Children's Moral Development

Question 1

What are the two types of rules under Piaget’s 1932/1965 proposal of moral judgement?

Answer 1

Rules of games:
- studied children playing marbles, interested to see how children dealt with issues regarding fairness

Moral rules:
- asked children “why is it wrong to lie or steal” or presented children with vignettes & asked them about ‘naughtiness’

Question 2

What were children asked in Piaget’s Inkblot Moral Puzzle?

Answer 2

A little boy wants to help his father by filling the ink-well, he accidentally spills it and makes a large stain.

The other little boy plays with the ink-well even though it is forbidden and has been told many times not to touch it. He spills some ink and makes a small stain.

Which boy was naughtier?

Question 3

What happens in the Moral realist stage in the stages of moral development?

Answer 3

Judgement is made based on the extent of damage caused.

Question 4

How does a child in the Moral subjectivist stage of the stages of moral development think?

Answer 4

Subjective factors, including intentions, are considered.

Question 5

What happens to a child in Morality of Constrain/heteronomous stage of moral development?

Answer 5

• Children aged younger 7
• Children start being aware of rules
• However rules are specified by an authority figure and are absolute
• People’s intentions do not matter, only the consequences of an action
• Children believe rules are ‘real things’ (like an object)

Question 6

What happens to a child in the Transitional Period of Piaget’s stages of moral development?

Answer 6

• Children aged 7/8-10/11
• Children have more interaction with peers
• They learn rules can be constructed by the group
• Allows them to become more autonomous in their thinking about moral issues

Question 7

What happens to a child in the stage of Autonomous Morality in Piaget’s stages of moral development?

Answer 7

• Child is aged 11 or 12
• Moral relativism emerges
• Rules are no longer seen as fixed, can be the product of social agreement
• Start evaluating the fairness of the punishment delivered by adults
• Motives and intentions become crucial in judging people’s behaviour

Question 8

What is the evidence to support Piaget’s stages of moral development?

Answer 8

There is evidence from children from many different countries that motives and intentions are taken into consideration as children grow older.

Question 9

Give some criticisms of Piaget’s stages of moral development?

Answer 9

• Stories place large demand on memory
• Information on intentions of character appear first in the story
• Information on scale of damage made by the character appear last in the story
  Due to limitations on memory, younger children might focus on what was said last (Parson et al., 1976)

Question 10

What happened in Wimmer, Wachter, & Perner’s (1982) study?

Answer 10

• Were interested in whether children
• 76 Ps aged 4, 6 & 8
• Had to do a reward-allocation task, Ps had to allocate a reward to one of two characters in a story
• One boy is lazy and puts in no effort, but has high ability, so has a high outcome
• Second boy puts in a lot of effort, but has low ability so low outcome

Question 11

What were the results of Wimmer, Wachter & Perner’s (1982) study?

Answer 11

• No age differences found in gender
• The character with more effort received more reward

Concluded even 4-year-olds understand causal relationship among effort, ability & achievement outcome

Question 12

What did Kanngiesser & Warneken do in their 2012 study of merit and fairness?

Answer 12

• Aimed to measure merit & fairness
• Children aged 3-5
• Child worked with a puppet to collect gold coins from a big bucket
• Coins are exchanged for prizes, such as a sticker
• Child then had to decide how to share their prize stickers with puppet partner

Question 13

What were the results of Kanngiesser & Warneken’s (2012) study of merit and fairness?

Answer 13

By the age of 3, children choose to reward their peers based on merit. Children gave puppet more stickers if it had ‘worked harder’ collecting coins

Question 14

Give some limitations of Piaget’s proposal of the Stages of Moral Development.

Answer 14

• When stories are presented together with pictures/video clips, pre-school children take into account people’s intentions to their actions
• Strichartz and Burton (1990) found that from 6 years onwards, children take into account other people’s intention when assessing the naughtiness of someone lying

Question 15

Outline Kohlberg’s 1976 proposal of moral development

Answer 15

Proposed moral development goes through different stages that are discontinuous and hierarchical

Question 16

What was the Moral Dilemma Kohlberg used to measure moral development?

Answer 16

• Heinz’ wife was very ill
• There was one drug the doctors though could save her (form of radium recently discovered)
• Drug was expensive to make, but pharmacist was charging Heinz 10x what it cost to make
• Heinz borrowed money but couldn’t get together enough for drug
• Pharmacist wouldn’t sell it cheaper or let Heinz pay him later
• So Heinz considers stealing drug for his wife

Question 17

What questions did Kohlberg ask children after they heard the Moral Dilemma?

Answer 17

• Should Heinz steal the drug?
• Would it be wrong or right if he did? Why?
• Is it a husband’s duty to steal the drug for his wife if he cannot get it any other way?

Question 18

What are the six stages of Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning?

Answer 18

1. Obedience and Punishment (pre-conventional)
2. Self-interest (pre-conventional)
3. Good boy/girl (conventional)
4. Law and order (conventional)
5. Social contract (post-conventional)
6. Principled conscience (post conventional) - not everyone achieves this level

Question 19

What falls under the Methodology limitation to Kohlberg’s proposal of moral development?

Answer 19

• Heinz story was too abstract for young children to understand
• Method used to score answers of children was subjective and up to interpretation by research

Question 20

What limitations to Kohlberg’s proposal of moral development fall under Gender Bias?

