience." The investigation, therefore, might find
these categories highly developed in high internalized
guilt subjects, but all of the categories reported by

Wright, et al. as increasing with age would be expected

33

to be more highly developed in the present sample than
among younger children. These findings may be

important in reference to differential results of
resistance to temptation and guilt studies which utilized
differing age subjects.

Kohlberg (39) states that age trends for several
of the Piaget dimensions are consistent enough to
warrant the conclusion that they are genuine developmental
trends. The consistent dimensions are: objective
responsibility, fixity of rules, absolutism of value,
definition of wrong by punishment, expiative rather than
restitutive justice and immanent justice. For these
dimensions, responses increase with age regardless of
particular cultural rules or situations.

Kohlberg (39) defined six "stages" of moral
thinking on the basis of length free interviews concerning
ten hypothetical moral conflict situations with boys
aged seven to seventeen. Kohlberg (39, p. 321)
concluded that "moral internalization relates closely
to the cognitive development of moral concepts."

Kohlberg and Brener, as reported by Kohlberg (39),
presented children from four through preadolescence with
moral judgment situations in which reinforcements were
the reverse of those ordinarily anticipated. They found
changing bases for evaluation with increasing age, i.e.,
four year olds evaluated on the basis of reward and

punishment while five to seven year olds evaluated acts

3A

in terms of their moral labels. By preadolescence, many
children made disinterested moral judgments and
formulated some concept of a "morally good self."

Developmental investigations have attempted to
ascertain age trends in children's self—reports of what
they consider "good" and "bad." Gump and Kounin (31)
asked first and third grade children to report the
worst thing a child could do at school and at home and
why that would be so bad. Situational and developmental
differences appeared. First grade girls placed breaking
rules high and boys rated assaults first and breaking
property second. Third grade girls tended toward judgment
of heightened nonconformity to home authority as worst.
Older children were concerned with harm to others. Assault
to children, talking and inconvenient misbehavior were rated
worst at school, while at home, breaking Objects, fire play
and nonconfirmance were rated worst. At school, reflexive
justification, children suffering and noncorporal punishment
were emphasized, while at home adult suffering and corporal
punishment were most frequently mentioned. These findings
suggest that certain age relevant differences may affect the
responses which would be expected when moral areas are
compared.

Dembo (21) reported Beatrice Wright's findings from
research in which five and eight year old children were

given toys of variable desirability. Children were

35

instructed to distribute toys to a friend and a stranger,
and later to keep one and give one away. Five year

olds favored the friend; eight year olds favored the
stranger. Five year olds were selfish; eight year

olds were generous and judged other children as them-
selves.

Findings of systematic differences in moral
judgment at different chronological ages support the
assertion that the internalization of conscience may
be completed later in childhood than is assumed in
psychoanalytic and learning theories. Some disagreement,
however, has appeared among the results of studies
which have attempted to confirm age trends postulated
by Piaget. Data from MacRae's (A6) investigation of the
relationship between moral judgments of five to fourteen
year old boys, using Piaget and Lerner type questions,
and parental practices were inconclusive. MacRae
suggested that the Piaget—Lerner questions may be more
concerned with cognitive development, while violation
of norms is concerned with emotional moral deveIOpment.

Durkin (2A) substantiated Piaget's thesis of
chronological age and justice, using second, fifth and
eighth grade subjects. Although findings supported the
relationship Of chronological age and justice, the
relationship of reciprocity and chronological age was
not substantiated. Acceptance of reciprocity as a

justice principle appears tO first increase and then

36

decrease with chronological age, but no relationship
of reciprocity to intelligence quotient was found.
Children who accepted reciprocity did not accept other
aggression, and older children showed a concern with
mitigating factors. Durkin also found that a concept
of property rights was negatively related to a concept
of character rights.

Durkin acknowledged a lack of definition Of the
role of intelligence in moral judgment. Kohlberg (39)
found that intelligence and social class did not relate
in a regular way to consistently obtained developmental
dimensions. Kohlberg (39) also reported a reverse of
Piaget's theoretical expectation that a positive
relationship exists between peer-group participation
and an orientation toward reciprocity. In Kohlberg's
investigation, conformity to peers, as Opposed to
authority, failed to increase with age.

One of the factors which may account for differential
findings in guilt research is maturation. There appear
to be fairly consistent changes in moral judgment with
age. Children at twelve would be expected, according
to this theory, to have reached a stage of reciprocity,
and thus to view moral situations in a manner more
differentiated from a young child than from an adult.
Less variation would be expected in the reSponses of
the subjects in this research among twelve year old
boys only as compared to adults than would be expected

if greater variation in age were present.

37

Global Versus Specific Acquisition
of Moral Standards

 

 

One of the major concerns Of the current investiga-
tion involves the relative consistency of parent—child
similarity among situations involving hostile impulses,
theft and disobedience. The theoretical approaches
reviewed would suggest different predictions; psycho-
analytic theory would predict uniform similarity as
explained by global incorporation while results of
research based on social learning theory and
developmental theory suggest greater variation.

Kohlberg (39) reports that Rau found little
consistency between the tendency to confess after
deviation at home and at school. Sears, et_al,
suggested that parental punishment may lead to
inhibition in situations of possible punishment but not
in permissive situations. The evidence does not indicate
any simple, consitent relationship between parental
standards, reinforcement and amount of conformity outside
the home. Kohlberg (39) reports that consistency is
related to rated confession as are reasoning, the use of
positive reinforcement and the avoidance of physical
punishment. This research finding suggests that a
consistency variable may interact with other manifesta-
tions of moral standards.

Gump and Kounin (31), as reported previously, found
that children reported different deviations to be more

severe at home than at school and vice versa.

38

Hartshorne and May and Rau, according to Kohlberg
(39), found low situational consistency in moral obedience
situations. It is possible that situational differences
are more distinct in resistance to temptation assessment
than in guilt indices. Hoffman (35) suggests that
situational controls and high motivation for all subjects
are needed in studies of resistance to temptation.
Studies Of resistance to temptation, in the form of
pressure from peers, according to Hoffman, might control
for needs for affiliation and a fear of rejection.

Situations which occur at home might be expected
to elicit different moral responses from those in the
community, i.e., theft versus disobedience at home, and
the research findings indicate that the relationship
among the situation, acquired standards and personal
needs may be complex. Individual differences in consistency
may affect the relevance Of situational pressures.

Relationship Between Resistance to
Temptation and Guilt

Comparisons of guilt severity and resistance to
temptation have yielded contradictory findings. The
present investigation utilizes story completion items,
two of which provide resistance to temptation data.
An hypothesized temptation which is resisted would not
be expected to invoke guilt but the awareness of
anticipated superego pressure or external punishment.

Thus, similarity of parents' and children's resistance

39

to temptation respon ses would be expected to affect
the comparableness of responses indicating guilt
severity. The predominant findings of previous research
indicate that two somewhat different phenomena may be
operative in guilt and resistance to temptation. This
research will assess whether resistance does correspond
to minimal guilt as would be expected, or whether the
possibility Of deviation may arouse guilt severity
concomitant with that following deviation, making
comparisons of parents' and children's responses less
dependent on resistance to temptation.

Allinsmith (2, p. 17A) writes, "Resistance to
temptation thus appears to us to be a function both of
the tendency to be aware of one's standards before
transgression and of the prOpensity not to defend
against guilt following misconduct. People who are
accustomed to disowning their moral needs, or to
deceiving themselves about remorse after violation, are
most likely to yield." Allinsmith notes that Solomon
and Whiting have suggested that the inclination to resist
temptation may not be learned concomitantly with guilt.
Bandura and Walters (lO) propose that different learning
principles are involved in the development Of these
modes of response.

Allinsmith (2) did not find a direct relationship
between guilt severity and resistance to temptation. The

findings did indicate that resistance to temptation was

A0

related to internalization of guilt; externalizers were
more impulsive. Grinder and McMichael's (30) findings
also failed to support a direct relationship between
resistance to temptation and reaction to transgression,
but suggested that different modes Of guilt reaction
may be related to resistance with varying strengths.
They found resistance related only to remorse with
restitution and confession in the predicted direction.
Reports of the relationship between resistance
to temptation and guilt have been contradictory.
Hoffman reports (35) that MacKinnon, Grinder and Sears
reported low positive relationships between resistance
to temptation and guilt, Allinsmith and Maccoby reported
no relationship and Burton a negative one. Rau found a
high negative relationship between aggressive fantasy
doll play and resistance in an experimental situation.
Two explanations may account for the differential
findings, according to Hoffman (35). The child may
become highly involved and fail to anticipate guilt,
and the young child may be too cognitively immature
to discriminate relevant cues and anticipate consequences.
He may lack the ego control necessary, or he may violate
norms due to an unconscious wish for punishment.
Kohlberg (39) concluded that the occurrence of
guilt reactions after real or fantasied transgression may
be a better criterion for internalized moral judgments

than resistance to temptation. Data from investigations

A1

of behavioral conformity suggest that the specific
situational factors in resistance to temptation may be
more important than internalized moral conformity as a
"conditioned anxiety response." Hoffman (35), however,
considers resistance to pressure to deviate a better
test of the strength and integrity of the personality
than the expression of guilt after transgression.

Kohlberg (39), suggesting that guilt after

transgression may be a better criterion for internalized
moral judgments than resistance to temptation, writes
(39, p. 286),

This approach, however, depends on the assumption
that some observable responses to transgression are
expressive of guilt or remorse, i.e., that self-
blame reactions genuinely inflict psychic pain
upon the self rather than being instrumental
responses to a situation.

Aronfreed, according to Kohlberg (39), considers

reactions to transgression, such as self-blaming responses,
confession, restitution, etc., to be anxiety—reducing
instrumental responses rather than pain—inducing
"expressions of guilt." Aronfreed also indicates the
importance of factors Of cognitive and evaluative
precursors in the development of moral judgment.

