Module 12 - Moral Development Flashcards
Who was a foundational theorist of cognitive development, and also one of the first to pay attention to the moral development of children?
Piaget
Who were the two people that were primarily interested in how children think about moral situations?
Piaget and Kohlberg
Piaget was interested in children’s understanding of:
1) Rules
2) Moral Responsibility
3) Justice
Rules - For example, where do rules come from? Who makes rules?
Moral Responsibility - For example, who is to blame for bad things? Is there a difference between an accident and something that was done on purpose?
Justice- For example, how should someone be punished? Does the punishment fit the crime?
In Piaget’s stage theory of moral development, what did he continue to focus on?
How children think about moral situations.
More interested in moral reasoning as opposed to moral behaviours.
He developed his theory by watching children play games like marbles, in which the children would make up their own rules and change them as they saw fit
Piaget’s three stages of moral development
- Heteronomous Stage (Morality Constraint)
- Transitional Stage
- Autonomous Stage
Heteronomous Stage (Morality Constraint) (Piaget stages of moral development)
1) blind obedience to rules and generally view rules as “things”.
2) pay more attention to the consequences of an action than the intention.
Ex: imagine a boy who accidentally breaks a stack of 5 cups and a girl who steals 1 cookie. Children in this stage would view breaking the cups as a worse offence than stealing the cookie, simply because more cups were broken (i.e., it doesn’t matter that it was an accident).
3) believe in the concept of imminent justice.
Ex: That is, if you break the rules, you will definitely get caught and be punished (in one way or another). For example, imagine that the little girl who stole the cookie accidentally slipped on some ice and fell into a cold puddle later that day. When asked why the girl slipped, children in this stage would say “because she stole the cookie”, not because the ice was slippery.
4) This stage lasts until approximately age 7 and corresponds with the pre-operational stage of cognitive development.
Transitional Stage (Piaget stages of moral development)
In this stage, children begin to understand that rules can change depending on the situation and majority opinion. For example, they may learn that the rules for playing a game of tag might change depending on who is playing or whether they are at home or at school.
This stage lasts from approximately ages 7-10 years and corresponds with the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.
Autonomous stage (Piaget stages of moral development)
children are able to consider intentions and view them as more important than consequences. For example, they would now view stealing 1 cookie as a worse offence than accidentally breaking 5 cups. In other words, right and wrong is no longer absolute.
Additionally, children now understand that punishments must fit the crime and become upset when they perceive injustices or think things are not fair.
Since children now have an understanding of abstract components of rules and justice, they can also understand why these are required for society to function. Cognitive development also enables children at this stage to see situations from another person’s point of view.
This stage begins around age 11 and corresponds with the formal operational stage of cognitive development.
Weaknesses of Piaget’s Theory on Moral Development
-Quality of peer and parent interactions matter
– Piaget didn’t consider relationships
- Children’s understanding of intentions actually develops earlier
-Moral reasoning isn’t always as linear as proposed by Piaget
How did Piaget study children’s moral reasoning?
Piaget presented vignettes to children and examined their responses. Typically, Piaget presented the children with two vignettes and asked which child was “naughtier” and why.
Strengths of Piaget’s Theory on Moral Development
-Moral development does depend on cognitive maturity
-Considered interactions with others
-Increasingly considered understanding of intentions
-Used multiple methods of data collection (interviews, observations)
What does Kohlberg’s theory of moral development consists of?
discontinuous, hierarchical stages. (Influenced by Piaget)
However, Kohlberg was more interested in the rationale behind moral decisions.
Kohlberg’s theory also focuses on moral development across the lifespan and is not restricted to childhood.
Kohlberg’s most famous hypothetical moral dilemmas…
Heinz dilemma (dying wife/big pharma life saving drug too expensive)
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is more complex than Piaget’s. It consists of 3 levels, what are the levels?
Level 1: Preconventional Moral Reasoning
Level 2: Conventional Moral Reasoning
Level 3: Postconventional Moral Reasoning
Level 1: Preconventional Moral Reasoning
At this level, children’s moral reasoning is self-centred. They are focused on getting rewards and avoiding punishments. This level consists of the following two stages:
Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience Orientation: all about avoiding punishment! Notice in the examples that it’s not about whether or not Heinz should steal the drug, but about the consequences.
“If you steal, you’ll be caught and sent to jail.”
“If you let your wife die, you will get in trouble.”
Stage 2: Instrumental and Exchange Orientation: All about “what’s in it for me?” OR the idea of a fair exchange. Notice in the examples that they focus on getting something positive for oneself out of the situation or a focus on “tit for tat” fairness.
“He should steal the drug so his wife can cook for him.”
