The Development of Altruism with Special Reference to Human Relationships: A 10-Stage Theory.

All human relationships involve some form of cost and benefit and altruism forms the foundation upon which human relationships are built. In this paper, a taxonomy of human relationships in terms of altruism was constructed. In the proposed taxonomy, human relationships are categorized into three major groups: primary group, secondary group, and tertiary group. The primary group consists of members that are very closely related to each other either by genetic relatedness (e.g., parents, siblings, and cousins) or social relatedness (e.g., mate and close friends) or both. The secondary group consists of members that are socially related but also less closely related with each other (e.g., people of the same political or religious group, teachers, mentors, acquaintances, neighbors, working colleagues, and strangers). Lastly, the tertiary group consists of members of other species. A 10-stage theory of altruism with special reference to human relationships is proposed. The affective, cognitive, and relationship aspects of each stage are delineated in details. There are two developmental principles of altruism. The first principle states that the development of altruism follows the 10-stage theory and moves from Stage 1: Egoism toward the higher stages of altruism slowly. The second developmental principle states that the taxonomy of human relationships is valid at any stage of altruism development. In other words, people at any stage of altruism are more altruistic toward their kin and mate, and then close friends, extended family members, and so on. They are least altruistic toward enemies and members of non-human species. In summary, the proposed developmental principle of altruism and human relationships is logical and robust. It is formulated based on the major developmental and social psychological theories. The theory has the potential in providing a useful framework for future studies on the development and evolution of human relationships.

The moral development of the child: an integrated model.

Previous theories of moral development such as those by Piaget and Kohlberg usually focused on the cognitive or rational aspect, and seldom included the affective aspect in their construction. The characteristics of the stages of moral development in the present paper are elaborated with special reference to psychological needs, altruism and human relationships, and justice reasoning. The three stages are: (1) Physical Survival, Selfishness, and Obedience, (2) Love Needs, Reciprocal Altruism, and Instrumental Purpose; and (3) Belongingness Needs, Primary Group Altruism, and Mutual Interpersonal Expectations. At Stage 1, a deep and profound attachment to parents, empathy toward the significant others, and obedience to authorities all contribute to the physical survival of a person at this stage. People at Stage 2 are self-protective, dominant, exploitative, and opportunistic. The need to love and to be loved is gratified on the basis of reciprocal altruism. People at Stage 3 have a strong desire to gratify their belongingness needs to a primary group. They are willing to sacrifice for the benefits of the group at great cost. While the psychological needs and altruism are related to the affective aspect of moral development, the justice reasoning is related to the cognitive aspect. The proposed theoretical model attempts to integrate the affective and cognitive aspects of moral development, and prototypic responses to questions related to hypothetical moral dilemmas are presented to substantiate the proposed stage structures. It is hypothesized that the sequence of these three stages is invariant of person and culture.

Social competence as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review.

Social competence is defined in terms of interpersonal relationships, self and group identities, and development of citizenship. While the focus of the author's previous research is on relationship and identity, the main focus of this paper is on the development of citizenship. A 4-stage developmental model of citizenship is proposed. A brief discussion of the educational implication of each of the stages is presented. The issues concerning the assessment of social competence are clearly delineated, and the discussion serves as a basis for future studies. Finally, five current issues concerning the launch of the "Moral and National Education (MNE) Subject" in Hong Kong primary and secondary schools are discussed.

Behavioral competence as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review.

Behavioral competence is delineated in terms of four parameters: (a) Moral and Social Knowledge, (b) Social Skills, (c) Positive Characters and Positive Attributes, and (d) Behavioral Decision Process and Action Taking. Since Ma's other papers in this special issue have already discussed the moral and social knowledge as well as the social skills associated in detail, this paper focuses on the last two parameters. It is hypothesized that the following twelve positive characters are highly related to behavioral competence: humanity, intelligence, courage, conscience, autonomy, respect, responsibility, naturalness, loyalty, humility, assertiveness, and perseverance. Large-scale empirical future studies should be conducted to substantiate the predictive validity of the complete set of these positive characters. The whole judgment and behavioral decision process is constructed based on the information processing approach. The direction of future studies should focus more on the complex input, central control, and output subprocesses and the interactions among these sub-processes. The understanding of the formation of behavior is crucial to whole-person education and positive youth development.