Mosher (50) found, among eighty male college students

who completed Imcomplete Sentence Tests scored for sex
guilt, that inhibitory behavior of subjects who score low

on sex guilt is more influenced by situational cues

relevant to the probability Of external punishment for sex

A2

related behavior than is inhibitory behavior Of a high

sex guilt group. High sex guilt subjects were relatively
insensitive to situational cues concerning the probability
of external punishment when shown pin—ups of nude and
semi—nude females and asked to rate tham on several.
characteristics. Mosher's results suggest that guilt
severity may be related to resistance but the relationship
may not be a direct one. This research supports Kohlberg's
(39) assertion that specific situational factors in
resistance to temptation may be more important than
internalized moral conformity for low sex guilt subjects
and supports the relationship between externalization and
nonresistance reported by Allinsmith. High guilt
subjects, however, showed a greater relationship between
between internal standards and resistance.

Experimental manipulation of deviation situation
conditions by Mills (A9), using a cognitive dissonance
theoretical framework, showed differential severity of
attitudes toward cheating under high and low motivation
and high and low restraint conditions. Sixth graders
completed a number circling task for different monetary
rewards and under conditions in which the tasks were
self-scored and scored by the experimenter. Honest
persons increased attitude scores more in high motivation—
low restraint groups than under low motivation—low

restraint conditions. High motivation-low restraint

A3

subjects increased attitude scores more than controls.
The greater the motivation, the more severe honest
subjects became. With low motivation, cheaters became
more lenient. This study also provides support for the
influence of the situation on resistance to temptation
behavior, but suggests, as does Mosher's,that internal
standards may be more highly related to resistance to
temptation than some research would indicate. Subjects
tended to increase the intensity of apparent internal
standards as experimental conditions facilitated greater
temptation.

Several factors may be found to affect the
relationship between resistance to temptation and
expressions Of guilt. As noted in a previous section,
resistance to temptation may be affected by various
situational cues and needs of the subject, and Mosher's
findings suggest that these cues may have differential
influence with differing levels Of guilt. Most of the
resistance to temptation data which has been compared with
guilt has been based on observable situations, and the use
of reported resistance on story completion items may

introduce an additional situational variable.

Cultural Influences

 

Recent cross—cultural comparisons and comparisons
of sub-cultural membership groups regarding guilt

variables provide a general consensus of findings that

AA

the culture plays an important role in determining the
predominance of guilt or shame and in influencing the
differences in motivation and anticipation of guilt
reactions. Certain fairly specific predictions can be
made as a function of the homogeneous cultural back-
ground of the subjects in this investigation.

Peck and Havighurst (53, p. 1) state,

There is perhaps no study of human behavior more
fraught with risk of subjective bias and

culture bound prejudice than is the study of
moral character. Yet in no aspect of life is
Objective knowledge and understanding more
essential to human happiness, perhaps even
racial survival.

Miller and Swanson (A7) investigated the relation-
ship of social class to self—control and found that
inner control is more characteristic of the middle
class. The influence of the sub-cultural peer group
is noted in developmental investigations by Kohlberg
(39) and Wright, et. a1. (70).

Whiting (68) found a sense of guilt and readiness
to accept blame deriving from a sense of personal
responsibility for one's actions characteristic of the
United States. This type Of motivation is considered
to be produced by early socialization in a monogamous
family which accentuates rivalry between the child and
the father. This would also be the type of family which
facilitates the development of a strong Oedipus situation
and thus identification with the agressor (27). This

sample would be a product of this category more than an

A5

exaggerated and paranoid fear of retaliation from other
humans, produced by early seduction and severe punishment
for sex, or a sense of sin deriving from the projected
dread of punishment from God or ghosts, produced by
early neglect followed by severe punishment for aggression.
The best predictors of cross-cultural measures of guilt,
according to Whiting and Child (69) were early weaning,
early toilet training and early independence training.
The sample would be predicted to reflect a guilt
culture rather than a shame culture in reference to
Grinder and McMichael's (30) research. This prediction
would have implications for greater expected
internalization than externalization. The authors
investigated socialization effects of two cultures,
American and Samoan, on conscience development. Children
from the American Caucasian or guilt culture and the
Samoan or shame culture evidenced significantly different
reactions to a real life temptation situation and a
projective story completion technique. Significantly
fewer Samoan children resisted the temptation to cheat
in a "shooting gallery" game, and significantly more
mainland children showed susceptibility to remorse,
confession and restitution after transgression. The
authors proposed that shame cultures stress coercive
external agents while guilt cultures stress self-control
in the face of temptation. If guilt is defined as

internalized conscience, weaker guilt intensity would be

A6

expected in shame cultures than in guilt cultures.
Grinder and McMichael's and Whiting's results have
implications for generally anticipated forms of moral
response within a particular culture and suggest that
more internalized guilt would be expected within the
sample than externalization. These findings are
relevant to studies of parental antecedents of moral
responses which showed that similar variations occur
within a culture although perhaps less extreme than

between cultures.

A Methodological Note and Conclusion

 

Several methodological approaches have been
utilized in investigations of moral responses.
Laboratory studies and the use of projective techniques
to investigate guilt and resistance to temptation
provide some provocative suggestions concerning motiva—\
tion and discrepancies between self—report data,
observed situations and projective data, although at
least one comparison showed self-report and projective
guilt directly related. Hoffman (35) advised the
use of a battery of tests to assess moral standards to
minimize methodological bias. The nature of information
sought and the possibility of inducing excessive guilt
in some subjects through choice of temptation situations
has limited the extent of direct observation which has

been made of resistance to temptation.

A7

Saltz and Epstein's (56) investigation of thematic
hostility and guilt responses as a function of hostile
cues and self-reported drive provided support for
consistency between self-report guilt and Thematic
Apperception Test guilt but found that guilt level
influenced the relationship between self-report and
thematic hostility. The authors selected extreme groups
on self-report measures. Thematic guilt was found
related directly to self-reported guilt across pictures,
but self-report guilt was inversely related to thematic
hostility. Thematic hostility was related to self-
report hostility with low guilt but inversely related
with high guilt, and self-reported hostility was related
to thematic hostility for low relevance pictures only.
Interactions showed that guilt can be conditioned to
cues that produce drive, so drive cannot be varied
independent of guilt. Increased drive can produce guilt
resulting in avoidance.

Shore, et al. (61) suggests that the quality of guilt
has been overlooked; studies have been concerned with
severity of punishment. Shore, e£_al., found that
increases in level and quality of guilt expressed in TAT
stOries was significantly associated with reduction in
unsocialized behavior of twenty boys, matched on
relevant variables, ten of whom received psychotherapy.
Differences between psychotherapy and nonpsychotherapy

groups were significant. Shore, et al., suggest the

A8

superiority of analysis of guilt along dimensions of
internalization, concern for others and desire for
change over previous methods, when viewed in comparison
to clinical Observation and understanding. Analysis
along these dimensions would reduce the existing
differential between results of clinical Observation and
results of empirical research according to Shore, gg_al.
The research in the areas of moral responses and
identification suggests that some fairly definite
predictions can be made about the relationship between
children's moral responses and the moral responses of
their parents. Some contradictions appear in the
literature, and the evidence suggests that perhaps no
direct, regular relationships exist but that the
comparison may be a complex one, involving several
variables including the methodology used, the situations
sampled, the subcultural group in which the subjects
live and the factors which affect intensity of guilt and
resistance to temptation at certain maturational levels.
A substantial amount of evidence from direct observation
of children in experimental situations and from self—
report and projective data emphasizes the conditions
which surround the acquisition of moral responses,
including opportunities for modeling and motivation

for continued expression of the response, The evidence

A9

suggests that motivation arising from the Oedipus situation
may not completely define the development of internalized

standards.

CHAPTER III

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESES

This study is designed to investigate the relation-
ship between moral responses of twelve year old boys in
the areas of death wishes, theft and disobedience and
moral responses of their parents in these areas. The
major purpose of the research is to investigate the manner
in which children's responses in these areas are related
to parents' retrospective reports of their responses at
the age of their children and to their perceptions of
their sons' responses.

Results of previous research suggest that fairly
specific relationships exist between children's moral
responses of their parents. The following hypotheses,
state predictions which are based upon the implication
from previous research that the relationship between
moral responses of children and moral responses of their
parents may be to some degree determined by the particular
form Of response being considered and the specific nature

of the anticipated transgression.

Hypotheses

 

Hypothesis I: There is a significant relationship

 

between moral responses of twelve year old boys in moral

areas of death wishes, theft and disobedience and moral

50

51

responses of their parents in these areas. It is pre-
dicted.that the relationship will be higher for the same
moral area than between areas.

Hypothesis II: There is a significant relationship

 

between twelve year old boys' forms of moral response,
defined as resistance to temptation, direct acknowledgment,
indirect manifestations, defense mechanisms, and exter-
nalization and parents' forms of moral response. It is
predicted that the relationship for the same form of

moral response will be higher than the relationships
between forms of moral response.

Hypothesis III: There is a significant relation-

 

ship between total moral response Of twelve year Old
boys and total moral response of parents.

Hypothesis IV: It is hypothesized that similarity

 

between child and father will be greater than similarity
between child and mother.

Detailed hypotheses could be derived from the
more general hypotheses stated above. The writer
considered the general statements to provide greater
flexibility and potential for concise discussion. The
measures of parents' moral responses used will be:
father at 12, mother at 12, father's perception Of child's
response, mother's perception of child's response, com-
bined parent at 12, and combined parents' perception

of child's response.

CHAPTER IV

METHODS

Sampling

In an effort to Obtain an extensive, heterogeneous
sample, letters were sent to parents of all seventh grade
boys at Traverse City Junior High School; this group in-
cluded 175 families. The constitution of this group was
heterogeneous socioeconomically and intellectually and sub-
jects were relatively unsophisticated in research involve-
ment. The original design included control for sex, in-
telligence and socioeconomic class through sampling only
boys within the normal range Of intelligence and middle
socioeconomic class. Only AA of these families, however,
agreed to cooperate in the research. Of these families,
only 26 completed sets of responses (child, mother and
father) were collected. Eleven additional mothers com-
pleted responses, but these were not included in data
analysis. Thus, the final sample was comprised of 26
fathers, mothers and twelve year old seventh grade boys.

Intelligence of boys tended to be almost equally
divided between the average and above average ranges of
intelligence quotients Obtained from scores from the
California Test of Mental Maturity, Short Form. The
distribution of intelligence quotients may be noted in

Appendix A, Table l.
52.

