Cynicism often seems a smarter choice than idealism, and there are seemingly good reasons for this. Politicians have disappointed us time and again, trusted institutions have proven silf-serving and corrupt, and social inequities persist and increase, unabated by even the grandest of charitable efforts. Moreover, trends in contemporrary moral psychology support this bleak view of the human condition. Famous studies have shown that we have an almost unlimited potential for cruelty when placed in the wrong situations. Other studies imply that our moral responses are dictated by inborn biological intuitions, or that people do little more than act out conventional cultural scripts when confronted with moral chices. The Power of Ideals presents a different vision, supported by a different kind of evidence. It examines the lives and work of six 20th century moral leaders who pursued moral causes ranging from world peace to social justice and human rights. Using these six cases to illustrate how people can make choices guided by their moral convictions, rather than by base emotion or social pressures, authors William Damon and Anne Colby explore the workings of three virtues: inner truthfulness, humility, and faith. Through their portrayal of the noble lives of moral leaders, the authors argue that everyone -including those of us with ordinary lives - can exercise control over important life decisions and pursue ideals that inspire us. The Power of Ideals offers a hopeful and much-needed vision for moral progress in the worl. This message flies in the face of contemporary thought in moral psychology, much of which has drawn mainstream media coverage in recent years. But the more accurate, constructive, and inspiring view in The Power of Ideals provides a sound basis for helping all people achieve their moral potentials. The Power of Ideals offers a needed and hopeful vision for personal well-being, for rebuilding trust among disillusioned citizens, for the flourishing of democracy, and for moral progress in the world.

This important book provides a comprehensive look, from a developmental perspective, of how children and adolescents come to understand themselves during the first two decades of life. It explores every aspect of this central area of social cognition, including the physical, social, active, and psychological aspects of self. The authors present data from several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of children's and adolescents' self-conceptions, and they present alternative methods for interviewing children about themselves and for analyzing children's responses for developmental level and schematic orientation. They offer theoretical explanations about the processes that account for normal development of self-understanding and contrast these with abnormal processes that arise in populations of clinically disturbed youth. A chapter is also devoted to the study of children living in a remote agrarian setting, whose self-understanding is contrasted with the self-conceptions of children in the United States.

America's leading expert on adolescence offers his prescription for instilling a sense of purpose and fulfillment in today's youth. Drawing on the revelatory results of a landmark study, William Damon-one of the country's leading writers on the lives of young people, whose book Greater Expectations won the Parents' Choice Award-brilliantly investigates the most pressing issue in the lives of youth today: why so many young people are "failing to launch"-living at home longer, lacking career motivation, struggling to make a timely transition into adulthood, and not yet finding a life pursuit that inspires them. His groundbreaking study shows that about one-fifth of youth today are thriving-highly engaged in activities they love and developing a clear sense of what they want to do with their lives-but approximately one-fourth are still rudderless, at serious risk of never fulfilling their potential. The largest portion are teetering on the brink, in need of guidance to help them move forward: some are "dabblers" who pursue strings of disconnected interests with no real commitment; others, "dreamers" who have no realistic plans or understanding of what success will require. What makes the difference? Damon shows that the key ingredient for the highly engaged is that they have developed a clear sense of purpose in their lives that motivates them and gives them direction. Based on in-depth interviews, he takes readers inside the minds of the disengaged and drifting kids and exposes their confusion and anxiety about what they should do with their lives. He then offers compelling portraits of the young people who are thriving and identifies the nine key factors that have made the difference for them, presenting simple but powerful methods that parents and all adults can and must employ in order to cultivate that energized sense of purpose in young people that will launch them on the path to a deeply satisfying and productive life.

What does it mean to carry out "good work"? What strategies allow people to maintain moral and ethical standards at a time when market forces wield unprecedented power and work life is being radically altered by technological innovation? These are the questions at the heart of this important collaboration by three leaders in psychology. Enlivened with stories of real people facing hard decisions, Good Work offers powerful insight into one of the most important issues of our time and, indeed, into the future course of science, technology, and communication.

Although many people believe that this is a barren time for moral leadership in this country, in Some Do Care, Anne Colby and William Damon show that moral heroes do exist. Drawing on in-depth interviews they offer a revealing look into the lives of twenty-three Americans who have provided exemplary moral leadership. Some Do Care traces the lives and goals of these dedicated people from their first moral awakening in childhood to the wisdom and enduring moral commitment of their later years. Drawing on these lives, the authors offer new insights into the role of faith and the importance of role models.

Drawing on the best professional research and thinking, Professor William Damon charts pragmatic, workable approaches to foster basic virtues such as honesty, responsibility, kindness, and fairness-methods that can make an invaluable difference throughout children's lives.

This timely volume brings together twenty-six classic and contemporary articles on the social and personality development of the child. Focusing on major events in a child's life, from infancy through adolescence, these multidisciplinary essays provide the essential statement on the central topics in the field: attachment, peer relations, play, identity crisis, and so on. This collection is an ideal companion to the editor's textbook or a supplement to courses on human development.

In it, the author provides a broad-based and integrative account of both the child's social relations and the child's search for self-identity and personality. To add coherence to a diverse field, Professor Damon has organized the material chronologically rather than present topics like attachment, aggression, and so on separately, isolated from one another. There is a special chapter on childhood peer relations and an entire section on adolescence. not a compendium of research findings, this text focuses on the major theories, each one illustrated with everyday examples and case histories. The textbook and its accompanying reader should be required reading for all students of human development.