Moral competence as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review.

Moral competence refers to the affective orientation to perform altruistic behaviors and the ability to judge moral issues logically. A five-stage theory of moral development is proposed. Both western and Chinese perspectives are incorporated in the elaboration of the characteristics of each stage. A brief review of the antecedents of moral competence is presented. The relationship between moral competence and adolescent developmental outcomes is also discussed. Some practical ways to promote moral competence are suggested. School-based programs may be effective in the promotion of moral competence provided it is based on all-round or whole-person development and the length of the program should be sufficiently long.

Construction of a teaching package on promoting prosocial internet use and preventing antisocial Internet use.

In the construction of the teaching package on the Internet use, two major moral characters, respect and responsibility, form the core theoretical basis. The respect character consists of respect for others and self-respect while the responsibility character contains social, civil, and global responsibility. There are a total of nine units on the Internet use in the junior secondary curriculum. There are two units in Secondary One curriculum: the first unit deals with cheating behavior and privacy issues concerning the Internet, and the second one discusses the effect of excessive use of the Internet on life and study. In Secondary Two curriculum, we discuss the following social phenomena on the Internet with students: online shopping, pornographic materials on internet, and infringement of a copyright. Finally, we have designed four units on the Internet use in Secondary Three curriculum which focuses more on the relationship between the Internet use and our health. We try to answer the question on how we can use the Internet healthily and also the possibility on how it may hurt us. Similar to the second unit in Secondary One curriculum, we have designed three more units on discussing the effects of excessive use of the Internet with students. We would like to alert students that ineffective use of the Internet will hurt us mentally and physically. For illustrative purposes, two units in the Secondary One and Two curriculums are outlined in this paper.

Internet addiction and antisocial internet behavior of adolescents.

Internet addiction and the moral implication of antisocial Internet behavior will be investigated in this paper. More and more people use the Internet in their daily life. Unfortunately the percentage of people who use the internet excessively also increases. The concept of Internet addiction or pathological use of Internet is discussed in detail, and the characteristics of Internet addicts are also delineated. The social (especially the antisocial) use of Internet is discussed. It is argued that the behavior of Internet use is similar to daily life social behavior. In other words, Internet behavior is a kind of social behavior. Kohlberg's theory of moral development is employed to delineate the moral reasoning of the antisocial Internet behavior. The following behaviors are regarded as antisocial Internet behavior: (1) the use of Internet to carry out illegal activities such as selling faked products or offensive pornographic materials, (2) the use of Internet to bully others (i.e., cyberbullying) such as distributing libelous statements against a certain person, (3) the use of Internet to cheat others, and (4) the use of Internet to do illegal gambling. The characteristics of the moral stages that are associated with these antisocial Internet behaviors are investigated in detail.

Development of a new curriculum in a positive youth development program: the project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong.

The design of a new curriculum in a positive youth development program (Project P.A.T.H.S.) in Hong Kong is outlined. The Tier 1 Program of the original phase of the Project P.A.T.H.S. is a universal positive youth development program for students in Secondary 1 to Secondary 3 with the curricula developed by a research team comprising scholars in different disciplines (e.g., social work, psychology, and education). The 120 teaching units are designed with reference to 15 positive youth development constructs identified in the successful positive youth development programs. In the extension phase of the project, a new curriculum with 60 teaching units is developed in accordance with these 15 constructs with specific reference to five major adolescent developmental issues. These issues include substance abuse, sexuality issue, Internet addiction, bullying, and money and success issues. The principles underlying the program development and implementation strategies are outlined.