53

Socioeconomic status of families tended to be
skewed toward the upper—middle class. Appendix A, Tables
2 through 5, describe age of parents and the social
background characteristics of the families in the sample.

The number of siblings of subjects tended toward
a model figure of 2 or 3 siblings, with a range from O
to 6. Most of the subjects were the oldest child in
their families, but the ordinal position range extended
from first to seventh. The distribution of number of
siblings and ordinal position may be observed in

Appendix A, Tables 6 and 7.

Instrument

 

Three story completion items, concerning death
wishes toward a male authority figure, theft and
disobedience, were derived from a previous investigation
by Allinsmith (2). For criteria for stories consult
Allinsmith (2). Forced response questions including
possible responses to the three situations were developed
in accordance with Allinsmith's differential ratings of
guilt severity, ratings of guilt severity by Adams (1)
and additional items to provide an adequate number of
questions to measure four forms of moral response.

These were direct acknowledgment, indirect manifestations,
defenses against guilt and externalization. Total guilt
summed over forms of response equalled summation over

moral areas. QuestionS‘provided for severity of guilt

5A

ratings Of from 1 to 3 with one neutral item (rating of
O) for each moral area. Choices were forced to "yes"
or "no" responses. (Refer to Appendix B for scale,
annotated for ratings of guilt severity and forms of
moral response). Objective questions were developed

to avert the relationship between length of stories

and severity of guilt (l), to provide a broader scope
of possible responses and to eliminate the need for
rating projective story completion responses and
obtaining rater agreement.

Instructional conditions elicited standard
responses, perception of mother's responses at twelve
and perception of father's responses at twelve from
children. The data from the latter two conditions
were not analyzed because less than half the boys
completed these items. Adequate provision of time for
completion was underestimated from pretesting. Parents
responded as they would have responded at twelve and
as they would predict their sons' would reSpond.
Identified defense mechanisms and items were matched by
three advanced graduate students in pscyhology who also
checked guilt severity ratings. The scale was also
checked by Dr. Lucy Ferguson. The limitations of self-

report data are recognized.

55

Pretesting

Three administrations of story completion items and
Objective questions to pretest subjects were completed
before administration to the sample. These permitted
revisions of objective questions and evaluation of ease
of completion by subjects. The original scale had two
parallel sets of questions for theft and disobedience,
corresponding to resistance to temptation and deviation,
but the scale proved to be so lengthy that subjects
became fatigued and disinterested. Questions were added
and deleted on following revisions, with modification
to one set of questions for all subjects. The
total number of pretest families was 13; the final
pretest group consisted of four families. Two pretest
groups were obtained from Spartan Village; the last
group, from Charlotte, Michigan, was similar in
composition to the Traverse City sample. The final
pretest results showed agreement of questions with story

completions and effective discrimination of items.

Collection of Data_

-wVv—v .‘Vu—‘j

 

The investigator contacted the principal and
counselors of the Traverse City Public School and obtained
agreement to administer items to seventh grade boys.
School personnel were extremely cooperative and helpful

in providing facilities for collection of data.

 

 

56

Test booklets were coded by number to control for
concern about identification of responses. Group
administration of the scale to boys in the school
lunchroom was conducted during a home room period by the
investigator. Those boys who had not completed at
least the first instruction completed this the following
home room period under the direction of the school
counselor. For instructions read to subjects, refer
to Appendix B.

Test booklets were delivered individually to
parents who agree to COOperate and who lived near or
within the Traverse City limits. Those who lived in
outlying towns were called and forms were mailed to
them. The scales were self—administered by parents and
were returned by boys in the sample to their home

I‘OOIHS .

Analysis of Data

 

The preparation of the data for correlational
analysis included determination of separate scores for
each of the previously indicated moral areas, i.e.,
death wishes, theft and disobedience, forms of moral
response, i.e., direct acknowledgment, indirect
manifestations, defense mechanisms and externalization,
and a total across all areas. The scores represent the
summation of the subject's responses, weighted according

to established criteria, within the above categories

57

Of response. The scores were converted to percentages
of the total possible score for particular categories
of response. This conversion equalized the number of
items in response categories. The data submitted for
correlation, thus, represented scores obtained by the
subjects, in percentage form, for several categories of
response and a total score.

Some scattergrams were plotted as a preliminary
examination of the data. Pearson product moment
correlations were computed by Michigan State University
computer, programming package of simple correlations,
for all categories of response and total score compared
with each other for child, father at twelve, mother at
twelve, father's perception of child's response,
mother's perception Of child's response, average of
parents at twelve, and average of parents' perception
of child's response. Correlations relevant to theoretical
hypotheses were extracted from all possible correlations.
The dichotomous nature of the resistance to temptation
data required analysis with a non-parametric statistical
technique. Phi coefficients, which provided a non—
parametric correlation, therefore, were computed for
comparisons of resistance to temptation and comparisons

of resistance to temptation and guilt.

CHAPTER V

RESULTS

Internal Consistency

 

Intercorrelations of guilt scores show high internal
consistency for boys and for both parents as they would
have responded at twelve and for prediction of their sons'
responses. Pearson product moment correlations for com-
parison of areas of death wishes, theft and disobedience
and four forms of moral response are shown in Table 1.
Resistance to temptation comparisons analyzed by phi co-
efficients are shown in Table 2. Comparison of categories
of response with total scores showed all three moral areas
and four forms of moral response to be related to total
scores for children and for parents at or above p = .05.
These correlations show the scores for the individual re-
sponse categories as represented by the percentage of the
total possible score for that category to be highly re-
lated to the separately derived overall total score.

Interrelations of moral area scores were less con-
sistent for child and mother at 12 than comparisons between
subtest scores and total scores. Significant intercor-
relations were found without exception for father at 12,
father's prediction of child's response, mother's prediction
of child's response, and average mother—father prediction

of child's response. Only guilt for theft and guilt for
58

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Table 2.--Internal Consistency of Resistance to Temptation
Versus Guilt for Theft and Disobedience.

 

 

 

 

 

Theft Disobedience
N Phi Chi Phi Chi
Square Square
Child 26 .A6* 5.AA .33 2.76
Father at 12 26 .25 1.59 .09 0.82
Mother at 12 26 -.06 0.78 .00 0.00
Father's Prediction
of Child 2A .26 1.61 .05 0.07
Mother's Prediction
of Child 26 .28 2.00 .29 2.13
*p 1 .05

Table 2A.—-Extended Internal Comparisons of Child's
Resistance to Temptation and Guilt.

Resistance to Temptation

 

 

 

Theft Disobedience
Guilt Phi Chi Phi Chi
Square Square
Theft .A6* 5.AA .2A 1.51
Disobedience .22 1.22 .33 2.76
Total .32 2.66 .32 2.58

 

26

a:
*0
A
O
U!
2
II

disobedience was significantly related for children. NO
significant interrelations prevailed for mother at 12, and
only the disobedience score was significantly related to
death wishes and theft for average parent at 12. Parents'
predictions of child's responses were more consistent than

parents' responses at 12.

67

Scores for forms of moral response were consistently
significantly related to total guilt, but few significant
interrelations were found. Only indirect manifestations
and externalization covaried consistently for children.

All were consistently significant for father at 12, father's
prediction of child's response, average parent at 12 and
average parent prediction of child's response. Mother at

12 showed significant interrelations of all forms of response
except defenses as related to direct acknowledgment,

indirect manifestations and externalization. The same
pattern prevailed for mother's prediction of child's

response with the exception that defenses were significantly
related to indirect manifestations.

Comparison of forms of moral response to moral areas
showed significant interrelations for children, except for
comparison Of death wishes and externalization. This same
pattern plus absence of significance for defenses compared
with theft resulted for the mother at 12.

The highest predictive power of total guilt for
children existed in theft and disobedience situations. All
contributed approximately equally for fathers at 12 (all
above r = .80). Direct acknowledgment and indirect
manifestations were less related for mother at 12; death
wishes less predictive for average parent at 12; direct
acknowledgment less predictive for father prediction;
direct acknowledgment, defenses and externalization less

predictive for mother prediction; and direct acknowledgment

68

provided poor prediction for combined parent's prediction
of child's response.

The only significant relationship of resistance to
temptation and guilt, as may be noted from reference to
Table 2, resulted from comparison of child's guilt and
resistance to temptation for theft. Comparison of
resistance to temptation for theft and disobedience as
compared with total guilt for children tended toward
significance (p i .10), and guilt versus resistance to
temptation for disobedience resulted in phi of .33
(p i .10). Relation of resistance to temptation and

guilt for parents was not significant in any case.

Resistance to Temptation

 

Data from phi coefficient analysis of resistance to
temptation was generally non—supportive of Hypothesis II,
as is indicated in Table 3. A significant relationship
between 12 year old boys' moral responses and moral
responses of parents was predicted. Child resistance
to temptation in the disobedience situation was
significantly related to mother's perception of child's
resistance to temptation for disobedience. This finding
is contrary to Hypothesis IV, that relationships hypothesized
for 12 year Old boys‘ moral responses and fathers'
predictions of their moral responses would be higher than
the relationships between boys' responses and mothers'

predictions of their responses. Prediction of child

resistance to temptation by mothers and by fathers for theft

was significant.

69

Table 3.—-Comparison of Child's Resistance to Temptation
Versus Parents' Resistance to Temptation.

 

 

Child's Resistance to Temptation

 

 

 

Theft Disobedience

Parents' Resistance Chi Chi

to Temptation N Phi Square Phi Square
Father at 12

Theft 26 —.0A 0.03 -.02 0.00

Disobedience 26 -.0A 0.03 -.10 0.29
Mother at 12

Theft 26 .37 3.A8 —.12 0.36*

Disobedience 26 .10 0.26 .22 1.25
Father's Prediction

of Child

Theft 2A -.12 0.31 -.16 0.60

Disobedience 2A .0A 0.05 -.30 2.1A
Mother's Prediction

of Child

Theft 26 .32 2.68 —.18 0.83

Disobedience 26 .16 0.65 .39* 3.90

*p 1.05

Those relationships tending toward significance (p i
.10) were mother at 12 and child for theft, mother's perception
of child's reSponse and child for theft, mother at 12 and
father at 12 for theft, mother at 12 and father at 12 for
disobedience, and mother's perception of child and father's
perception of child for disobedience.