Answer 20

• Kohlberg developed his proposal by interviewing only boys&men, as it was believed females lagged in moral reasoning
• Gilligan (1977, 1982) claim males focus on principles of justice & rights when reasoning for moral dilemmas, females are more likely to put emphasis on caring&responsibility

Question 21

What limitations to Kohlberg’s proposal of moral development fall under ‘There are no discrete changes’?

Answer 21

• Moral development does not follow discrete stages: at a given time, a person might solve a dilemma using reasoning from stage 1 but could solve a different dilemma at the same time using reasoning from stage 3
• The situation in question is what determines what type of reasoning needs to be used

Question 22

What limitations to Kohlberg’s proposal of moral development fall under ‘Unrealistic Stories’?

Answer 22

Kohlberg’s dilemmas:

• are very removed from children and even young adolescents
• the dilemmas present 2 bad options: steal or let your wife die

Question 23

List some strengths of Kohlberg’s proposal of moral development?

Answer 23

• Evidence for first 5 stages of moral reasoning proposed (from many different countries/societies/ethnicities)
• Demonstrates there are relative systematic changes with age in children’s moral judgement
• Children with higher levels of perspective take or cognitive skills have higher levels of moral judgement
• This theory helps us understand how cognitive processes contribute to moral behaviour

Question 24

What stages fall under the Pre-conventional heading in Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 24

Obedience and Punishment
&
Self-interest

Question 25

What stages fall under the Conventional heading in Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 25

Good boy/girl
&
Law and order

Question 26

What stages fall under the Post-conventional heading in Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 26

Social Contract
&
Principled conscience

Question 27

What happens in the Obedience & punishment stage of Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 27

• Children think the HAVE to comply to rules

- Will say stealing is wrong so Heinz shouldn’t steal drug

Question 28

What happens in the Self-interest stage of Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 28

Children typically respond with ‘might be right to steal drug if wife would do the same for him’

Question 29

What happens in the Good boy/girl stage of Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 29

• Children become aware that others have different perspectives & judge us
• So their behaviour is related to how they think others will judge us
• Problem with moral dilemma story: both outcomes have negatives so what is the right solution?

Question 30

What happens in the Law and order stage of Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 30

• What is right for the whole society?

- Pharmacist was greedy, so stealing drug might be best for society - teach him lesson

Question 31

What happens in the Social contract stage of Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 31

• People think about human rights

- Right to life is more important than profit so stealing is appropriate

Question 32

What is Prosocial Behaviour?

Answer 32

Voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another, such as helping, sharing and comforting others

Question 33

What did Eisenberg-Berg find in his 1986 study of Prosocial Moral Judgement?

Answer 33

• 5 y.o.s focus on interest
• Older children focus more on prosocial behaviour & empathy
• Children tend to show more sophisticated forms of reasoning at an early age than suggested by Kohlberg

Question 34

Outline the Hedonistic Orientation stage from Eisenberg’s Stages of Pro-social Behaviour?

Answer 34

• Pre school and younger primary school children

- Social behaviour undertaken for own benefit

Question 35

Outline the Needs-based Orientation stage from Eisenberg’s Stages of Pro-social Behaviour?

Answer 35

• Many preschoolers and many primary school children

- Concern for others even if it conflicts with own needs but without evidence of empathy

Question 36

Outline the Approval and/or stereotyped Orientation stage from Eisenberg’s Stages of Pro-social Behaviour?

Answer 36

• Some primary school children & high school students

- Stereotypes of good & bad behaviour; needs approval for behaviour

Question 37

Outline the Self-reflective empathetic Orientation stage from Eisenberg’s Stages of Pro-social Behaviour?

Answer 37

• Few older primary school children and many high school students
• Concern about others needs & able to interpret these from their perspective
• Empathy

Question 38

Outline the Strongly internalised stage from Eisenberg’s Stages of Pro-social Behaviour?

Answer 38

• Small minority of high school students

- Maintains self-respect by living up to own values and belief; belief in the dignity, rights and equality of all people

Question 39

Evaluate the Eisenberg-Berg Stages of Pro-social Behaviour?

Answer 39

• Pattern of changes has been found in a variety of Western countries
  - although children from different cultures do vary somewhat in their pro-social moral reasoning, reflecting the value of the culture
• Children using higher-level pro-social moral reasoning tend to be more sympathetic & pro-social in their behaviour than children who use lower-level pro-social moral judgement

Question 40

What is the age of criminal responsibility in England & Wales?

Answer 40

• Children aged 10 or older

But anyone under 18 is treated differently to an adult

Question 41

What did Stams et al., 2006 do in their study regarding delinquent adolescents?

Answer 41

Carried out meta-analysis of 50 studies to examine whether delinquent adolescents had lower levels of moral judgement than non-delinquent adolescents
Considered some variables that might affect levels of moral judgement:
- Socio-economic background
- Gender: females seem to have higher levels of moral reasoning than males
- Intelligence
- Institutionalisation

Question 42

What did Stams et al., 2006 find in their study regarding delinquent adolescents?

Answer 42

• The moral judgement of juvenile delinquents is substantially lower compared to non-delinquents
• Delinquents guilty of pretty crimes are incarcerated with those with more serious crimes, e.g. murder. Former set of delinquents might end up worse after incarceration, as moral judgment might be influenced.
• Those incarcerated for longer showed lowers levels of moral development