“It’s not fair to steal because the doctor worked hard to make that drug and spent lots of money.”
Level 2: Conventional Moral Reasoning
At this level, moral reasoning is focused on social relationships, as well as compliance with social duties and laws.
Stage 3: “Good girl, Nice Boy” Orientation: all about doing what is expected of you. Notice in the examples that the responses are all about what other people would think about you.
“If you let your wife die, your family will be disappointed in you.”
“If you get caught, the druggist will be mad at you and you’ll bring dishonour to your family.”
Stage 4: “Law and Order” Orientation: all about fulfilling duties, upholding laws, and contributing to society. Notice how the examples are focused on duty and law and order.
“As her husband, it’s his duty to steal the drug. But if he gets caught, he broke the law so he should go to jail.”
“It’s against the law to steal.”
Level 3: Postconventional Moral Reasoning
At this level, moral reasoning becomes more abstract and focuses on ideals and moral principles.
Stage 5: Social Contract/Individual Rights Orientation: all about upholding rules that are in the best interest of the group, BUT certain universal values/rights should be upheld. In other words, the rules of a group matter, but not more than universal rights of people.
“He should steal because everyone in society has the right to life.”
“The right to life is more important than the right to property.”
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles: all about commitment to self-chosen ethical principles (e.g., equality of human rights). In other words, justice supersedes laws. Don’t worry if you’re left wondering how this is different than Stage 5 – this stage was poorly described by Kohlberg and is now viewed in combination with stage 5.
What as found in a cross-sectional study, Kolhberg examined how rationalizations to moral dilemmas change from childhood (age 10) to well into adulthood (age 36).
At age 10, most children are in preconventional moral reasoning. This includes stage 2 (“what’s in it for me”) and stage 1 (avoiding punishments)
Throughout the teenage years, we see a decline in preconventional moral reasoning and an increase in conventional moral reasoning. By age 18, most teens are in stage 3 (doing what is expected by others). Notably, most adults remain in the conventional stage of moral reasoning throughout their 20s and 30s. While stage 4 (duties and laws) eventually becomes most common, few adults reach postconventional levels of moral reasoning.
Kohlberg’s stages are positively associated with …
cognitive ability and perspective-taking skills.
In addition, there is some external validity to Kohlberg’s theory: there is a moderate correlation between moral reasoning and moral behavior.
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory
There are cultural differences in moral reasoning. While Kohlberg initially noted that non-Western, non-industrialized cultures are less likely to obtain higher levels of moral reasoning, this is due to Western bias in his theory (not deficits in morality). Different cultures emphasize different values, which impacts their “level” in Kohlberg’s theory. While Kohlberg placed social duties in the conventional level, non-Western cultures may view social duties as more valuable than abstract concepts of justice.
Like Piaget, Kohlberg claimed his stages were hierarchical – this means that each stage is more important than the last, so once you “level up”, you don’t go back. We now know that moral development is not that straightforward. Children and adults give varying types of responses (depending on the dilemma, culture, social norms, etc), showing more gradual progress as opposed to discontinuous stages. Kohlberg’s theory was only moderately able to predict actual prosocial behaviour.
Piaget and Kohlberg both postulated stage theories of moral development, however what are the main differences?
They both emphasized thinking over behaviours. While Piaget focused more on how children understand rules and punishments, Kohlberg focused more on moral reasoning across the lifespan.
According to Piaget, children in the _______ stage of moral development view rules as things. This corresponds with the ______ stage of cognitive development.
heteronomous, pre-operational
Which stage of Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning is most concerned with moral principles?
Postconventional
What is a key difference between moral reasoning dilemmas (like Kohlberg used) and prosocial moral dilemmas (like Eisenberg uses)?
Kohlberg’s moral reasoning dilemmas are especially tricky because they involve choosing between two options that are both wrong.
For example, the choice between stealing and allowing a loved one to die is really tough!
In contrast, Eisenberg’s prosocial moral dilemmas are more typical of everyday situations. They involve a conflict between personal advantage with fairness or welfare of others.
Nancy Eisenberg
recognized the limitations of Kohlberg’s theory and aimed to develop a theory to better understand prosocial behaviours among children.
Using vignettes Eisenberg also developed a stage theory of prosocial reasoning, which consists of 5 levels (although there are really 6 levels, as level 4 has two substages).
Eisenbergs 5 levels of stage theory of prosocial reasoning (HNASTS)
Level 1: Hedonistic, Self-Focused Orientation
Level 2: Needs-Based Orientation
Level 3: Approval/Stereotyped Orientation
Level 4a: Self-Reflective Empathetic Orientation
Level 4b: Transitional Level
Level 5: Strongly Internalized Stage
Level 1: Hedonistic, Self-Focused Orientation
Primarily concerned with personal interest and gains
Common among preschoolers and young elementary school children
Examples:
“He should go to the party because it’s going to be really fun for him.”
