Social cognition and moral cognition in bullying: What's ... - DPSS

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“Mike has a bad tummy ache, but he appears happy, otherwise his Mum notices that he is feeling bad and won't let him go out”). Finally, for the moral stories, an answer was considered correct if the child recognized the fact that, in the situation described, the character of the story should have felt a moral emotion (guilt or shame) for his/her own behavior (e.g. “She (Susan) feels guilty because she shouldn’t have said that bad things to her mate Claudia”). Moral Disengagement Scale This scale measures the individual’s tendency to use cognitive mechanisms that can disengage self-sanctions and justify the use of violent and aggressive behaviors. This version of the scale (Caprara et al., 1995), designed for primary school children, consists of 14 items describing individual’s readiness to construe injurious conduct as serving righteous purposes, masquerading censurable activities by palliative language or rendering them benign by advantageous comparison, minimizing the harmful effects of one’s detrimental conduct, and devaluing those who are maltreated (example items: “Some kids deserve to be treated like animals”; “Kids cannot be blamed for misbehaving if their friends pressured them to do it”). Children were asked to rate the strength of their endorsement or rejection of moral exoneration of detrimental conduct on a 5-point Likert-type scale (from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree). Therefore, higher scores in this scale indicate a higher tendency to engage in one or more of these mechanisms. Even though the items of the scale describe different mechanisms, previous studies using this scale with Italian samples (Caprara et al., 1995; Caprara et al., 1996; Menesini et al., 1997) have demonstrated a unidimensional structure of the scale, 16
especially for younger children. This was also confirmed in our sample. Therefore, following the suggestions of the authors of the scale, analyses was conducted on the total score and not on separate subscales in the present study. The reliability of the scale was α = .69. Procedure Stage 1. The PRQ and the Moral Disengagement Scale were completed during a single classroom session and the order of presentation of the two measures was counterbalanced. This session began by introducing the general purpose of the study. Then, the following definition of bullying (Whitney & Smith, 1993) was presented and discussed with the class: “We say a child or young person is being bullied, or picked on when another child or young person, or a group of children or young people, say nasty and unpleasant things to him or her. It is also bullying when a child or young person is hit, kicked, threatened, locked inside a room, sent nasty notes, when no one ever talks to them and things like that. These things can happen frequently and it is difficult for the child or young person being bullied to defend himself or herself. It is also bullying when a child or young person is teased repeatedly in a nasty way. But it is not bullying when two children or young people of about the same strength have the odd fight or quarrel.” 17
Page 1 and 2: Social cognition and moral cognitio
Page 3 and 4: Social cognition and moral cognitio
Page 5 and 6: mind task). The relevance of these
Page 7 and 8: eal conduct, which may not necessar
Page 9 and 10: Quite recently, the “traditional
Page 11 and 12: emotion as an expression of what is
Page 13 and 14: divided into six scales, which refe
Page 15: emotions (happiness, sadness, anger
Page 19 and 20: in which the reference to mental st
Page 21 and 22: level of moral disengagement than b
Page 23 and 24: not suggest a direct application of
Page 25 and 26: that is their thoughts, beliefs and
Page 27 and 28: emotional abilities, having psychos
Page 29 and 30: Boulton, M., & Smith, P. K. (1994).
Page 31 and 32: Gini, G., Albiero, P., & Benelli, B
Page 33 and 34: Kaukiainen, A., Björkqvist, K., Ö
Page 35 and 36: Sharp, S., & Smith, P. K. (1994). T
Page 37 and 38: Table I. Distribution of Participan
Page 39 and 40: Table III. Participant Roles and me
Page 41: Figure 1. Participant Roles and Mor

Social cognition and moral cognition in bullying: What's ... - DPSS

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