The influence of models in forming moral identity |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Neurology, Zhengzhou University People''s Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan 450003, China;2. Department of Neurobiology and Beijing Institute for Neuroscience, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China;1. Orthopaedic Research Lab, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Via Sana Clinic, Mill, The Netherlands;3. Laboratory for Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Examples are an important element of traditional education. Though the examples chosen by children and adolescents are often identified as central themes in their development (especially the examples presented by the mass media we sometimes worry about), the role of examples in recent moral pedagogics and psychology has rarely been discussed. A survey of 1150 pupils in Austria and Germany suggested that young people take as their examples primarily persons from their social neighborhood and secondarily those from sports and music. From the point of view of those studied, examples can help to master the developmental tasks facing them. Since children and young people identity themselves with their examples, these become elements of their self or their identity, even their moral identity. Examples influence moral attitudes, insofar as they are perceived by the adolescents.Otto Krille, born in 1878, was a German socialist. In his autobiography, he confessed that his moral identity essentially was influenced by his mother. He appreciated her as a model of a powerful and impressive woman committing herself to the concerns of proletarians. Krille came to be an ardent advocate of the poor working class. His moral development as well as his moral identity had been formed by the example of his mother.But is such development possible in our times? When journalists write about examples and models of children and adolescents, they typically talk about stars such as Michael Jackson, Boris Becker, Madonna, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, not parents, grandparents, older siblings, priests, or teachers. Now and then, journalists draw attention to James Dean, especially his film, Rebel Without a Cause. Many adolescents proved their daring by driving their cars toward steep cliffs and some have been killed in accidents. Bandura (1963)was inspired by such events to conduct his well-known experiments on imitation and learning from models.These journalistic reports allege two issues. First, moral identity of young persons is strongly influenced by models. Young people adopt their values and frequently imitate their behavior. Second, these models are rarely persons from social nearness. Rather they are stars from movies and television, the musical scene, and sport. But is it true that young people admire such models? Which persons are the real models in young persons’ lives? |
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