EMOTIONAL & SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE

Moral Development

• Moral development is the gradual formation of an individual’s concepts of right and wrong, conscience, ethical and religious values, social attitudes, and behaviors.
• Major theorists: Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, and Lawrence Kohlberg.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

• Cognitive development and expanding social experiences allow adolescents to better understand larger social structures, societal institutions, and law-making systems that govern moral responsibilities.
• Kohlberg’s theory emphasizes that moral maturity is determined by how an individual reasons about moral dilemmas, not the content of their response.
• Moral reasoning and content come together in a coherent ethical system only at the two highest stages.
• Identity development and moral understanding are part of the same individual process.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Understanding

• Kohlberg's stages of moral understanding are divided into three levels: Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional, each with two stages.

Preconventional Level

• Morality is externally controlled, dominated by rules of authority figures.
  • Stage 1: Obedience & Punishment Orientation
    • Basis for moral reasoning: Fear of authority and avoidance of punishment.
  • Stage 2: Instrumental Purpose Orientation
    • Awareness of different perspectives in moral dilemmas.
    • Right behavior is based on self-interest and transactional exchanges.

Conventional Level

• Conformity to social rules is important for maintaining the current social system, good human relationships, and societal order.
  • Stage 3: “Good Person” Orientation/Morality of Interpersonal Cooperation
    • Social harmony in the context of close personal ties.
    • Maintaining the affection and approval of friends.
    • Ideal reciprocity: concern for the welfare of others.
  • Stage 4: Social Order Maintaining Orientation
    • Consideration of societal laws.
    • Moral choices should obey laws to maintain social order and cooperation.

Postconventional or Principled Level

• Morality is based on abstract principles and values.
  • Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation
    • Participation in a system that brings good for people.
  • Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation
    • Self-chosen ethical principles of conscience that are valid for all humanity, regardless of law or social agreement.
    • Each person has worth and dignity.

Research on Kohlberg’s Stage Sequence

• Few people move beyond Stage 4.
• Postconventional morality is rare; little evidence supports Stage 5 preceding Stage 6.
• Few people attain moral maturity.
• Stages 3 and 4 require understandings of ideal reciprocity in human relationships.
• Kohlberg’s stages are loosely organized and overlapping, influenced by context or situation.

Gender Differences in Moral Reasoning?

• Gilligan (1982) suggests Kohlberg’s theory does not adequately represent the morality of girls and women.
• Feminine morality emphasizes an “ethic of care”.
• Concern for others is a valid basis for moral judgment, but Kohlberg emphasized justice rather than caring.
• Females tend to emphasize care or empathy in moral decision-making.

Coordinating Moral, Social-Conventional, and Personal Concerns

• Concern with matters of personal choice builds during adolescence.
• Teens acknowledge parental input in moral and social-conventional situations.
• Personal choice and community obligation are strong considerations during adolescence.
• Older adolescents see social conventions as social norms for maintaining a just and peaceful society, rather than dictates of authority figures.

Influences on Moral Reasoning

• Personality: Flexibility, open-mindedness, and exploration.
• Parenting Practices: Authoritative approach, moral discussions, encourage prosocial behavior, treat others with respect and fairness, listening sensitively, and empathy.
• Peer Interactions: Diversity, friendships, social interactions.
• School Experiences: Positive Behavior Support Plan (PBS) - based on values of enabling inclusion, choice, participation, and equality of opportunity.
• Cultural Influences on Moral Reasoning
  • Individuals in industrialized nations move through Kohlberg’s stages more quickly and attain higher levels than individuals in village societies.
  • In village societies, moral cooperation is based on direct relationships between people, with little need for abstract concepts of morality.
  • Kohlberg’s stages may reflect moral reasoning from a Western view.

Moral Reasoning & Behavior

• A central assumption is that an individual's moral understanding will be consistent with moral actions.
• Adolescents at a higher moral stage tend to act prosocially.
• A modest relationship exists between mature moral reasoning and moral actions, due to individual differences in emotions, temperament, cultural and religious beliefs.
• All individuals are free to make their own good and bad choices.
• Moral Identity: the degree to which morality is central to self-concept.
• Adolescents tend to aspire to a strong moral ideal of self.
• Moral commitment becomes a part of an individual’s prosocial behavior with the maturity of later adolescence and early adulthood.

Teenage Religious Involvement (Pew Research Center (2020))

• Most teens share the religion of their parents or legal guardians.
• Approximately half of teens (48%) say they have “all the same” religious beliefs as their parent.
• Teens are just as likely as their parents to say they regularly go to religious services, but appear less religious in personal expression.
• Most teens report attending religious services with either both (40%) or one (25%) of their parents.
• Teens are about as likely to say they go to religious services mainly because their parents want them to (38%) as to say they go mainly because they themselves want to go (35%).
• Religious education is relatively common.
• Teens whose parents identify with the Republican Party seem to be more religiously engaged than those whose parents are Democratic.
• Evangelical Protestant teens are more religious than other teens and are more likely to engage in religious education or religious youth groups.
• Teenagers tend to be open to the possibility that there may be truth in multiple faiths.
• People can be moral without believing in God.
• Many U.S. teens report having religious or spiritual experiences at least once or twice a month.

Challenges to Kohlberg’s Theory

• Researchers suggest that it does not account for the moral challenges of everyday life.
• The pragmatic approach to morality focuses on everyday moral judgements, rather than efforts to seek just solutions.
• Do humans justify their actions after-the-fact with convenient moral rationalizations?
• Education professionals should engage children and adolescents with conversations that reflect an appropriate higher moral stage for their level of cognitive development.
• Professionals should understand their students’ moral stage.