Comparison of parent resistance to temptation and child
guilt yielded no significant relationships. Child guilt for
theft and mother at 12 resistance to temptation for theft

tended toward significance (p i .10).

70

Table 3A.--Comparison of Father's Resistance to Temptation
Versus Mother's Resistance to Temptation.

 

 

 

 

Theft Disobedience
Chi Chi
N Phi Square Phi Square

Father at 12

Versus Mother

at 12 26 .35 3.15 .32 2.73
Father's Prediction

Of Child Versus

Mother's Predic-

tion Of Child 2A .51* 6.17 .3A 2.7A

 

*p< .05

Table A.—-Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores and Parents'
Resistance to Temptation.

Child's Guilt Scores

 

 

 

Theft Disobedience
Chi Chi
Parents' Resistance N Phi Phi
to Temptation Square Square
Father at 12
Theft 26 .25 1.59 .13 0.A7
Disobedience 26 .18 0.83 — 22 1 27
Mother at 12
Theft 26 .35 3.15 .23 1.32
Disobedience 26 .09 0.23 .06 0.10
Father's Prediction
of Child
Theft 2A .17 0.70 .05 0.05
Disobedience 2A .19 0.89 .22 1.22
Mother's Prediciton
of Child
Theft 26 .18 0.83 .06 0.10
Disobedience 26 .12 0.36 .10 0.26

 

71

Child resistance to temptation for theft was signifi-
cantly related to father guilt for theft (Refer to Table 5).
This is the only case in resistance to temptation data that
Hypothesis IV of higher relationship of child-father
responses than child-mother responses was supported. Those
relationships which tended toward significance (p i .10)
were father at 12 total guilt and child resistance to
temptation for theft and average parent at 12 guilt for
disobedience and child resistance to temptation for theft.
Child resistance to temptation was not related to parent
prediction of child's guilt in any case. The relationship
of child response to parents at 12 appears greater than that
of child response to parents' prediction of child's response.
The above statements represent possible trends only, however,
as the number of significant relationships is no greater
than would be expected by chance.

Comparison of Child Guilt Versus Parent Guilt
Moral Areas

 

 

Pearson product moment correlation coefficients for
child guilt as compared to parent guilt at 12 are shown in
Table 6 and comparison of child guilt to parents' prediction
of child's guilt are shown in Table 7. Correlation
coefficients indicate little support for Hypothesis I that
there is a significant relationship between 12 year
old boys' moral responses to death wishes, theft and
disobedience and fathers' and mothers' moral responses in

these areas. Support for this hypothesis and for the

72

Table 5.—-Comparison of Child's Resistance to Temptation
and Parents' Guilt Scores.

_—

Child's Resistance to Temptation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theft Disobedience
Parents' Guilt N Phi Scfiére Phi SCh:
Scores q qu re
Father at 12
Theft 26 .A6* 5.A3 .2A 1.51
Disobedience 26 .13 0.AA -.02 0.02
Total 26 .37 3.A8 .19 0.96
Mother at 12
Theft 26 —.08 0.16 .13 0.AA
Disobedience 26 .00 0.00 .00 0.00
Total 26 .00 0.00 .00 0.00
Average Parent at
12
Theft 26 .00 0.00 .00 0.00
Disobedience 26 .37 3.A8 .19 0.96
Total 26 .25 1.67 .13 0.AA
Father's Prediction
of Child
Theft 2A —.05 0.05 .00 0.00
Disobedience 2A .08 0.1A -.11 0.26
Total 2A .03 0.02 —.07 0.12
Mother's Prediction
of Child
Theft 26 .09 0.21 .19 0.96
Disobedience 26 —.23 1.35 .19 1.22
Total 26 -.08 0.16 .13 0.AA
Average Parents'
Prediction of
Child
Theft 2A .18 0.82 “.07 0.1A
Disobedience 2A .16 0.62 -.29 2.07
Total 2A .03 0.02 .00 0.00

 

*p :.-O5

73

Table 6.——Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for Moral Areas
and Parents' Guilt Scores at 12 for Moral Areas.

-

Child's Guilt Scores

 

I
ParegZZreguilt 3:2;28 Theft Disobedience Total
Father at 12
Death Wishes .22 .26 .2A .29
Theft —.13 .29 .25 .22
Disobedience -.06 .12 .13 .10
Total .00 .26 .2A .2A
Mother at 12
Death Wishes .A2* .09 .25 .26
Theft .05 -.15 .0A «.05
Disobedience .A0* .18 .22 .30
Total .39* .0A .23 .22
Average Parent
at 12
Death Wishes .52** .19 .18 .31
Theft —.O7 .11 .18 .12
Disobedience .12 .16 .18 .19
Total .16 .19 .26 .25

 

*p 1.05 **p_<_.01 N= 26

Data expressed as correlation coefficients.

7A

Table 7.-—Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for Moral Areas
and Parents' Predictions of Child's Guilt Scores for Moral
Areas.

 

‘——v
L

Child's Guilt Scores

 

Parents' Predictions

of Child's Guilt Death
Scores N Wishes Theft Disobedience Total

 

Father's Prediction
of Child's Guilt

Death Wishes 2A .00 .0A .10 .06
Theft 2A —.15 .01 —.01 -.0A
Disobedience 2A -.1A -.05 —.12 -.12
Total 2A -.ll .00 —.01 -.0A

Mother's Prediction
of Child's Guilt

Death Wishes 26 .30 -.O6 -.05 .03

Theft 26 .13 .05 .0A .08

Disobedience 26 .A0* -.11 -.05 .03

Total 26 .31 -.03 -.Ol .06
Average Parent's

Prediction of

Child's Guilt

Death Wishes 2A .10 -.09 -.05 -.05

Theft 2A -.06 -.Ol -.02 —.O3

Disobedience 2A .ll -.13 -.1A -.11

Total 2A .03 -.08 —.07 —.07

 

*p 1-05
Data expressed as correlation coefficients.

75

collateral hypothesis that the relationship would be
higher for the same moral area than between moral areas
appeared only in the finding that child guilt for death
wishes was significantly related to mother at 12's guilt
for death wishes, for disobedience and total guilt. Some
support was obtained from the relationship between child
guilt for death wishes and average parent guilt for death
wishes. The data were non—supportive of the hypothesis
of greater father-child similarity than mother—child
similarity.

Less support for similarity of child and parents'
predictions was found for comparison of guilt in three
moral areas than similarity of parents at 12 and child
(Table 7). Only mother's prediction for disobedience
and child's guilt for death wishes were significantly
related for this condition. Although only a few
correlations were significant, some suggestion of greater
similarity between child and parent at 12 than between
child and parents' perception of child appears in the data.
This finding tended to be supported by resistance to

temptation data and guilt in three moral areas.

Forms of Moral Response

 

Resistance to temptation comparison to guilt was
reported in a previous section. Pearson product moment
correlation coefficients for child guilt as compared to

parent guilt at 12 are shown in Table 8 and comparisons

76

Table 8.—-Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for Forms of
Moral Response and Parents' Guilt Scores at Twelve for
Forms of Moral Response.

m

Child's Guilt Scores

Parents‘ Guilt D.A. I.M. D.M. Ext. Tot.
Scores (1) (2) (3) (A) (5)

 

Father at 12

Direct

Acknowledgment (1) —.11 .16 .05 .09 .08
Indirect

Manifestations (2) .15 .35 .20 .39* .A1*
Defense

Mechanisms (3) —.07 .A1* .02 .09 .1A
Externalization (A) .10 .27 -.03 .07 .16
Total (5) .01 .3A .09 .18 .2A
Mother at 12

Direct

Acknowledgment (1) —.02 .2A -.10 -.08 .01
Indirect

Manifestations (2) .01 .28 -.07 —.A .0A
Defense

Mechanisms (3) .20 .6u** .AA* .62** .67**
Externalization .12 .19 -.22 —.01 .0A
Total (5) .08 .A5* -.01 .09 .22
Average Parent at

12

Direct

Acknowledgment (1) -.10_ .23 —.02 .02 .05
Indirect

Manifestations (2) .09 .36 .07 .13 .25
Defense

Mechanisms (3) —.0A .62** .2A .39* .AA*
Externalization (A) -.1A .29 -.13 .05 .13
Total (5) .0A .A2* .06 .17 .25

 

*p ;_.05 **p 1 ~01 N = 26

Data expressed as correlation coefficients.

77

of child guilt to parents' predictions of child's guilt
are shown in Table 9. Comparison of father's guilt at 12
to child guilt showed only father's indirect manifestations
related to child externalization and total guilt and
father's defense mechanisms related to child's indirect
manifestations. Mother's defense mechanisms at 12 were
significantly related to child's indirect manifestations,
defense mechanisms, externalization and total guilt.
Mother at 12 total guilt was related to child's indirect
manifestations. The combined score for parent defense
mechanisms at 12 was related to child's indirect mani-
festations, externalization and total guilt. Parent total
guilt at 12 was related to child's indirect manifestations.

The above findings show some support for Hypothesis
II that there is a significant relationship between the
child's forms of moral response and parents' forms of moral
response. Direct acknowledgment was not in any case
significantly related to other forms of moral response
nor in comparisons between child and parents. The col-
lateral hypothesis that the relationship would be higher
for each form of response than between forms was supported
only for defense mechanisms for mother at 12 and child.

The pattern of greater mother-child similarity than
father-child similarity obtained in comparison of moral
areas appeared in analysis of forms of moral response.

Correlations were generally lower for child guilt and

78

Table 9.--Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for Forms of
Moral Response and Parents' Predictions of Child's Guilt

Scores for Forms of Moral Response.