“He should help because then he may get a thank-you gift.”
Level 2: Needs-Based Orientation
Level 2: Needs-Based Orientation
–
Concerned with others’ needs, even when they conflict with their own.
Common among preschoolers and elementary school children. Notice that this type of “other orientation” is occurring a lot earlier than the other theories we talked about. How do you think this is related to the types of vignettes the researchers used?
Example:
“He should help because the other boy is bleeding and hurt.”
Level 3: Approval/Stereotyped Orientation
Concerned with gaining approval of others, AND/OR concerned with stereotyped images of good and bad.
Common among some elementary school children and high schoolers.
Example:
“Eric should help because his mom will be proud of him if he does. He’ll be a good boy.”
Level 4a: Self-Reflective Empathetic Orientation
Answers involve sympathetic responding/role-taking, OR a concern for other’s humanness, OR guilt/positive emotion related to consequences of actions. In other words, it’s all about using perspective taking to think about how someone would feel in the situation.
Most common among high school children, but some older elementary children may be at this stage.
Examples:
“Eric should think about how he would feel in that situation.”
“He would feel really guilty if he went to the party and didn’t help”
Level 4b: Transitional Level
Answers involve internalized values, norms, duties, or responsibilities. They may also reflect concerns for larger society and/or human rights BUT are not clearly/strongly stated. Overall, this is really considered a “transitional” stage because the answers are not fully articulated.
Only a minority of individuals, in high school or older, reach this stage.
In this example, you can notice that helping is an internalized value, but the sentiment is not fully elaborated on:
“Eric should help because helping is something that’s important.”
Level 5: Strongly Internalized Stage
Involve internalized values, norms, duties, or responsibilities. They may also reflect concerns for society and human rights AND are clearly & strongly stated (this is the key difference from 4b).
An even smaller minority of people, in high school and older, reach this stage.
Example:
“Eric would feel bad if he didn’t help because he’d know he hadn’t lived up to his values. It’s important to help people in need.”
Children’s reasoning based on Eisenberg’s vignettes shows a…
much higher correlation with children’s actual prosocial behaviour.
This probably isn’t surprising given that her vignettes are much less abstract than Kohlberg’s.
Thus, when children are presented with realistic and familiar situations, we see a faster development of moral reasoning.
Parents roles in children’s development of conscience:
Parents are very important in the development of conscience. This involves socialization and awareness of others’ thoughts and feelings.
Providing children with explanations for why they should help other people, encouraging them to engage in perspective taking, and having secure relationships are all related to the development of conscience.
For example, having a secure attachment relationship helps children learn about right and wrong because children have a safe place to learn from their mistakes. If children are so distressed about wrongdoings, it is extremely difficult for them to engage in more cognitively complex tasks like perspective taking.
Teachers roles in children’s development of conscience:
One method teachers and other adults use to help support children’s moral development is through inductive discipline.
Inductive discipline involves offering explanations for why a behaviour is right or wrong, clarifying how the child should behave, and guiding their understanding of expectations for behaviour.
This is also done in a warm, empathic way so children can learn from their behaviour without feeling badly about themselves.
“helper” and a “hinderer” experimental tasks.
this research demonstrates that infants as young as 3 months of age show a preference towards “helpers” over “hinderers”, lending support for an innate capacity for moral development
Compared to other theories, Eisenberg’s theory of prosocial moral development is a more…
concrete way to understand children’s moral development.
Children’s understanding of right and wrong is influenced by both nature and nurture factors.
What is true about the development of the conscience?
-Secure attachment relationships promote children’s development of conscience
-Parents and teachers can promote the development of conscience by using inductive discipline
- Encouraging perspective-taking is related to the development of conscience
What is prosocial behaviour?
Prosocial behaviour reflects actions that are taken to benefit another.
For example, volunteering at a dog shelter, lending a friend money for lunch, or standing up to a school-yard bully could all be considered prosocial behaviors.
What nature and nurture factors are related to the development of children’s prosocial behaviours? how prosocial behaviours are fostered among children:
Genetics
Child Temperament
Empathy and sympathy
Theory of mind
Culture
Parenting practices
Genetics (nature/nurture factors to prosocial behviours development)
There are genetic differences related to one’s tendency to engage in prosocial behaviour.
-Differences in the hormone oxytocin(a feel-good neuropeptide related to social bonding, is released during maternal bonding, as well as bonding between partners and friends).
