Moral Development
Overview
Jean Piaget was interested in how children learn about rules, regulations, and justice. But what was more significant to him was the question of how children’s perceptions of rules, regulations, and justice evolve over time. Piaget believed that rule-based games serve as “mini” examples of society. Piaget discovered that children have two different methods of thinking about rules and regulations after observing children play marbles and questioning them about the game’s rules. Initially, when younger children started playing the marble game, they believed that the rules were set in stone and could not be altered. Older children, on the other hand, believed that the rules were based on consensus, rather than on absolutes. Instead of being created by an outside authority, the rules might be co-constructed by the players. Additionally, Piaget was interested in how children developed their ideas of justice. He told children two stories: one about willful defiance of authority that resulted in a minor behavioral consequence, and another about unintended defiance of authority that resulted in a major behavioral consequence. He continued posing follow-up questions, like “Who was more naught? Why?” and “Who ought to suffer more punishment? Why?” Jean Piaget’s theory of moral developmentsays that there are two stages of thinking about moral issues.
Heteronomous Moral Development
5-10 years
Rules come from authority.
They are focused on a single viewpoint.
Action motivation is not taken into account.
The emphasis is on the results of behavior.
They confuse natural hardship with punishment for moral transgression.
They believe punishment is for the purpose of punishing.
Autonomous Moral Development
10 years & up
Rules comes from co-construction.
They can focus on multiple viewpoints.
Action motivation is taken into account.
They do not emphasize the results of behavior.
They do not confuse natural hardship with punishment.
Punishment must be appropriate for offense.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s goal was to expand Piaget’s theory beyond childhood to consider moral development throughout the life course. By posing moral conundrums to participants that contrasted one value against another, Kohlberg was able to study moral development. The most well-known dilemma by Kohlberg concerns a man who must choose whether or not to steal a drug that will save his wife’s life (adapted to contemporary culture). Piaget proposed two stages of moral development, but Kohlberg’s theory of moral development expanded this to six stages. There are three levels with 2 stages within each level. Each stage builds on the logic of the one before it and, therefore, no stage can be skipped.
Level I Preconventional Morality
Stage One: Punishment Obedience Orientation
Individuals obey authority to prevent punishment.
Stage Two: Instrumental Purpose and Exchange
Individuals obey authority to gain something.
Level II Conventional Morality
Stage Three: Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships, and Conformity
Individuals obey authority to be a good societal member.
Stage Four: Social System and Conscience Maintenance
Individuals obey authority to abide by society’s laws.
Level III Postconventional Morality
Stage Five: Social Contract
Individuals obey authority to maintain social contracts.
Stage Six: Universal Ethical Principles
Individuals obey authority due to one’s own ethical principles.
Relating Moral Development
Thought about moral quandaries in respect to oneself without regard for or a thorough comprehension of societal norms and conventions is the main emphasis of preconventional moral thinking. Preconventional moral thinking centers on how to satisfy one’s self through individual attainment or connections with other people. When I was younger, I always followed the rules because I knew that breaking them would result in punishment. When I did break the rules, I would still try to make up for it somehow. I remember wanting to go hang out with my friends who lived in my neighborhood, but my parents told me that I could not go until my room was clean. But I went and hung out with my friends without cleaning my room anyways. I cleaned the whole house - as good as I could at that age - to make up for it since my parents were upset with me and I did not want to get in trouble. I obviously was trying to avoid punishment by doing this.
Moral Development in My Future Career
Understanding Piaget’s theory of moral development and Kohlberg’s theory of moral development will be useful to me as someone who wants to work with children. Through these theories, I will be able to comprehend how and why children form their moral reasoning. Furthermore, I will be able to make connections from their behavior to their level of moral development. For instance, because they offered to pay for it later and did not take anything else, a child might think that stealing is okay if it helps someone survive and does not think that they will get in trouble. This child would most likely be in Kohlberg’s stage one. The justifications individuals offer for their decisions is important in understanding their level of moral development. At this stage, individuals are primarily focused on their own perceptions of the event and are concerned about any potential consequences. That is, they fail to take into account the possibility that different people may interpret the same event in different ways.
Winsor, D.L., Murrell, V.S., & Magun-Jackson, S. (Eds.) (2017). Lifespan Development: An Educational Psychology Perspective (4th ed.).
