¡Descarga Moral Development: Piaget and Kohlberg's Theories y más Apuntes en PDF de Desarrollo de Personalidad solo en Docsity! 1 DESARROLLO SOCIAL Y DE LA PERSONALIDAD LESSON 6: Moral development Moral development refers to changes in people's sense of justice and of what is right and wrong, and in their behaviour related to moral issues. Developmentalists have considered moral development in terms of children's reasoning about morality, their attitudes toward moral lapses, and their behaviour when faced with moral issues. 1. An affective, or emotional, component that consists of the feelings (guilt, concern for others’ feelings, etc.) that surround right or wrong actions. 2. A cognitive component that centres on the way we conceptualize right and wrong and make decisions about how to behave. 3. A behavioural component that reflects how we actually behave when we experience the temptation to lie, cheat, or violate other moral rules. Piaget’s theory of moral development It is composed by two stages: the heteronomous stage and the autonomous stage. Children in heteronomous stage believe in immanent justice. Immanent justice is the notion that rules that are broken earn immediate punishment. The incipient cooperation stage (the transition between periods) lasts around age 7 to age 10, and children’s game become more clearly social. Children learn the actual normal rules of games, and they play according to this shared knowledge. Consequently, rules are still seen as largely unchangeable. The autonomous cooperation stage begins about the age of 10. Children become fully aware that formal game rules can be modified if people who play them agree to do it. Rules of law are created by people and are subject to change according to the will of people. Piaget´s approach suffers from the same problem we encountered in his theory of cognitive development. Specifically, Piaget underestimated the age at which children's moral skills are honed. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development It is composed by the following six stages: a) Level 1: preconventional morality. Rules are truly external to the self rather than internalized. The child conforms to rules imposed by authority figures to avoid punishment or obtain personal rewards. Morality is self-serving: what is right is what one can get away with. 2 DESARROLLO SOCIAL Y DE LA PERSONALIDAD o Stage 1: punishment and obedience orientation. The goodness or badness of an acts depends on its consequences. The child obeys authorities in order to avoid punishment but might not consider an act wrong if it is not detected and punished. o Stage 2: naïve hedonism and reward orientation. A person at this second stage conforms rules in order to gain rewards or satisfy personal objectives. Here appears the hope of benefitting in return. For example, “you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours”, is the guiding philosophy. b) Level 2: conventional morality. To obey rules and social norms in order to win others’ approval or to maintain social order. The avoidance of blame has now replaced tangible rewards and punishments as motivators of ethical conduct. o Stage 3: “good boy” or “good girl” orientation. Moral behaviour is that which pleases, helps, or is approved by others. People are often judged by their intentions. “Meaning well” is valued and being “nice” is important. o Stage 4: social order maintaining morality. At this stage, the individual considers the perspectives of the generalized other—that is, the will of society as reflected in law. The reason for conforming is not a fear of punishment, but a belief that rules and laws maintain a social order that is worth preserving. Laws always transcend special interests. c) Level 3: postconventional (or principled) morality. It defines right and wrong in terms of broad principles of justice that could conflict with written laws. Morally right and legally proper are not always one and the same. o Stage 5: the social-contact orientation. Laws that accomplish the will of the majority and are impartially applied are viewed as social contracts that one has an obligation to follow; but imposed laws that compromise human rights or dignity are considered unjust and worthy of challenge. Distinctions between what is legal and what is moral begin to appear in Stage 5 responses. o Stage 6: morality of individual principles of conscience. The individual defines right and wrong on the basis of the self-chosen ethical principles. These principles are not concrete rules such as government laws. They are abstract moral guidelines or principles of universal justice that transcend any law or social contract that may conflict with them. Stage 6 is Kohlberg’s vision of ideal moral reasoning.