 

 

 

-
‘-‘——‘

 

r

 

‘
4

Child's Guilt Scores

 

 

Parent's Predictions of N D.A. I.M. D.M. Ext. Tot.
Child's Guilt Scores (1) (2) (3) (A) (5)
Father's Prediction of
Child's Guilt
Direct
Acknowledgment (1) 2A —.09 .02 .05 -.21 -.06
Indirect
Manifestations (2) 2A —.20 .22, —.15 .16 .00
Defense
Mechanisms (3) 2A -.17 .23 .00 .05 .03
Externalization (A) 2A .0A -.01 -.10 -.25 —.10
Total (5) 2A —.1A .15 -.05 —.07 -.ou
Mother's Prediction of
Child's Guilt
Direct
Acknowledgment (1) 26 -.01 .31 —.13 -.09 -.02
Indirect
Manifestations (2) 26 -.07 .2A —.l3 -.19 —.06
Defense
Mechanisms (3) 26 —.0A .AA* .09 .15 21.
Externalization (A) 26 .12 .22 —.20 .02 .06
Total (5) 26 .00 .A0* —.12 —.06 .06
Average Parent's
Prediction of Child's
Guilt
Direct
Acknowledgment (1) 2A —.0A .09 -.02 -.30 -.11
Indirect
Manifestations (2) 2A -.20 .23 —.18 -.08 -.10
Defense
Mechanisms (3) 2A -.20 .32 .0A .09 .06
Externalization (A) 2A .10 .07 —.1A —.25 -.06
Total (5) 2A —.1A .2A -.09 -.17 -.07
*p 1,.05

Data expressed as correlation coefficients.

79

parents' predictions of child's forms of moral response
than for child guilt and parents at 12. The only
correlations which achieved significance among child-
parent perception comparisons were mother's perception
of child's defenses and mother's perception of child's
total guilt as related to child's indirect manifestations.
Thus, Hypothesis II was not supported for comparison of
child and parents' perception of child's response.
Hypothesis III that there is a significant relation-
ship between total guilt response of 12 year Old
boys and total guilt response of parents received no

support.

Moral Areas Versus Forms of Moral Response

 

Comparison of forms Of parent moral response to
child guilt for three moral areas, as may be noted in
Table 10, showed father's indirect manifestations (related
to child externalization and total guilt) related
significantly to theft and disobedience for child.
Mother's use of defense mechanisms (related to indirect
manifestations, defense mechanisms, externalization and
total guilt of child) was related to child death wishes,
theft and disobedience. Mother's total guilt at 12,
as noted previously, was related to child's death wishes.
No correlations of child subtotals for moral areas and
parents' predictions of child's forms of moral responses

achieved significance.

80

Table 10.--Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for Moral
Areas and Parents' Guilt Scores for Forms of Moral Response.

_- _—
I;—

Child's Guilt Scores for Moral

 

 

Areas
Parents' Guilt Scores for Death
Forms of Moral Response N Wishes Theft Disobedience
Father at 12
Direct Acknowledgment 26 -.13 .10 .15
Indirect Manifestations 26 .02 .AA* .Al*
Defense Mechanisms 26 .13 .12 .12
Externalization 26 -.03 .23 .11
Total 26 .OO .26 .2A
Mother at 12
Direct Acknowledgment 26 .2A -.16 .05
Indirect Manifestations 26 .22 -.10 .10
Defense Mechanisms 26 .A5* .56** .59**
Externalization 26 .27 .08 .00
Total 26 .39* .0A .23
Average Parent at 12
Direct Acknowledgment 26 .02 .00 .12
Indirect Manifestations 26 .1A .18 .29
Defense Mechanisms 26 .32 .37 .38-
Externalization 26 .12 .13 .08
Total 26 .16 .19 .26
Father's Prediction of
Child's Guilt
Direct Acknowledgment 2A -.1A -.09 .05
Indirect Manifestations 2A -.07 .00 .0A
Defense Mechanisms 2A —.05 .09 .00
Externalization 2A -.08 .00 —.18
Total 2A —.11 .00 -.01
Mother's Prediction of
Child's Guilt
Direct Acknowledgment 26 .32 —.16 -.0A
Indirect Manifestations 26 .1A —.11 -.08
Defense Mechanisms 26 .26 .19 .10
Externalization 26 .16 .06 -.03
Total 26 .31 -.03 -.01
Average Parent's Predic-
tion of Child's Guilt
Direct Acknowledgment 2A .03 —.16 —.07
Indirect Manifestations 2A —.02 —.10 —.07
Defense Mechanisms 2A .02 .11 .00
Externalization 2A .02 .00 -.16
Total 2A .03 —.08 —.O7

 

*p i .05 **p i .01

Data expressed as correlation coefficients.

81

Comparison of child's forms of moral response and
parents' subtotals for three moral areas, as may be noted
in Table 11, showed child's indirect manifestations
(related to father at 12's defense mechanisms, mother at
12's defense mechanisms and total guilt, average parent
at 12's defense mechanisms and total guilt, and mother's
perception of child's defenses and total guilt) was related
significantly to mother at 12's response to death wishes
and disobedience and mother's perception of child's response

to disobedience, and average parent's death wishes at 12.

Mother Versus Father Comparisons

A generally high positive relationship was obtained
between mothers at 12 and fathers at 12 and mother's
predictions of child's guilt and father's predictions
of child's guilt (Refer to Table 12). Exceptions appeared
in mother's response to death wishes both for response at
12 and prediction of sons' response which was in no case
related to father's responses and for mother's perception
of direct acknowledgment by child.

Total guilt of mother at 12 was related to all
scores for father at 12 and all father's predictions of
child subtotals. Total guilt of father at 12 was not
related to mother at 12 for death wishes, defense mechanisms
and externalization although all correlations were above

p i .10. Father's total guilt for perception of son was

not related to mother's death wishes or direct

82

Table ll.--Comparison of Child's Guilt Scores for Forms of
Moral Response and Parents' Guilt Scores for Moral Areas.

 

! — ___-
_ I-V— ___‘_f

of Moral Response

Parents' Guilt Scores D.A. I.M. D.M. Ext. Tot. #
for Moral Areas (1) (2) (3) (A) (5)

Child's Guilt Scores for Forms

 

Father at 12

Death Wishes 26 .07 .35 .17 .25 .29

Theft 26 .05 .26 .l0 .l3 .23

Disobedience 26 —.07 .28 -.03 .11 .10
Mother at 12

Death Wishes 26 .05 .A9* .08 .17 .26

Theft 26 .03 .10 -.26 —.O6 —.05

Disobedience 26 .13 .A0* .25 .08 .30
Average Parent at 12

Death Wishes 26 .16 .59** .05 .1A .31

Theft 26 .0A .22 -.07 .06 .12

Disobedience 26 .00 .36 .08 .ll .19

Father's Prediction of
Child's Guilt

Death Wishes 2A -.15 .21 .02 .13 .06
Theft 2A —.19 .13 -.0A -.0A —.0A
Disobedience 2A .01 .0A —.12 -.30 -.12

Mother's Prediction of
Child's Guilt

Death Wishes 26 .02 .33 —.09 -.1A .03
Theft 26 -.O9 .28 ~.O2 .09 .08
Disobedience 26 .10 .A6* —.27 -.16 .03

Average Parent's Pre-
diction Of Child's

Guilt

Death Wishes 2A -.18 .29 -.O7 -.lO -.05
Theft 2A —.18 .17 —.02 —.05 —.03
Disobedience 2A .0A .2A —.20 —.38 -.11

 

*p :_.05 **p i .01
Data expressed as correlation coefficients.

#D.A. (1)—Direct Acknowledgment
I.M. (2)—Indirect Manifestations
D.M. (3)vDefense Mechanisms
Ext. (A)-Externalization
Tot. (5)—Total

83

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85

acknowledgment. Closer agreement existed for perception

of child's responses than for parents at 12. All comparisons
of parents' perceptions of child‘s responses were

significant except mother's response to death wishes and
direct acknowledgment and some comparisons with defense
mechanisms. These findings are important in relation to

findings of motherAS defenses as related to child guilt..

CHAPTER VI

DISCUSSION

General Considerations

 

Results of comparison of twelve year old boys' moral
responses and those of their parents consistently pro—
vided greater evidence of mother-son similarity than of
father—son similarity. In only one case, child resistance
to temptation and father guilt for theft, was this trend
reversed. The consistently greater mother-son similarity
contradicts expectation of greater father-child similarity
based on the psychoanalytic theory of identification. Re—
sults also emphasized greater similarity of children's
moral responses and their parents' reports of their own
responses at twelve than of children's responses and
parents' predictions of their responses. Generally high
internal consistency indicated presence of some common
factor measured by the total score. Intercorrelations
of guilt scores for fathers showed consistently signifi-
cant correlations; this consistency contrasted with less
internal consistency for children and mothers. The impli-
cations of the differential consistency Of subtotals will
be discussed in relation to greater mother-child similarity
than father-child similarity.

The hypothesis that children's moral responses in

three situations would be significantly related to parents'

86

87

similar areas of moral response gained some support of
a limited nature. Although trends appeared, the
generality of conclusions based upon these trends must
be limited due to the large number of nonvsignificant
findings. Support of the child—parent similarity
emerged particularly for the motherschild comparison
of death wishes. In no case was total guilt related
for children and parents. Selective patterning of
response rather than general support was obtained for
the hypothesis regarding significant relationships
between forms of moral response. FathersA indirect
manifestations and mothers' use of defense mechanisms
appeared most closely related to child guilt. A
marked lack of significance of child—parent relationship
for direct acknowledgment resulted. Resistance to
temptation data showed one interesting comparison of
father guilt and child resistance to temptation for
theft at the same level Of significance as child guilt
related to resistance to temptation for this situation.
Only child's resistance to temptation for disobedience
and mother's prediction of the child‘s resistance to
temptation for disobedience were significantly related
among comparisons of resistance to temptation for

children and parents.

