Developmental Psych Morality Development

What is morality?

A sense of right and wrong that guides how we interact with others.

What types of morality do parents hope to instill in their children?

Avoiding hurting others, prosocial concern (altruism), and personal commitment to abide by rules.

What are moral rules?

Standards of acceptable and unacceptable conduct that focus on the rights and privileges of individuals.

What are social conventional rules?

Standards determined by social consensus that indicate what is appropriate within a particular social context.

Early evidence of helpfulness

Infants can recognize other people's distress - even babies will cry to another baby's crying

14-18 month olds helped an adult in a situation where they showed need without verbal prompting

Stages of prosocial moral reasoning

Hedonistic and needs oriented, approval oriented, empathetic orientation, internalized values orientation

What is the hedonistic and needs-oriented stage of moral reasoning?

The preschool stage where children are concerned solely with their own needs and help others only when needed (not due to internal emotions)

What characterizes the approval-oriented stage of moral reasoning?

The elementary stage where children want to act in ways that others approve of, without having internalized moral rules (just about approval seeking)

What is empathic orientation in moral reasoning?

A high school stage where individuals have sympathetic feelings for others and value their needs.

What is internalized values orientation in moral reasoning?

An older adult stage where individuals feel an obligation to help others as a part of their identity.

What is the affective perspective in moral development?

Children are motivated to feel pride and avoid shame, influenced by psychoanalytic theories (the development of the superego)

What is the cognitive perspective in moral development?

How moral reasoning matures and the ability to think about right and wrong

What does the behavioral perspective examine in moral development?

How children learn to act consistently with moral standards through social learning and information processing

How did Piaget test moral reasoning in children?

Through vignettes like Weber and had to explain their reasoning

Wanted to see if children factored in intentions in their moral reasoning

Question - who is worse? a child who accidentally breaks 15 glasses or a child who broke one glass doing something he wasn't supposed to

What would a child who accounts for intent in their moral reasoning say about the broken glass question?

They would say the child who that broke one glass by being naughty was worse even though the consequence of the accidental child was technically worse

- reflects autonomous morality

What are the three stages of Piaget's theory of moral development?

1. Premoral period, 2. Heteronomous stage, 3. Autonomous morality.

What is the premoral period in Piaget's theory?

A preschool stage where children are not in tune with rules.

- could be a function of their limited verbal skills to explain reasoning

What is the heteronomous stage in Piaget's theory?

A stage from 5-10 where children believe rules come from authority figures and consequences are most important.

- believe justice is imminent and rules will always be enforced

What is the autonomous morality stage in Piaget's theory?

A stage from 10+ where children understand that rules are arbitrary and can be challenged, considering intentions.

Which moral reasoning stage would understand it would be okay to not whisper in the library in the case of a fire?

Autonomous morality (10+)

If parents are too strict on their kids, Piaget believed

children could get stuck in the heteronomous morality stage and always take rules at face value - don't advocate for themselves

Outcome of Piaget's Moral Theory

Again underestimated the moral capacities of children

Vignettes only showed very extreme opposite conditions which limits our ability to observe how much nuance a child can understand

Nelson's motive vs consequence study

Gave four possible outcomes - bad motive x good outcome, bad motive x bad outcome, good motive x bad outcome, good motive x good outcome

How do children rate bad motives?

As negative regardless of the good or bad consequence - show children take intention into account

What is Kohlberg's theory of moral development?

A theory that proposes six invariant stages (cannot pass to next stage if not finished the first) of moral reasoning based on moral dilemmas.

- all people go through each stage in order

Kohlberg's Level 1 Preconventional Morality

Stage one - punishment and Obedience

Stage two - Naive Hedonism

What is the first stage of Kohlberg's theory?

Punishment and obedience, where children infer something is bad by observing punishment.

What is the second stage of Kohlberg's theory?

Naive hedonism, where children obey to avoid punishment or to gain something.

Kohlberg's Level 2 Conventional Morality

Stage 3 - Good child orientation

Stage 4 - Social order maintaining morality

What is the third stage of Kohlberg's theory?

Good child orientation, where children want to be perceived as good people.

What is the fourth stage of Kohlberg's theory?

Social order maintaining morality, where children understand rules maintain societal order.

Kohlberg's Level 3 Postconventional morality

Stage 5 - social contract orientation

Stage 6 - morality of individual principles of conscience

What is the fifth stage of Kohlberg's theory?

Social contract orientation, where laws are seen as potentially unfair if they infringe on human rights.

What is the sixth stage of Kohlberg's theory?

Morality of individual principles of conscience, based on internalized ethical values.

What is aggression?

Any intentional act designed to cause harm.

Contributions of Kolhberg's Theory

Age is correlated with the maturation of reasoning

Longitudinal research supports the invarient stages

Advanced education and living in a democratic society contribute to growth

Criticisms of Kolhberg's Theory

Cultural biases - we tend to value high levels of moral reasoning in western society whereas collective cultures value morality that is more in line with what keeps the group in order (conventional morality)

Gender bias - mostly interviewed boys

Doesn't explain whether reasoning predicts behaviour

Underestimating children

What are the two types of aggression?

Hostile/reactive aggression (goal is to cause harm) and instrumental/proactive aggression (goal achieved through harm).

Example of instrumental/proactive harm

Grabbing a cookie out of someone's hand so you can eat it

At what age does the intent to cause harm typically arise?

Around 12 months.

When does physical aggression vs verbal aggression develop?

2-3 years - physical

4-5 - verbal (teasing, name calling)

Stability of aggression

Toddlers who are aggressive are more likely to be aggressive at 5 and predict adult social skills

What is social information processing theory?

A theory that explains how children react with aggression to ambiguous situations through a series of cognitive steps.

Steps of the social information processing theory

Encode social cues -> interpret social cues -> formulate social goals -> generate problem solving strategies -> select and enact a response -> peer evaluation and response

Bullies are mostly

Proactive aggressors - are starting aggression not retaliating

- have ofetn observed conflict at home

- rarely have been victims

- tendto choose passive victims

What is the bystander effect in bullying?

The phenomenon where one person standing up for a victim can significantly impact bullying situations.