The International Library of Sociology ADOLESCENTS AND MORALITY Founded by KARL MANNHEIM The International Library of Sociology THE SOCIOLOGY OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE In 12 Volumes I Adolescence Fleming II Adolescents and Morality EPPel III Caring for Children in Trouble Carlebach IV Casework in Child Care kbtell V Children in Care Heywood VI Delinquency and Opportunity &ward et al VII Family Environment and Delinquency Gheck VIII German Youth: Bond or Free Becker IX The Psychoanalytical Approach to Juvenile Delinquency Friedhub X Studies in the Social Psychology of Adolescence Richardron et al XI Working with Unattached Youth Goetschius XII Youth and the Social Order Musgrove ADOLESCENTS AND MORALITY A Study of some Moral Values and Dilemmas of Working Adolescents in the Context of a Changing Climate of Opinion E. M. and M. EPPEL First published in 1966 by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd Reprinted in 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Printed and bound in Great Britain 0 1966 E. M. and M. Eppel All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in The International Library of Sociology. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Adolescents and Morality ISBN O-415-17659-X The Sociology of Youth and Adolescence: 12 Volumes ISBN O-415-17828-2 The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes ISBN O-415-17838-X CONTENTS FOREWORD page ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xii PART I : ADOLESCENT MORALS THE CLIMATE OF OPINION I. THE CLIMATE OF OPINION 3 I. The Image of Adolescence 3 2. The ‘New Morality’ 1.2 3. The Need for Research 23 4. The Inquiry and Methods =l PART II : CONNOTATIONS OF MORALITY 2. THE VIEWS OF SOME ADULTS IN AUTHORITY ON THE STANDARDS AND BEHAVIOUR OF ADOLESCENTS 31 I. Interpretations of ‘Moral’ 34 t. Differences Between the Generations 40 3. Major Influences on Morals 47 PART III : THE YOUNG WORKERS 3. ATTITUDES, VALUES AND DILEMMAS OF THE Y 0 u N G w 0 R K E R s - Material Based on Unfinished is: Sentences Test I. Personal Relations 2. Concepts of justice 72 3. Responsibility 85 4. Goals and Aspirations 103 5. Authority and Independence 116 Appendix : Unfinished Sentences - Adult Form 123 V Confenfs 4. MODELS AND VALUES OF THE YOUNG WORKERS - Analysis of Essays on ‘The Person I Would Most Like to Be Like’ Page 124 A. Models I. The Models ChoJen 125 2. Personal Relationships ‘34 3. Occupation of Model.. ‘39 B. Values I. Material Value.5 ‘47 2. Phykal Appearance and Pleasant Pemonality 148 3. Social Values IlO 5. MORAL BELIEFS OF THE YOUNG WORKERS - With Comparative Material From Adult Students and United States High School Students I. The Test 2. Responsibility Items 157 3. Friendship Items 164 4. Honesty Items 167 Appendix I: Distribution of Age and Sex of Subjects ‘71 Appendix 11: Table of Occupations of Adult Subjects 171 Appendix III: Consolidated Table of Responses 172 Appendix IV: Moral Beliefs Test ‘74 6. CONNOTATIONS OF ‘GOOD’ BEHAVIOUR 176 7. FRUSTRATION AND AGGRESSION - Material Based on Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study 182 I. The Test 182 2. Extrapunitive Responses 186 3. Intropunitive Responses 197 4. Impunitive Responses 204 Appendix : Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study % Scores 212 8. CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS 213 APPen dix : A REVIEW OF SOME STUDIES OF YOUTH AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT: THEIR METHODS AND CONCLUSIONS 225 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 INDEX 243 vi TABLES I. Interpretation of ‘Moral page 35 2. Moral Qualities to be Encouraged - Frequency of Mention 39 3. Observed Differences - Sex 41 4. Observed Differences - Discipline and Authority 43 5. Observed Differences - Frankness and Intellectual Honesty 41 6. General Evaluation of Young People - Based on Total Responses 47 7. Major Influences on Morals 48 8. ‘The Older Generation. . . .’ Direction of Attitudes 61 9. Self-image of Young People - Direction of Attitudes 65 IO. ‘A good friend . . .’ 70 I I. ‘It isn’t fair . . .’ 73 12. ‘It’s wrong to . . .’ 77 I 3. ‘It’s wrong to . . .’ Total Responses 82 14. ‘I deserve praise when . . .’ 83 I 3. ‘It’s hard to . . .’ 81 16. ‘When I’m in trouble . . .’ 9’ 17. ‘The most important thing to teach children . . .’ 91 18. ‘When I hear someone say “I couldn’t care less . . .“’ 100 19. ‘If I had my way . . .’ 103 20. ‘I’d give up a lot for . . .’ 108 21. ‘My greatest wish . . .’ II2 22. ‘When people give orders . . .’ 117 23. ‘If you stand up for yourself . . .’ 