Moral Development Study Guide

Moral Development Study Guide

Objectives:

• Explain various theories of moral development.
• Analyze the relationship between moral and cognitive development.
• Determine a child’s stage of moral development and implement strategies to promote moral development in the classroom

Key Terms:

Pages 119-128

Theory of mind – Understanding that people have their own minds, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires, and perceptions.

Perspective-taking ability – Understanding that other have different feelings and experiences.

Moral reasoning – Thinking process involved in judgments about questions of right and wrong.

Moral realism – Stage of development wherein children see rules as absolute.

Morality of cooperation – Stage of development wherein children realize that people make rules and people can change them.

Moral dilemmas – Situations in which no choice is clearly and indisputable right.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Level 1: Preconventional morality

• Stage 1: Punishment-avoidance and obedience
  • Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment. A good or bad action is determined by it's physical consequences.
• Stage 2: Exchange of favors (Personal Reward Orientation)
  • Personal needs determine right and wrong. Favors are returned along the lines of “You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.”

Level 2: Conventional morality

• Stage 3: Good boy/good girl
  • Good means “nice.” It is determined by what pleases, aids, and is approved by others.
• Stage 4: Law and order
  • Laws are absolute. Authority must be respected and the social order maintained.

Level 3: Postconventional morality

• Stage 5: Social contract
  • Good is determined by socially agreed-upon standards of individual rights. This is a morality similar to that of the U.S. Constitution.
• Stage 6: Universal ethical principle
  • Good and right are matters of individual conscience and involve abstract concepts of justice, human dignity, and equality.

Ethic of care – Carol Gilligian – individuals move from a focus on self-interest to moral reasoning based on commitment to specific individuals and relationships, and then to the highest level of morality based on the principles of responsibility and care for all people (like Kohlberg's state 3, good boy/good girl).

Social conventions – Agreed-upon rules and ways of doing things in a particular situation.

Internalize – Process whereby children adopt external standards as their own.

Summary:

I've never thought about morality in a high school class room. I found the first few definitions interesting. I remember when I realized everyone doesn't think like me... It's hard not to feel like everyone should think like me... I'm so smart! Haha. Kohlberg splits morality into stages. I'd never thought of them having stages, but I feel it's important to identify what kind of morality your students are in and try and help them get to the next stage. This seems like it would be tied in to identity and what you believe in. Some morality issues need to be taught, but not in the general form. I feel like I'd been taught codes of ethics etc... but it should somehow be sneaked in with the general content. Maybe I could present a moral dilemma situation that relates to math. I can't think of any right now, but I would love to do something like that!