Title: Helping Children Build a Conscience
Headings: Helping Children Build a Conscience
Helping Children Build a Conscience
When Does One's Conscience Develop?
The Process of Identification
Instruction and Training
Interactions with the Environment
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Content: For our purposes here, the formative years begin at birth and extend up into adolescence during which time one forms a basic identity and sense of self. The identity formed is usually a confluence of characteristics that come from the parents, extended family, school or educational setting, and community environment. We can even say that the larger culture one is born into and grows up in has a significant influence on our personality development. Identification is the method used to internalize and make one's own certain psychological characteristics ranging from the way we think about things to the way we relate to others, or even to the kinds of ideals we aspire to as we move toward the adult world. As parents, you have the greatest impact on how your child develops, and especially how he or she develops a conscience. The process begins with the initial attachment that is formed between you and your child soon after birth. The strength and quality of this attachment establishes the very foundation on which a conscience is eventually built. In short, children who don't feel that they are loved and cared for on a consistent basis by a parent will have some difficulty in developing empathy at a later age when he is able to begin to discriminate between his needs and those of others. If his own needs for love and dependency haven't been met, then he will be consumed by trying to get them fulfilled at the expense of others. As children move through childhood, the initial attachment expands into a more complex process of identification.