The relation of Internet use to prosocial and antisocial behavior in Chinese adolescents.

Prosocial and antisocial Internet use is investigated in this study by constructing an objective measure called the Adolescent Internet Use Questionnaire (AIUQ). The sample consists of 509 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Based on the previous review of the literature, the present study tests the following two hypotheses: (a) sex difference hypothesis: boys are more delinquent in Internet use than are girls; (b) positive association hypothesis: there is a positive association between Internet behavior and daily social behavior. In other words, positive Internet behavior is positively associated with positive daily social behavior, and negative Internet behavior is positively associated with negative daily social behavior. In general, the two hypotheses are supported by the data in this study. The internal consistency reliability and predictive validity of the major indices of the AIUQ are also substantiated by the present data.

Editorial: Evaluation of the project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong: are the findings replicable across different populations?

Existing youth enhancement programs commonly deal with isolated problems and issues in adolescent development and they are relatively short-term in nature. To promote holistic development among adolescents in Hong Kong, we launched Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes (P.A.T.H.S.). One unique characteristic of the Project P.A.T.H.S. is systematic evaluation of the program using various evaluation strategies. In this special issue, comprising 8 research articles, we have applied the principle of replication to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the Programs, including subjective outcome evaluation based on program participants and implementers, evaluation based on secondary data evaluation, and objective outcome evaluation. Generally speaking, the findings are consistent with those reported previously, thus providing evidence for the replication of related research findings. These replicated findings generally suggest that different stakeholders have positive perceptions of the program, workers and benefits of the program and there is evidence supporting the effectiveness of the program.

Subjective outcome evaluation of a positive youth development program in Hong Kong: profiles and correlates.

Secondary school students (n = 33,867 from 213 secondary schools) responded to a subjective outcome evaluation form to assess their views of the program, workers (teachers and/or social workers), and perceived effectiveness of the program. Results showed that high proportions of the respondents had positive perceptions of the program and the instructors, and more than four-fifths of the respondents regarded the program as helpful to them. While schools admitting students with different academic abilities and hours did not differ in the subjective outcome evaluation ratings, subjective evaluation ratings for workers were highest, followed by ratings for the program and perceived effectiveness. The present study replicates the previously reported findings and provides additional support for the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) in Hong Kong.

Implementation of a positive youth development program in Hong Kong using seven cases as evidence.

In Western contexts, curricular-based positive youth development programs have been designed to promote and nurture the potentials and competencies in young people. However, few related attempts have been carried out in the Chinese context. This Special Issue "Implementing Positive Youth Development Programmes" looks at implementation of the Project P.A.T.H.S. across in variety of scenarios each presenting their own challenges in the context of Chinese culture.

Evaluation of project P.A.T.H.S. (Secondary 1 program) by the program implementers: findings based on the full implementation phase.

A total of 207 schools (N = 35,735 students) participated in the Secondary 1 Program of Project P.A.T.H.S. in the full implementation phase (2006/07 school year). After completion of the Tier 1 Program, 1,250 instructors completed a subjective outcome evaluation form (Form B) to assess their views of the program, instructors, and perceived effectiveness of the program. Utilizing the consolidated reports submitted to the funding body, the research team aggregated the consolidated data to form an overall profile of the perceptions of the program participants. Results showed that high proportions of the respondents had positive perceptions of the program and the instructors, and roughly four-fifths of the respondents regarded the program as helpful to the program participants and the workers. These findings complement the subjective outcome evaluation findings based on the perspective of the program participants.

Process evaluation of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 1 Curriculum) of the Project P.A.T.H.S.: findings based on the full implementation phase.

