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Emphasis on moral reasoning, moral judgement, and other cognitive processes:
Piaget, Kohlberg, Turiel, Smetana, Damon
Piaget’s Model
Invariant sequence of stages in moral development
Piaget’s Model: 0-5 Premoral Stage
No real moral rules; only idiosyncratic, unstable rules, intertwined with desire, fantasy and play
Piaget’s Model: 6-10 Heteronomous Stage (moral realism)
Rules are moral absolutes, rigid, laid down by authority figures
Moral judgement based on consequences, not intentions
Expiatory punishment: punishment for its own sake, transgressor does not need to remedy the damage
Immanent justice: punishment will always find you
Piaget’s Model: 11, 12+ Autonomous stage (moral relativism)
Rules are arbitrary agreements; can be changes by social consensus
Moral judgement based on intentions, not consequences
Reciprocal punishment: punishment should teach a lesson, rehabilitate, repair damage
What are the mechanisms of moral development?
Moving to the higher stage of moral reasoning involves overcoming the cognitive deficits of the lower stage.
The shift is due to
General cognitive development
Interaction with peers rather than with parents (negotiating rules, arguing about fair play, rules of games, reciprocity)
What about parents according to Piaget
Parents are good for nothing in moral development
The essential conflict
Between addressing a need of an individual and obeying societal rules.
Between empathy, compassion, mercy, care for an individual person’s plight and need and compliance with an abstract system of rules (legal, institutional, religious, etc)
What to do?
Consider one specific person’s plight or need? Or follow an abstract rule?
Remember that the goal of the abstract rule is to protect common good, and thus ultimately meet needs of many individuals people.
Main interest
In how people reason about moral dilemmas, not in what they end up endorsing or in what they actually do
Kohlberg: Three major levels; six stages
Invariant sequence of stage; driven by cognitive development
Kohlberg: Level 1: Preconventional morality
Stage 1 Punishment and obedience
Stage 2 Hedonism, instrumental exchange of favors
Kohlberg: Level 2: Conventional morality
Stage 3 Importance of being good, nice, caring about others; “good boy/girl”
Stage 4 Endorsement of/supporting social order; “law and order”
Kohlberg: Level 3: Postconventional/principled morality
Stage 5 Endorsement of social contracts as best protecting individual rights
Stage 6 Self-chosen universal moral principles; commitment to individual conscience
Do parents play a role in children’s cognitive moral development?
Piaget and Kohlberg: Parents unimportant; indeed, because of their position of unilateral authority, they may have detrimental effects on children’s moral cognition. Moral “socialization” occurs in peer groups, where children come to realize rules are arbitrary agreements.
Is it true?
Parental discussion style, particularly regarding the child’s real-life moral dilemmas, predicted the future growth of the child’s moral reasoning. The most beneficial style entailed a high level of representational and supportive interactions
Representational
Socratic; eliciting child opinions, clarifying, checking for understanding
Supportive
Positive affect, encouragement to participate, humor
The controversy on sex differences: Carol Gilligan
Challenged the cognitive developmental claim that there a universal stage sequence, particularly that a focus on someone’s need (Stage 3) is “less advanced” than a focus on a system of rules (Stage 4)
Gilligan:
The two sexes follow different developmental pathways and have different basic life orientations
Males: A justice/rights orientation
Because of their individualistic and separate conception of self, their detached objectivity, linking identity with achievement, and proclivity for abstract and impartial principles. Males view morality as involving issues of conflicting rights
Females: A care/response orientation
Because of their perception of the self as connected to and interdependent with others, linking identity with intimate relationships, their sensitivity not to endanger or hurt, their concern for the well-being and care of self and others, and for harmonious relationships in concrete situations. Females view morality as involving issues of conflicting responsibilities.
Is it true? Gilligan
Conclusions: Lack of consistent support for Gilligan’s claim
Appraisal of Kohlberg’s Theory
Despite huge popularity
Claims to universality turned out to be unfounded: Theory underestimated cultural differences in moral reasoning
Ignored the role of parents (it has since been investigated in contemporary approaches inspired originally by Kohlberg, e.g., Walker’s research)
Ignored gender differences (Gilligan’s views)
Generally uninterested in links of cognitive processes with moral conduct
Ignored the role of moral emotions
Grossly under-estimated young children
Note 
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