News & Announcements

Parenting in early years forms basis for "ethical brain" development

WNDU News story and video.

Darcia Narvaez offers tips to parents based on brain and developmental research.

Treat your child with kindness and they will treat others that way when they are grown up.

Respond quickly to your child’s needs when they are babies, and you’ll have fewer problems with them later.

The manner of your responding to your baby is building their personality.

If you let them cry for very long, their brains create stressed response that may become a habitual way to react to distress.

Stressing them out increases the chances that the brain becomes hypersensitive to stress and more susceptible to depression and anxiety later.

Distress can make people more self-focused.

Link to full article on the research.

Collaboration faculty are busy publishing

Here are several recent publications relevant to moral character development.

Narvaez, D. & Lapsley, D. (2008). Teaching moral character: Two alternatives for teacher educators. Teacher Educator, 43(2), 156-172.

Nucci, L., & Narvaez, D. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of Moral and Character Education. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Power, F. C., Nuzzi, R. J., Narvaez, D., Lapsley, D. K., & Hunt, T. C. (Eds.). (2008). Moral education: A handbook (Vols. 1-2). Westport, CT: Praeger

PLC Leadership Conference, June 22 – 24, 2007
University of Notre Dame

The PLC Leadership Conference is a train-the-trainer workshop for those interested in implementing a PLC Sports as Ministry Initiative or Coaching for Character program in their school, parish, diocese, or league. Conference participants will be trained to lead future workshops for coaches and parents in the hopes of creating a more positive climate in youth sports. During the three-day workshop conference, participants experience a PLC Coaches Workshop presented by PLC Master Trainers and receive extensive training and consultation to effectively present a PLC program to their school, parish, diocese, or league.

The PLC Leadership Conference provides participants with:

  • A comprehensive “game plan” for elevating the climate of youth sport through coach and parent education.
  • Mastery of the PLC coaching philosophy and materials.
  • The knowledge and training resources necessary to lead PLC Workshops for coaches in schools, parishes, league, and diocese settings.
  • Training, practice opportunities, and evaluation.
  • Membership into a national network of PLC trainers linked through support of the University of Notre Dame.

PLC offers several training opportunities for conference participants. For the first time participants have the option of being trained in a number of PLC programs. These include:

  • PLC Sports as Ministry Initiative (SAM) – Ideal for a parochial settings
  • PLC Coaching for Character – Used by public schools and leagues
  • Parent Like A Champion – A parent program

We are accepting applications for those interested in joining our team. Please contact Kristin Sheehan at 574-631-9981 or email plc@nd edu for additional information.  

Practicing Goodness: Playing a Prosocial Videogame

The effects of violent media on behavior have been studied for decades. Less studied are the effects of prosocial media on behavior (Hogan, in press), especially in terms of video games. Following the design of Bushman and Anderson (2001) participants were assigned to one of three video game conditions: violent, prosocial, neutral. After playing for ten minutes, participants completed three stories (Car Accident, Persuading a Friend, The Room [about a messy roommate]) writing what would happen next (what would the protagonist do, say, think, feel). Responses were scored for violent (harmful, aggressive), prosocial (helpful, empathic, supportive), and neutral remarks. Across conditions there were no significant differences for aggressive responses. Importantly, the number of prosocial remarks in the prosocial condition was significantly greater than in the aggression or neutral conditions. Those in the prosocial condition produced more prosocial endings to stories. Playing video games creates social biases that influence feelings, attitudes, and behavior. Which biases are created are influenced by what kind of game is played. Playing positive games may increase the likelihood of thinking, feeling, and behaving morally and suppress the violent priming of videogame media generally. Media may be used in multiple positive ways to build moral character.

Download a pdf of the full report here.

Symposium on Personality and Moral Character to be hosted by CEE, October 12-14.

Featuring a renowned panel of scholars who take up the problem of how to conceptualize the moral personality from diverse psychological perspectives
THE SYMPOSIUM ADDRESSES SUCH QUESTIONS AS:
What is the moral self?
How should we understand moral character as a dimension of human personality?
What is the foundation of conscience? Of moral identity?
How is the moral self exemplified in prosocial behavior and moral action?

For more information...

European Presentations over the Summer of 2006

Brandenberger, J., Kelly, A. C. & McManus, J. (July 2006).  Integrated Ethical Development in Business Education:  A Longitudinal Study. Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Lapsley, D., & Narvaez, D. (July 2006).  Psychologized Morality and its Discontents, or, Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors? Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Narvaez, D. (July 2006). Triune Ethics: Security, Engagement and Imagination, Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Narvaez, D., Gomberg, A., & Carney, E. (July 2006). Moral Personality is Related to Perception of Morality in Stories. Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Power, F. C., Brandenberger, J., Power, A. R., LaVoi, N. & Trucano, D. (July 2006). Morality and Civic Engagement in the Global Community. Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Vaydich, J., Kmelkhov, V., & Narvaez, D. (July 2006). Do Academic Goals lead to Prosocial Behavior? Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Bock, T., Lies, J., & Narvaez, D. (July 2006). Ethical Identity Scale: Factor Structure and Construct Validity. Association for Moral Education annual meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Collaboration Director Co-authors First Chapter on Character Education in Handbook

This chapter can be accessed here.

Contact: Darcia Narvaez , 574-631-7835 or dnarvaez@nd.edu