To understand the implementation quality of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 1 Curriculum) of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes), observers carried out process evaluation in the form of systematic observations of 22 units in 14 randomly selected schools. Results showed that the overall level of program adherence was generally high (range: 45-100%, with an average of 86.3%). High implementation quality of the program in the areas of student interest, student participation and involvement, classroom control, use of interactive delivery method, use of strategies to enhance student motivation, use of positive and supportive feedbacks, instructors' familiarity with the students, degree of achievement of the objectives, time management, lesson preparation, overall implementation quality, and success of implementation was also found. The present findings are consistent with those observations based on the experimental implementation phase, suggesting that the implementation quality of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 1 Curriculum) was generally high.

Interim evaluation of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 1 Curriculum) of the Project P.A.T.H.S.: first year of the full implementation phase.

To understand the implementation quality of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 1 Curriculum) of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) in the full implementation phase, 100 schools were randomly selected to participate in personal and/or telephone interviews regarding the quality of the implementation process of the Tier 1 Program. In the interviews, the participants described the responses of the students to the program, the perceived benefits of the program, the perceived good aspects of the program, and the areas requiring improvement, difficulties encountered in the implementation process, and perceived attributes of the worker-support scheme ("Co-Walker Scheme"). Results showed that most workers perceived that the students had positive responses to the program and the program was beneficial to the students. They also identified several good aspects in the program, although negative comments on the program design and difficulties in the implementation process were also recorded. Roughly half of the respondents had positive comments on the "Co-Walker Scheme". In sum, the respondents generally regarded the program as beneficial to the students and they were satisfied with the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 1 Curriculum) in the full implementation phase, although some implementation difficulties were also expressed.

Subjective outcome evaluation of the project P.A.T.H.S.: findings based on the perspective of the program participants.

A total of 52 schools (n = 8679 students) participated in the experimental implementation phase of the project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes). After completion of the Tier 1 Program, students were invited to respond to the Subjective Outcome Evaluation Form (Form A) to assess their views of the program, instructors, and perceived effectiveness of the program. Based on the consolidated reports submitted by the schools to the funding body, the research team aggregated the consolidated data to form a "reconstructed" overall profile on the perceptions of the program participants. Results showed that high proportions of the respondents had positive perceptions of the program and the instructors, and roughly four-fifths of the respondents regarded the program as helpful to them. The present study provides additional support for the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of the P.A.T.H.S. Project in Hong Kong.

Convergence of subjective outcome and objective outcome evaluation findings: insights based on the project P.A.T.H.S.

A total of 546 students participated in the Tier 1 Program of the P.A.T.H.S. Project responded to the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale (CPYDS) at pretest and posttest and the Subjective Outcome Scale (SOS) at posttest. Result showed that the SOS was internally consistent. The SOS total scores were significantly related to measures of global satisfaction and the participants' degree of sharing with others, thus giving support to its construct validity. Factor analysis revealed that there were three dimensions of the scale and the related subscales were significantly correlated among themselves. Based on the significant relationships between the SOS measures of perceived program effectiveness and posttest CPYDS scores as well as changes in CPYDS scores, the present study revealed the convergence of subjective outcome evaluation findings and objective outcome evaluation findings in the P.A.T.H.S. Project.

Design of a positive youth development program in Hong Kong.

The design of a positive youth development program in Hong Kong is outlined. Based on adolescent developmental issues observed in Hong Kong and the conceptual framework on positive youth development, a 2-tier program was designed. For the Tier 1 Program, it is a universal positive youth development program for students in Secondary 1 to Secondary 3 with the curricula developed by a research team comprising scholars from different disciplines (e.g., social work, psychology, and education). For the Tier 2 Program, it is a selective program targeting adolescents with greater psychosocial needs, developed by school social workers providing school social work service in the schools. With particular reference to the Tier 1 program, several principles are maintained in the design of the program. These include comprehensive coverage of positive youth development constructs, theoretical and empirical grounding of the program, holistic emphasis, focus on both adolescent development assets and problems, developmentally appropriate content, culturally relevant content, multi-year intervention, provision of proper and adequate training to the workers, and use of effective teaching methods in the delivery of the program.