-Differences in Child temperament
Empathy and sympathy (nature/nurture factors to prosocial behviours development)
Before offering help, children first need to recognize that someone else is in distress. This is related to both empathy and sympathy.
Empathy is an emotional reaction to another’s emotional state, in which we feel the same emotional experience as someone else (e.g., we feel sad because we see someone else feeling sad).
In contrast, sympathy is more feeling bad for someone. It’s a subtle yet important difference.
Theory of mind (nature/nurture factors to prosocial behviours development)
Theory of mind reflects understanding of mental states (including thoughts and feelings).
Children with more developed theory of mind skills tend to engage in more prosocial behaviours.
Culture (nature/nurture factors to prosocial behviours development)
Eastern cultures that emphasize mutual cooperation and interrelations tend to engage in more prosocial behaviors than more individualistic Western cultures.
Parenting practices- MAD
(nature/nurture factors to prosocial behviours development)
There are many parenting practices that are related to children’s prosocial behaviours.
- Modeling and teaching
- Arranging opportunities for prosocial behaviour
- Disciplinary style
Child temperament (nature/nurture factors to prosocial behviours development)
One component of temperament is physiological arousal level.
While some arousal can motivate prosocial behaviours, too much arousal can feel overwhelming and inhibit prosocial behaviours.
In other words, if children feel distressed by another’s distress, they may not be capable of helping.
Shyness can also inhibit prosocial behaviour, as children feel awkward about engaging with others.
Hoffman (Sympathy and Empathy)
- young children experience empathy but do not always know how to help
-Empathetic parenting is important for developing empathy in one’s child.
Parents - Modeling and teaching
1) Through principles of social learning, children learn and imitate prosocial behaviours that they see their parents engaging in.
Ex: children would be more likely to use manners if they witness their parents modeling “please” and “thank you”.
2) In addition to modeling, parents provide explicit instructions about prosocial behaviours and ethical obligations.
Ex: parents may explicitly tell their children that it’s good to help a friend if they accidentally hurt themselves, as that’s how they’d hope to be treated in the same situation.
Parents - Arranging opportunities for prosocial behaviour
-encouraging prosocial behaviours when they see another child hurt or upset on the playground
-or more complex like arranging formal volunteering opportunities in the community.
Parents - Disciplinary Style
Responsive, sensitive parenting is related to children’s prosocial behaviour.
Importantly, parents should be careful not to encourage prosocial behaviour by making it about rewards and punishments – this is not effective. Rewards and punishments are external motivators that do not help children to internalize prosocial values.
It is best to encourage prosocial behaviour through inductive discipline (e.g., explaining why it is important), which helps to promote more internal motivation for prosociality.
Early precursors of prosocial behaviour include(ETT):
Empathy
Theory of mind
Temperament
Types of anti social behaviours
-Aggressive Behaviours
-Delinquent Behaviours
-
Reactive Aggression
occurs as a hostile, emotional reaction to provocation.
A young child hitting their sibling after they didn’t get their own way would be an example of reactive aggression.
Antisocial Behaviours
antisocial behaviours are those that are harmful to others (e.g., aggressive behaviours, bullying) or violate social norms (e.g., rule-breaking, lying).
Proactive Aggression
Aggression that is used to obtain a need or desire.
Ex, a child who uses force to obtain a desired toy from someone else would be using proactive aggression. This type of aggression is quite common in young children, as they do not always have the language skills to communicate their desires.
Other types of aggressive behaviours can be differentiated by their form, such as…
physical (e.g., hitting, kicking)
verbal (e.g., saying mean comments, name-calling)
relational (e.g., spreading rumours, leaving someone out on purpose).
In general, the prevalence of physical aggression decreases with development while the prevalence of verbal and relational aggression follows an inverted u-shape, peaking in middle childhood/early adolescence.
Bullying is a subset of aggressive behaviour that involves several components:
1) a perception of harm
2) a power differential between the aggressor and the victimized child
3) repetition or the possibility of repetition.
Bullying is also repeated over time – this means that one instance of name-calling is
NOT bullying.
Delinquent behaviours
including rule-breaking, vandalism, or skipping school (although aggression doesn’t always precede these behaviours).
Lying is a special example – while chronic lying can be problematic, it certainly isn’t always an antisocial behaviour and can be a sign of cognitive maturity in children.
Transdermal Optical Imaging
Helps detect emotions not visible to the nakes eye (when children lie, they have a neutral face but are actually expericing a lot of emotions underneath, this helps show this) Reveal hidden emotion associated with people’s lies.
85% accuracy.
Pinnoceho affect - cheeks decrease and facial blufo(?) on the nose increases
