development issues & debates Flashcards
Morals
Standards of right & wrong behavior that can differ between cultures & can depend on the situation.
Moral development
Children’s growing understanding about right & wrong.
Heteronomous
Rules put into place by others.
Autonomous
Rules can be decided by the individual person.
Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development
from 5-10 y/o
rules are about punishment and right and wrong. = heteronomous. (directed by others.)
Other people provide rules which govern our behavior e.g teachers, parents.
- Focus on action’s consequences.
- Breaking rules = punishment, so they obey rules.
Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development
10 y/o onwards
it’s about bad actions could have good consequences = autonomous. (the individual decides.)
Individuals are responsible for their own behavior and decide what is right or wrong.
- Understands it can be right to change rules to benefit others & if everyone agrees.
- Morals seen as agreed between people. Child knows following rules is more then the consequences of not following them.
Kohlberg’s (1958) theory of moral development
Pre-conventional morality (consequences) up to 9y
Stage 1: Make moral judgements based on obedience & punishment.
Good = no punishment Bad = punishment.
Stage 2: Motivated by self-interest & benefit gained from moral action (reward)
‘What’s in it for me?’
Kohlberg’s (1958) theory of moral development
Conventional morality (most young people & adults)
Stage 3: Moral judgements made by following societal rules & expectations, in order to be liked & accepted.
Stage 4: Value authority & want to maintain social order.
Kohlberg’s (1958) theory of moral development
Post-conventional morality (10% of people reach this level)
Stage 5: Rules are a social contract & only make sense if they serve the right purpose. e.g democracy
Can be differences in morality between individuals according to which laws they’ve agreed to.
Stage 6:
Guided by ethical principles. Rules are only valid if they serve justice.
Weaknesses of Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development & Kohlberg’s (1958) theory of moral development
Not useful: Artificial stories used - answers given may not represent the real decisions participants would make - low ecological validity
Not useful: Kohlberg used an all male sample so his findings are not generalisable to women’s morality.
define nativist theories
Theories that view morality as part of human nature.
Damon 1999
Damon (1999)
* Nature argument – moral development explained by biology.
* Nativist theories (thinking morality is in our nature) hold that emotions are within us (babies feeling more/less empathy form birth.)
* Gives evidence that empathy/emotions found in babies universally – nature argument emphasized about moral development.
* Concluded moral identity (someone’s commitment to morals) comes from many social influences child experience; must hear consistent message about shared standards in order to develop moral understanding.
Diana Baumrind
Type of parenting affects moral development in children.
damon’s ideas of developing empathy & how it links to a child’s level of understanding at different age
early infancy
* feelings towards others not diff from feelings towards themself
* global empathy
1-2 y/o
* realize ppl are distress, dont know what to do abt it
early childhood
* decentration
* can be more responsive to someone’s distress
10-12 y/o
* realize ppl may live in poverty & have difficulties such as disabilities.