Moral Development Flashcards
how did piaget assess morality
with short stories, interested in explanations for why an action is viewed as right or wrong. based on answers, child falls into 1 of 3 categories
3 stages of Piaget’s theory of moral reasoning
1) Premoral Stage (0-5 yo): no judgments about right or wrong
2) Heteronomous Stage (5-10 yo):
-rules are fixed and can never be broken
-morality = obeying
-outcome is more important than intention
3) Autonomous Stage (10+)
-rules are not absolute and can be changed
-intentions matter
3 levels of moral reasoning according to Kohlberg’s
1) Pre-conventional (3-7 yo)
2) Conventional (8-13 yo)
3) Post-conventional (13+)
what is an example of a story that Kohlberg used to evaluate moral reasoning?
Heinz Dilemma
Describe pre-conventional moral reasoning
driven by
-avoiding punishment and getting rewards
-rules are fixed and absolute
what would someone in the pre-conventional level respond to the Heinz dilemma?
“Heinz should not steal the drug because stealing is illegal and he could get caught”
focus on law and getting punished.
Describe conventional moral reasoning
focus on
-compliance with social expectations, conventions, and duties
-upholding one’s duty to follow the rules and laws of society
what would someone in the conventional level respond to the Heinz dilemma?
“It’s wrong for Heinz to steal because it’s against the law. If everyone was stealing, society would fall apart”
or
“It’s right because he means well” (socially approved)
Describe post-conventional moral reasoning
focus on
-what is in the best interest of society or based on maintaining universal ethical principles
-rules = social contracts. can be changed to meet the needs of society
what would someone in the post-conventional level respond to the Heinz dilemma?
“It’s not wrong to steal because human life must be preserved and life is worth more than money or personal propert
in the study where 2 yo have the option to help an adult that cant reach toy, do they help more if
-positive intention (adult wants to give them toy) + positive outcome (child gets toy)
compared to
-positive intention (adult wants to give them toy) + negative outcome (child doesn’t end up getting the toy)
2 years old helped the adults equally if positive or negative outcome, suggesting that infants care more about intentions than outcomes of actions
whats the link with development of theory of mind and appreciating intentions
children who fail standard false beliefs tasks (what would this person that isn’t you think/say) interpret character’s intention on moral false belief task as negative, more likely to recommend punishing them.
-attributions of positive intentions increases with age
-suggests that maturing of theory of mind enables children to give others the benefit of the doubt when they act out of ignorance
What is the current theory of moral development
Social Domain Theory of Moral Development
What does the Social Domain Theory of Moral Development say
-As they age, children are simultaneously developping knowledge about moral, societal, and personal domain
-They can distinguish between moral, societal and personal domains from a young age
what are the three social domains of the Social Domain Theory of Moral Development
1) Moral domain (justice, rights, fairness)
2) Societal domain (social conventions, can be changed)
3) Personal domain (no right or wrong choices)
True or false: 2 years old can generally distinguish between issues in 3 domains
False. More around 3-4 year olds, then they believe that violations of moral rules are more wrong and that they should have control in personal domain but not necessarily in moral and societal domain
Example that there are differences across cultures in what falls within moral, societal and personal domain.
Helping parents in older age is a moral judgment in collectivist cultures but more of a personal judgment in individualistic cultures
What is a prosocial behaviour
Voluntary behaviour intended to benefit others, like helping, sharing and comforting others
what drives prosocial behaviours
Perspective taking leads to empathy (understanding and sharing emotional state), leads to sympathy (feeling of concern) which then leads to prosocial behviour
How is an infant before 18 months old likely to react to other’s distress
With self-focused distress
When does prosocial behaviour appear
18-24 months, increases throughout the 2nd year of life
ex study where child views an adult who steals necklace from other adult in aggressive manner: shows way more concern vs neutral condition where necklace isn’t stolen
results from second part of the necklace study where opportunity for child to help get balloon that flew away
children that showed more sympathy during necklace portion of the study were more likely to help her retrieve the balloon.
-shows that sympathy motivates helping as young as 18-24 months of age
toddlers help selectively depending on type of help of help required: which category of help is harder for toddlers
self-sacrifice: sharing food or stickers with adult who has none
genetic differences in pro-social behaviour
-emotion regulation (better regulation = easier to help)
-behavioural inhibition (shy = harder to help)
How can parents help their children have prosocial behaviours?
- Modelling of prosocial behaviour and teacher prosocial behaviour. sympathy-inducing rationales are best for internalization.
“let’s donate money because they need it more and it will make them happy” vs “because it’s a good thing to do” - Providing opportunities for child to engage in prosocial behaviour. household chores or community service