88

Child Similarity to Mother as Opposed
to Similarity to Father

 

 

Psychoanalytic theory predicts that following the
resolution of the Oedipus situation, the boy adopts the
characteristics of the father in a global manner to
alleviate castration anxiety. Anaclitic identification,
emphasizing emulation of the controlling authority to
postpone or avoid loss of love, is conceived as a
forerunner of superego development in psychoanalytic
theory but receives greater emphasis in social learning
theory as the product of an important constellation of
parent—child interaction. The limited number of
significant results prevents a broad generalization of
findings. Trends show greater similarity of child
responses to mother's responses at twelve, and to her
prediction of the child's responses, than similarity to
the father's responses in both instructional conditions.
These suggest greater support for a model of personality
emphasizing identification with a controller of resources
whose love the child wishes to maintain. The alternate
explanation would necessitate assumption that the boys
in the sample had, in the areas tapped, failed to achieve
adequate resolution of the Oedipal situation and father
identification. Previous research (15) found greater
cross—sex identification as boys progressed from
prepubescence (10 years) to adolescence (1A years). The

particular age of the subjects in the sample may thus

89

influence the relative amount of identification. Of
importance to the finding of greater mother—child
similarity than father—child similarity are the parallel
findings of greater consistency of father's responses to
the three moral areas and forms of response to moral
situations than children's or mother's. Becker (11)
reports that a large number of investigations show that
both sexes perceive the mother as more nurturant and as
using more psychological control, and the father as
stricter and exhibiting more physical punishment,
especially for boys. Boys perceive fathers as more
frustrating and fear—arousing and as granting less
autonomy.

The results suggest a greater unity and less
situational dependence of fathers' standards for moral
behavior. Lower intercorrelations for mothers'
responses to moral areas particularly may indicate support
for Bronfenbrenner's (16) Observation from psychoanalytic
theory that the male superego is always more punitive,
the female superego more emotionally involved.

The data suggest that the boys in the sample have
not yet developed a unified superego based on global
incorporation of the father's standards as proposed by
psychoanalytic theory. The possibility of regression
at the emergence of puberty may influence identification.

The more probable explanation, however, appears to

90

involve emulation of the mother's standards as the
nurturant, caretaking model for differential response

to various situations incurring moral judgment.

Identification with the Parent's Superego

The pattern of significant correlations between
child guilt and parent guilt provides some support for
the suggestion (16) that the child identifies with the
superego of the parent. Direct acknowledgment was in
no instance significantly related to any other form of
moral response nor to total guilt. Father's indirect
manifestations, mother's defense mechanisms, and combined
parent defense mechanisms were more frequently highly
related to child guilt than other forms of moral response.
This may indicate that the child models his response to
moral situations on subtle cues of internalized guilt
rather than direct expression of remorse. Allinsmith (2)
suggests that the parent provides a model of inhibition
of aggression when psychological discipline techniques
are used, and Bandura and his associates' (7, 8, 9, 10)
research on modeling responses indicate that a child
will learn to inhibit, to aggress, or to punish himself
from Observation without direct mediation of instrumental
learning. The child may be sensitive to the parents'
indirect and defensive maneuvers and so incorporate this
framework of reaction to anticipated transgression as

readily or more so than direct training in moral areas.

91

Absence of significant correlations for direct acknowledg-
ment does not preclude the possibility that the parent
may reinforce various expressions of guilt although he
does not manifest these himself nor predict the child's
use of these manifestations.

Greater similarity of the child's responses to
parents' reports of their own responses at twelve than
to parents' perceptions of the child's responses suggest
that the parents may not be aware of the child's actual
responses and of similarity of their manifestations of
guilt and the child's guilt responses. The parent may
not be aware of the child's guilt responses expressed
through defense mechanisms and indirect acknowledgment
which he manifests himself without conscious awareness.
The findings appear to support identification of the
child's superego with the parent's superego as the
parent does not seem to show awareness of the manner in
which the child shows similarity to him.

Helper, according to Bronfenbrenner (16), found
children's self-perceptions as closely related to the
parent's ideal for the child as to the parent's self-
perceptions. Perceptions of the child's responses in
this research were not necessarily the parents' ideal
for the child. Parents' predictions varied from
extreme overestimation to extreme underestimation, but
some responses, particularly resistance to temptation

and direct acknowledgment of guilt, may have been

92

influenced by cultural expectations and family values.
Some influence of sex-role standards may have affected
mothers' perceptions of children's responses. These
data suggest that similarity of moral responses of
parents and children predominantly appears in comparisons
of indirect forms of expression of guilt, and that the
parent's prediction of the child's responses may be less
a function of accurate Observation of the forms of
expression the child acquires which are manifested by
the parent as other factors. Indirect forms of
expression, like Helper's parent ideal for the child,
appear to reflect the internalized standards of the
parent which are later represented in the child's moral
responses.

Differential Roles of Parents in
Transmission of Standards

 

 

Differential roles of the parents in transmission
of culture may be indicated in findings of similarity
of father guilt to child resistance to temptation for
theft and child resistance to temptation and child guilt
for theft, as opposed to a high relationship between
child and mother for disobedience. The father may
provide a standard for culturally approved behavior and
the mother be more influential in the home environment.
Findings of previous research (25, A3) suggest that the.boy
may identify with appropriate sex typing while the

girl identifies with characteristics of the mother which

93

differentiate her as an adult from the girl. Boys,
according to Emmerich (25), tend to perceive the father
as more controlling. The mother, however, may be the
controller of resources in the home. Some difference may
be observed with stages of development in moral judgment.
Movement into the community and concern for community
standards may be the product of later development than
concern about disobedience of the mother. The findings
of greater father—child similarity for theft and mother-
child similarity for disobedience are particularly
interesting in the light of the higher mother—father
correlations for theft and disobedience situations than
for death wishes. These are both observable situations
where parent agreement may be greater, as Opposed to

the death wish situation where parent correlations were
near chance but mother-child correlations were generally
significant. The child may identify more with the
mother in affective and home-oriented situations. The
differentiation of the mother's and father's areas of

discipline may be important in these respects.

Peer Factors

 

The failure to find consistently high relationships
between parent moral responses and child moral responses,
particularly for resistance to temptation, suggests that
some factor other than parental standards may be
operative. Kohlberg (39) emphasizes the importance of

peer group judgment as a factor in the development of

9A

moral judgment. It is possible that a peer factor may
influence self—reports of resistance to temptation, and

to some extent guilt, when the collection of data in the
school situation is considered. Hoffman (35) reports
findings that parental antecedents are related to

pressure to deviate but not where it is opposed to the _
child's values and standards. These may shift in differing

situations.

Bias of the Sample

 

Another factor which may contribute to low
relationships of parent moral responses to child moral
responses and in some cases the narrow range of guilt
scores is the composition of the sample. The sample
tended toward a middle class, Protestant group who
might be expected from previous research (A7, 58) to
show more internalization of guilt than a more
heterogeneous sample. The one family whose income was
under $3,000 showed all child and parent situations
reflecting deviation and guilt above 70%. The
desirability of a more heterogeneous sample is emphasized,
and it may be speculated that selectivity of parents who
agreed to cooperate in the investigation biased results.
Other factors to be considered are family differences in
values. Some families indicated that the disobedience
situation would be less severely evaluated in their

families than other situations. Findings of significant

95

relationships of boys' resistance to temptation and guilt
for theft may reflect a less ambivalent, culturally
determined situation than disobedience or death wishes.
Control for motivation and need for achievement has
been stressed by Hoffman (35), and may introduce an
extraneous variable in situational and child-parent
comparisons. Allinsmith (2) notes that peOple who
disown moral needs and deceive themselves about remorse
are most likely to yield in resistance to temptation
situations. The importance of Allinsmith's finding may
appear in the limited relationship of children's and
parents' resistance to temptation; some children who
showed high guilt and deviated had fathers who

received zero scores on guilt.

Comments on the Instrument

 

The need for revision of the guilt scale may be
indicated by the narrow range of guilt scores for some
subtests. A means of control for denial and suppression
of guilt is needed. Mosher (50) found high guilt subjects
relatively insensitive to situational cues while low
guilt subjects were highly situationally dependent.
Further research could incorporate this difference in the
research design. The two resistance to temptation
situations may have cued low guilt scores among some
subjects. The limited number of significant correlations

between resistance to temptation and guilt severity,

96

however, suggests that, for these subjects, guilt scores
were relatively independent of resistance or deviation.
Trends toward a positive relationship between resistance
to temptation and guilt severity indicate that the
anticipation of transgression may result in a guilt
response which is as severe as that following deviation.
These results perhaps support the assertion that the
anticipation of guilt serves to prevent deviation.
Subjects who obtained very low guilt scores were
consistent across the three moral areas which further
suggests that guilt responses were not dependent on

resistance or deviation.

Attempts at Integration

 

The most cogent explanation of the varied and
somewhat confounded findings of this research appears
to be that the father presents a more unified, less
situationally determined standard of moral behavior
which the child may model in acceptance of cultural
expectations. The mother appears to respond in a more
situationally determined manner, providing a more love—
oriented model of moral standards. She appears to be
dominant in determination of affectively oriented
situations and in standards involving the home. Both
parents serve to inculcate their standards in the child
through subtle communication, reflected in modeling of

the superego of the child on the superego of the parent

97

rather than the parent's overt verbalization. The
parents' indirect responses to moral areas, indirect
manifestations for fathers and defense mechanisms for
mothers, assert more influence on moral standards of
twelve year old boys than direct acknowledgment or
resistance to temptation. The many non-significant
relationships suggest that other sources of moral
response are important.

The anaclitic model of identification is more
directly supported by these data than is defensive
identification, particularly in reference to death
wishes and disobedience. The mother may provide a
nurturant Object whose love is dependent on conformity
to her standard rather than the father's standard.

Child externalization was highly related to father's use
of indirect manifestations of guilt. This may indicate
relation to the father as the greater authority, with
the child more likely to expect physical punishment from

the father.

Further Considerations

 

The investigator plans to make further modifications
of the objective items concerning death wishes, theft and
disobedience. A reliability study, which is in the
process of completion, should provide further information
about discriminatory potential of items and stability of

subjects' scores over time. Modification of wording of

98

some items and expansion of items for some forms of moral
response would probably increase the effectiveness of the
instrument. The possibility of more age—relevant items
for parents is being considered.

Methodology may be refined further by the inclusion
of other parent variables, more accurate evaluation of
the social desirability of certain responses and control
for denial of guilt. Family interviews, utilizing a
structured interview schedule or role playing technique,
might be utilized. Data from instructions for children,
involving perceptions of father and mother, would be
desirable. Some measure of rigidity appears relevant
in View Of differential consistency of moral responses.