120 24. The Models Chosen 126 21. Modifications - I29 26. References to the Opposite Sex 136 27. Age of Model where mentioned ‘39 28. Occupations of Models ‘39 29. Personal Values (dominant) 146 vii Tables 30. Values referred to (subsidiary) Page 147 3 I. ‘Examples of Good Behaviour’ for I 5o Young People ‘77 3 z. Situation with Highest % Extrapunitive Responses 186 3 3. Situation with Highest % Intropunitive Rerponses 198 34. Situation with Highest % Impunitive Responses 204 3 5. Situation with Lowest % Impunitive Responses 205 ADDITIONAL TABLES APPEARING AS APPENDICES Distribution by Age and Sex of Subjects 171 Table of Occupations of Adult Subjects 17’ Consolidated Table of Responses 172 Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study % Scores 212 . . . VU1 FOREWORD bY W. J. H. Sprott The number of topics upon which people are prepared to pontifi- cate without a shred of evidence is enormous. One of them is: ‘Our Young People’. They are criticized as a reckless, feck- less, ‘couldn’t-care-less lot, or gallantly and defiantly praised as ‘splendid’. When it comes to the facts: what their views are, what they are concerned about we know all too little. On this little matter it is the pontificators who couldn’t care less. After all, they may say, you have only to read the newspapers: Mods and Rockers on the beaches, teenagers suffering from venereal disease, rising figures of juvenile delinquency - what are we coming to? In 1963 the peak rate for indictable offences was the 17-year-old age-group; for every IOO,OOOo f them no less than 2,898 were found guilty. The fact that this presumably means that 97,102 per IOO,OOO were not found guilty passes unnoticed, though it is highly improbable that they all got away without being caught. However, misbehaving Youth hits the headlines often enough to provide a great many people with the delicious experience of disapproval and the wringing of hands, and the opportunity to impute to the Young People of Today all kinds of characteristics for which there is no evidence whatever. Well, now we have some evidence, and this is the point of Mr. and Mrs. Eppel’s book. They investigated what Walter B. Miller would call the ‘focal concerns’ of some z 50 working-class adolescents of both sexes aged I 5 to I 8. They had left school and were attending day-release courses. It might be objected that this is a rather unrepresentative sample, because only a relatively small proportion of working-class young people attend such classes. This, as I see it, cannot be helped. The whole point of the exercise was to tackle the problem obliquely, by such devices as ix Foreword unfinished sentences, projection tests, essays and the like, and to do this you have to have what might be called a ‘captive’ population, in the same place at the same time. Anyway, a start had to be made somewhere, and anyone who protests about the unrepresentativeness of the sample must back up his argument by giving evidence that the ‘focal concerns’ of young people who do not attend day-release courses is sign&cantly different from the ‘focal concerns’ of those that do. If this turns out to be the case, knowledge is advanced, and I feel sure that no one would be better pleased than Mr. and Mrs. Eppel. Somehow I do not feel that the sample is unrepresentative, but of course I may be quite wrong. My reason is that the concerns of the Eppels’ sample are intelligible in the light of the ambiguous status of young people in our society, and are compatible with what little I know of ‘teenage culture’ in general. They are concerned about moral issues and about issues of status. Of course there is great variety, but certain themes pre- dominate. In the first place they are exasperated by the attitude of the adult world towards them. They resent what they deem to be unfair criticism, unfair generalization, and wilful lack of understanding and sympathy on the part of the older generation. Of course inter-generation hostility is familiar enough, but it seems to have sharpened of recent years. It may indeed be that the other concerns flow from this one. They are sophisticated and questioning. They will not accept the traditional rules out of hand. In their highly publicised predicament it is not sur- prising that they are concerned about the figure they are cutting. They don’t cut much ice with the older generation so they want to be thought well of by their own generation. Asked what they would like to be like the majority want to be themselves, perhaps a bit better looking, perhaps a bit more popular. In their vulner- able situation they are naturally concerned about friendship and personal relations in general. The girls are rather severe about law-breaking; the boys are more tolerant. It may be that for the boys the kind of person you are is more important than the scrapes you get into. The ‘couldn’t-care-less attitude is conspicu- ous by its absence. They care a lot but they are not going to be led up the garden path by pompous moralizing. All this makes the ‘handling’ of the young a tricky business. It is not only youth leaders and probation officers and all those X