Temperament and the Development of Conscience: The Moderating Role of Effortful Control

Abstract

In this longitudinal study we examined whether two components of effortful control, behavioral control and executive function, moderated the relation between temperament and conscience development. Temperament was assessed when participants were 2 years of age, and three temperament groups were formed; inhibited, exuberant, and low reactive. At 4.5 years of age children's behavioral control and executive function were assessed. Moral behavior, emotionality during an empathy film, and false-belief understanding were measured at 5.5 years of age as components of conscience. Results indicate that inhibited children may benefit most from higher levels of effortful control. Inhibited children with higher levels of behavioral control performed better on false-belief understanding tasks whereas inhibited children who scored higher on executive function tests reported less emotional response to the evocative film. Finally, as a group, inhibited children exhibited more moral behavior than exuberant and low reactive children.

Executive function and temperamental fear concurrently predict deception in school-aged children

“…Although a large number of studies have examined the affective processes involved in the development of conscience (e.g. Frick & Morris, 2004; Jackson & Center, 2002; Kochanska et al, 1994; Kochanska et al, 1997; Stifter et al, 2009), the present study is the first, to our knowledge, to explore the interaction between temperamental fear and EF as concurrent predictors of childhood deception.…”

“…A growing number of researchers have incorporated temperamental fear into research involving morality and the development of conscience (Frick & Morris, 2004; Jackson & Center, 2002; Kochanska, 1991; Kochanska, DeVet, Goldman, Murray, & Putnam, 1994; Kochanska, Murray, & Coy, 1997; Stifter, Cipriano, Conway, & Kelleher, 2009). Conscience relates to a child’s level of affective discomfort or guilt following transgressions.…”

“…In particular, while the research literatures on EF and deception and on temperamental fear and conscience are each substantial (e.g. Frick & Morris, 2004; Gombos, 2006; Jackson & Center, 2002; Stifter et al, 2009) little is known about how EF and temperamental fear might interact in relation to deception. While greater EF capacity coincides with increased lie-telling abilities (Perner, Lang, & Kloo, 2002) and also recruits similar brain regions as deception (Abe et al, 2007; Bunge et al, 2001), considering EF alone does not take dispositional individual differences into account.…”

“…Aspects of temperamental fear and EF have been shown to jointly influence moral behavior that is reflective of conscience. For example, 4-to-5-year-olds identified as fearful and inhibited who also showed high EF demonstrated greater emotional regulatory ability during an empathy task, suggesting more advanced conscience development (Stifter et al, 2009). Those highly fearful children who have greater EF capacity also may be able to regulate their negative emotions enough to overcome inhibition and engage in a more expanded behavioral repertoire (Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, & McShane, 2006), which could include more prosocial, or arguably, non-prosocial behaviors, such as deception.…”

Moral Education and Development

“…As the idea that the mind was made up of separate powers or faculties was abandoned as implausible, so, by and large, was the notion of a conscience. Again, 'conscience' seems to be merely an umbrella term covering many interrelated factors in moral development; the same is true in Stifter et al, (2009), where the term is not defined, but used as a stand-in for a range of more specific measures of moral emotion and conduct. At best it seems a useful shorthand for all these things together, and their interrelations, which is how Kochanska and others use it (e.g., 1996Kochanska and others use it (e.g., , 2005Kochanska and others use it (e.g., , 2006.…”