As noted previously, a more heterogeneous sample
is needed for effective evaluation of the parent—child
comparisons of moral responses. The findings of this
study must be restricted to the sample which participated
as a more heterogeneous sample might yield differing
conclusions.

Data from children of differing ages could enable
evaluation of developmental influence on parent—child
agreement and changes in congruence of children's
responses and parents' predictions of their responses.
Situations in which the items were administered could

be varied to evaluate influence of home and school.

99

Differing areas of moral response in relation to
high and low guilt subjects provide a promising area for

further research.

CHAPTER VII

SUMMARY

The major purpose of this study was to investigate
the relationship of moral responses of twelve year old boys
in the areas of death wishes, theft and disobedience and
their parents' moral responses in these areas as they per-
ceive themselves at twelve and as they perceive their sons'
responses. Hypotheses relevant to these comparisons pre-
dicted generally high relationships between children's and
parents' responses for guilt and resistance to temptation
in three areas and in use of forms of moral response. Forms
of moral response included direct acknowledgment, indirect
manifestations, defense mechanisms and externalization.
Hypotheses generated initially from psychoanalytic con-
ceptions of identification were viewed from the alternate
approaches of psychoanalytic theory and social learning
theory. Pearson product moment correlations were computed
to obtain comparisons of child, father at twelve, mother
at twelve, father's perception of child's guilt, mother's
perception of child's guilt, average of mother-father at
twelve, and average of parents' prediction of child's
responses.

Hypotheses tested for significance at the .05 level
by Pearson product moment correlations for guilt scores and
phi coefficients for resistance to temptation comparisons

were:
100

101

Hypothesis I: There is a significant relationship

 

between moral responses of twelve year old boys in moral
areas of death wishes, theft and disobedience and moral
responses of their parents in these areas.

Hypothesis II: There is a significant relationship

 

between twelve year Old boys' forms of moral response,
defined as resistance to temptation, direct acknowledg-
ment, indirect manifestations, defense mechanisms, and
externalization, and parents' forms of moral response.

Hypothesis III: There is a significant

 

relationship between total moral response of twelve year
old boys and total moral response of parents.

Hypothesis IV: It is hypothesized that similarity

 

between child and father will be greater than similarity
between child and mother.

Twenty—six 12 year old boys from Traverse City Junior
High School and their fathers and mothers participated in
the study, this number representing the number of completed
responses from an initial contact of 175 families. The
instrument included story completion items from Allinsmith
(2) and forced response objective questions from Allinsmith's
levels of guilt severity, Adams' (1) levels of guilt
severity, and additional items checked by graduate students
and the investigator's research director. Guilt items
were scored and weighted for severity. Correlations
were computed for all relationships of guilt scores. Phi

coefficients (66) were used for comparisons of resistance

102

to temptation for children and parents and of resistance
to temptation and guilt for theft and disobedience.

All interrelations for child, father at twelve,
mother at twelve, father's perception Of child's guilt,
mother's perception of child's guilt, average parent at
twelve, and average parent's perception of child's guilt
were found to have subtotals significantly related to
total guilt. Interrelations of guilt scores for fathers
were considerably more consistent than interrelations for
children and mothers. Resistance to temptation comparisons
with guilt did not show such high correlations. The
limited number of significant correlations between
resistance to temptation and guilt severity suggested
that, for these subjects, guilt scores were relatively
independent of resistance or deviation.

Some support was gained for Hypotheses I and II,
especially for child compared with parents' reports of
their own responses at twelve. Resistance to temptation
comparison showed only the child's response and mother's
perception of child's response for disobedience to be
significantly related. Parent resistance to temptation
was not significantly related to child's guilt, and
children's resistance to temptation was related to
parents' guilt only for child resistance to temptation
for theft and father's guilt for theft. This was the
only instance in which father-child similarity was

greater than mother—child similarity.

103

Correlations between child guilt for three moral areas
and parent guilt for these areas indicated that child's
guilt response for death wishes was significantly related
to mother's guilt for death wishes, disobedience and total
guilt. Child's guilt for death wishes correlated
significantly with average parent guilt at twelve for
death wishes. Parents' prediction of child's guilt was
significantly related only for mother's prediction of
child's guilt for disobedience and child's guilt for
death wishes.

Forms of moral response showed selective patterning
of significant relations, but little general support for
Hypothesis II. Fathers' indirect manifestations of guilt
at twelve was related to child's externalization of
guilt and total guilt, and father's defense mechanisms
at twelve was related to child's indirect manifestations.
Mother's defense mechanisms at twelve was related to
child's indirect manifestations, defense mechanisms,
externalization and total guilt. Mother's total guilt at
twelve showed a significant relationship to child's
indirect manifestations. Combined parents' defense
mechanisms at twelve showed a significant relationship
to child's indirect manifestations, externalization and
total guilt. Parents' total guilt at twelve was
significantly related to child's indirect manifestations.
Comparisons of direct acknowledgment showed no significant

relationships. Parents' perceptions of child's responses

10A

yielded only the significant relationship of mother's
perception of child's defense mechanisms and perception
of child's total guilt to child's indirect manifestations.
Thus, Hypothesis 11 received little support from
comparison of child's guilt with parents' perceptions

Of child's guilt.

Comparison of child's total guilt with parents' total
guilt showed no significant comparisons; therefore,
Hypothesis III received no support.

Father's indirect manifestations were related to
child's theft and disobedience scores. Mother's defense
mechanisms at twelve were related to child's death
wishes, theft and disobedience. Mother's total guilt
showed a significant relationship to child's death wishes.
No significant relationships resulted among comparisons
of child's responses to moral areas and parents'
predictions of forms of child's moral response. Child's
indirect manifestations were related to mother's death
wishes at twelve, disobedience at twelve, mother's
perception of child's disobedience response, and
average parent's death wishes at twelve.

Generally high positive relationships were found in
comparisons of mother's and father's responses. Mothers'
response to death wishes at twelve and prediction of
child's death wishes failed to show a relationship to
fathers' responses although the mother—child similarity

for death wishes was high. Mother's perception of

105

child's direct acknowledgment was generally not related
to father's perception of child's guilt.

Total guilt for mother at twelve was related to all
Of father's subtotals. Total guilt of father at twelve
was related to all of mother's subtotals except mother's
death wishes, defense mechanisms and externalization.
Closer agreement existed between father—mother responses
for perception of child's guilt than for parents at
twelve.

Major findings were greater child—mother similarity
than father-child similarity, non—supportive of Hypothesis
IV, and more supportive of acquisition of standards through
anaclitic identification as viewed by social learning theory
or imitation of a controlling parental model than the
psychoanalytic concept of identification with the aggressor
following resolution of the Oedipus situation. Fathers'
guilt scores were more consistent than those of mothers'
or children, which suggested that the father may serve as
a model for cultural standards, especially in view Of.a
significant relationship between father's guilt for theft
and child's resistance to temptation for theft. The
mother may function as the model for home and affective
behavior. Parents' responses at twelve showed greater
similarity to children's responses than parentks per-
ception of children's responses.‘ Data may reflect
the identification of the child's superego with the
parents' superego; the parents may not be aware of guilt

manifestations in the child if they defend against guilt

106

or express it indirectly themselves. Total guilt
comparisons showed no significant relationships, suggesting
that guilt may be expressed in different forms, the
summation of which may not be comparable to the

summation of the separate forms of response assessed.

It was suggested that the father may present a more
unified, less situationally determined standard Of moral
behavior which the child may model in acceptance of
cultural expectations. The mother appears to respond to
more situation cues, and provides a more love-oriented
model of moral standards. She appears to be dominant
in affective and home situations. Subtle communication
and parental forms of resonse to moral situations may be
more influential than direct acknowledgment. This
communication seems to be reflected in modeling of the
superego of the child on the superego of the parent.

The anaclitic model of identification was more
directly supported by data than defensive identification,
particularly in reference to death wishes and disobedience.
CHM; mother may provide a nurturant object whose continued
love is dependent on conformity to her standard, and the
child may respond more to this reinforcement than to
motivation for global incorporation of the father's
standards. Child externalization was highly related to
father's indirect manifestations of guilt, which may
indicate the boys' relationship to the father as the

more punitive, especially physically punitive, authority.

107

One may conclude that some relationship exists
between moral responses of twelve year old boys and their
fathers' and mothers' moral responses, although this
research may not fully describe this relationship. The
large number of non—significant relationships suggests that
other sources of moral responses than those considered
are important. Greater mother—child similarity than
father-child similarity and greater similarity of child's
responses to parents' reports of their own responses at
twelve than parents' perceptions of child's moral
responses raised interesting questions for further
research. The use of objective questions in relation

to story completion items appears promising.

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108

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APPENDICES

116

APPENDIX A

Description of Sample

117

Table l.--Distribution of Children's Intelligence.

 

 

Range N

 

Superior (IQ = 120 or greater) 9
Bright Normal (IQ = 110—119) 6
Average (IQ = 90-109)
(IQ = 100-109) 8
(IQ = 90-99) 3

 

Table 2.—-Distribution of Parents' Ages.

 

 

 

Age Range Father N Mother N
50 or greater A 2
145—149 2 0
A0-AA l2 9
35—39 6 10
30-3A 2 5

 

Table 3.--Distribution of Parents' Education.

 

i__, ’—
J :—_—

Education Range Father N Mother N

 

Ph. D. or equivalent

Master of Arts or Master of Science
Bachelor of Arts

Registered Nurse

Some College

High School

Grade 8 to 11

Grade 8

Incomplete

OMHNKOOI—JUWH
1...:
I—‘OOOU‘ISU'II—‘O

 

118

119

Table A.——Income and Occupation of Head of Household.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Income
. Above $5,000— $3,000— Below
occupation $10,000 $10,000 $5,000 $3,000
Professional A 2 0 0
Owner of Business 0 1 0 0
Managerial A l 0 0
Other White Collar 2 2 0 0
Skilled 0 A 0 1
Unskilled 0 2 l 0
Table 5.——Religious Preference.
Religious Preference N
Protestant 2A
Catholic 2
Table 6.-—Number of Siblings.
Number of Siblings
0 l 2 3 A 5 6
Frequency 1 2 8 9 A 0 2

 

Table 7.——Ordinal Position.

 

Ordinal Position

 

1 2 3 A 5 6 7

 

Frequency 9 7 3 5 0 0 l

 

Illliillill’lll‘ll

 

APPENDIX B

Instrument

Instructions, Story Completion Items
and Annotated Objective Questions

120

Directions for Group Administration of
Instrument to Children

 

 

I am Mrs. Lifshin and I am studying at Michigan State
University. There I am learning about people of all ages.
I am especially interested in knowing more about fellows
your age, how people your age think and feel and what they
do in different situations. So I am asking you to finish
some stories which have no endings about young people
doing different things, and to answer some questions about
the stories. After you are finished, I will take the
booklets back to the university so your answers will not
be given to parents or the school. I am just interested
in what you think.

Now I'm going to read the instructions on the front
of the booklet and you can read along with me. If you
have any questions, ask them now or raise your hand while

you are working *

 

*Modified from Allinsmith (2).

121

122

Background InfOrmation and Initial Instructions for Children

Background Information

 

Age:

 

Grade in School:

 

Ages of brothers:

 

of sisters:

 

Instructions

 

We have some stories here about young people doing
different things but the stories have no endings. So we
are asking you and many other boys to finish the stories
for us. We want to know what different young people would
do in situations like these. Tell what the people in the
stories are thinking and feeling. There are no right or
wrong answers; we just want to know what you think might
happen. It is important that you complete every story
and answer all questions on the pages following the
stories.

Instructions for Children Concerning Perception of Father's
Responses

You have told us what you thought might happen in
three different situations. Now we are asking you to
answer the questions about the same stories as you think
your father would have answered them when he was your age.
You may wish to turn back to pages 2, A and 6 to reread

the stories.

123

Instructions for Children Concerning Perception of Mother's
Responses
Now please answer the questions about the stories as
you think your mother would have answered them when she
was your age.
Background Information and Initial Instructions for Parents

Background Information

 

Age:

 

Education: High School

 

College: Number of Years

Occupation of head of household:

 

Approximate annual income: Under $3,000

 

$3,000 to $5,000

 

$5,000 to $10,000

 

Over $10,000

 

Religious preference:

 

Instructions

 

The following stories about twelve year Old boys are
incomplete. We are interested in how parents of twelve
year old boys think they would have responded to the stories
at twelve years. We are asking you to complete the
stories as you feel you would have at that age. Complete
all three stories, telling what you think the people in
them are thinking and feeling. There are no right or
wrong answers; we only want to know what you think might
happen. It is important that you complete every story and

answer all questions on the pages following the stories.

12A
Instructions for Fathers and Mothers Concerning
Perceptions of Child's Responses

You have told us what you thought might happen in
three different situations as you would have responded
when you were twelve years old. Now we are asking you to
answer the questions about the same stories as you think
your child would answer them. You may wish to refer to

pages 2, A, and 6 to reread the stories.

Story Stem for Death Wishes*

1. Dave likes his baseball coach. The other day
the coach promised him privately that Dave could pitch
in the big game on Saturday. When the team meets for
final practice, the coach doesn't say anything to Dave
about pitching. Dave is afraid he has forgotten or

changed his mind. He keeps thinking to himself over and

over again: "The coach isn't going to keep his promise.
I hope he doesn't even make the game. I wish he'd drop
dead!"

When Dave arrives at the game on Saturday afternoon,

he sees from the scoreboard that he is scheduled to pitch.

Story Stem for Theft*
II. Bill's friends have formed a baseball team.
They promised Bill he could be their catcher if he could
get a catcher's mitt. His father told he could not buy

him a catcher's mitt. Bill saved all the money he could.

 

*Story stem from Allinsmith (2).

125

At last he had $10.00 saved up to get a really good glove.
When he arrives at the sports store, he sees the sales-
clerk going down the stairs to the cellar of the store.
The clerk does not see Bill, Bill decides to look at the
cather's gloves himself before calling the clerk. He
finds just the one he wants. Then he reaches for his
money. It is gone. He realizes that he has lost it

on the way downtown. Bill feels awful. He looks around.
There is nobody in the store or near it outside. The
clerk is still in the cellar. It occurs to Bill that the

mitt would just fit under the bulge in his jacket.

Story Stem for Disobedience*

III. One day Ted's mother goes visiting a friend
Of hers in another town. At noon just after his lunch
Ted phones his mother and talks with her. She tells
him to be a good boy and says she will be home at
suppertime. Now Ted is all alone with nothing to do.
He thinks of the boxes in the top of his mother's closet.
She has told him never to take down the boxes. He knows

his mother won't be home until suppertime.

 

*Story stem from Allinsmith (2).

126

Objective Questions Following Death Wishes Story

You have told us in your own words what you think might
happen when Dave arrives at the game. Now we would like you to
check the following items. Mark Yes if the item represents

what you think Dave felt or did. Mark No if you think he
did not feel or act as the item suggests.

When Dave saw that he was scheduled to pitch . . . . . . . .

malls

he blamed the coach when he made an error.
(defense mechanism-projection)

he felt very upset about his thoughts about the coach.
(direct acknowledgment—level III)

he pitched poorly.
(indirect manifestations—level II)

he didn't feel upset during the game but became
upset without knowing why later in the day while
things like eating, riding his bicycle, or finishing
his homework.
(defense mechanism—isolation)

he was unable to pitch.
(indirect manifestations—level III)

he pitched more like he did when he was first
learning than as he usually did.
(defense mechanisms—regression)

he pitched with his usual skill.
(neutral item—level 0)

he felt panic when he began to pitch.
(indirect manifestations—level III)

he was hurt in the game.
(indirect manifestations—level III)

he felt he was to blame when the team fell behind.
(direct acknowledgment—level II)

he felt nervous around the coach.
(indirect manifestations—level I)

he was sorry he had thought about the coach as he
had.
(direct acknowledgment—level I)

he told the fellows on the team about the coach's
promise and tried to get them to agree that the
coach should have told him he would pitch at final
practice.
(defense mechanism—projection)

he forgot about his thoughts about the coach.
(defense mechanism—repression)

he pitched well for the coach's sake.
(indirect manifestations—level II)

he acted silly and acted like a "little kid.“
(defense mechanism-regression)

127

he felt more carefree and happy during the game

than he usually did.
(defense mechanism-reaction formation)

he led the team to victory in a tight spot.
(indirect manifestations-level I)

he made a special point of praising the coach that
day.
(defense mechanism-undoing)

128

Objective Questions Following Theft Story

Do you think Bill: a. . took the glove.

b did not take the glove.

Check each of the following items which represent what you
think Bill felt or did loo. Check the items which do not
represent what you think he felt or did No. Answer every
question whether or not you think Bill took the glove.

Yes

is

Bill was afraid of being seen.
(externalization—level 1)

Bill left the glove where his parents would find
it.

(desire to be caught—level II—for total score
only)

He went on to play without thinking about the
glove.

(defense mechanism-repression)

Bill felt extremely upset.

(direct acknowledgment-level III)

Bill was sent to jail for taking the glove.
(externalization-level III)

The clerk came upstairs before he could leave.
(externalization-level II)

Bill felt a little uncomfortable and sorry he had
taken the glove.

(direct acknowledgment-level 1)

Bill returned the glove and confessed.
(direct acknowledgment-level III)

He blamed the clerk for being in the basement.
(defense mechanism-projection)

Bill knew it was necessary for him to have the
glove.

(defense mechanism—rationalization)

His parents asked him how he bought the glove when
he had left his money at home.
(externalization-level II)

Bill pitched poorly when he wore the glove.
(indirect manifestations—level II)

He felt more happy and carefree than he usually did.
(defense mechanism-reaction formation)

He left and then provoked a friend into helping him
take the glove.

(defense mechanism-projection)

Bill began to act like a little kid; he was silly
and babyish.

(defense mechanism-regression)

129

He didn't feel upset walking out of the store but

suddenly became upset later in the day while
doing something like riding his bicycle.
(defense mechanism-isolation or displacement)
Bill had to work after school to pay for the glove.
(externalization-level II)
Bill couldn't move from the counter.
(indirect manifestations—level III)
He said someone else had taken the glove.
(defense mechanism—projection)
The fact that he had taken the glove didn't bother
Bill then or later.
(neutral item-level 0)
He gave someone else a present afterward.
(defense mechanism—reaction formation)

130

Objective Questions Following Disobedience Story

Do you think Ted: a. took the boxes from the shelf.
b. did not take the boxes from the
shelf.

Check each of the following items which represent what you
think Ted felt or did Yog. Check the items which do not
represent what you think he felt or did No; Answer every
question whether or not you think Ted took the boxes from
the shelf.

Tasha

Ted was sorry he opened the boxes and saw what
was in them.

(direct acknowledgment-level I)

Ted blamed someone else for Opening the boxes.
(defense mechanism—projection)

He was spanked and sent to bed.
(externalization-level II)

Ted wasn't upset at the time but later in the day
he became upset without knowing why when doing
things like riding his bicycle or finishing
his chores at home.

(defense mechanism-isolation)

A gift for someone else was in the boxes.

(not categorized-level I-for total score only)

He was afraid someone would see him.
(externalization—level I)

Ted was in a gay mood when his mother came home.
(defense mechanism-denial)

His mother returned home early.
(externalization-level II)

Ted was very upset about opening the boxes.
(direct acknowledgment-level III)

He replaced the boxes and forgot about Opening
them.

(defense mechanism-repression)

He thought about how much he had gained by opening
the boxes.

(defense mechanism-rationalization)

He acted more like a little "kid" than someone his
age.

(defense mechanism-regression)

Ted boasted about opening the boxes.
(defense mechanism-denial)

He called someone else to look at what was in the
boxes.

(defense mechanism—projection)

131

Items in the boxes fell on him and hurt him

seriously.
(indirect manifestations—level III)

He forgot to replace the boxes.
(desire to be caught-level II-for total score
only)

He performed a good deed for someone else after-
ward.
(defense mechanism-reaction formation)