Theories of Moral Development

Moral Development
- children’s reasoning about morality, their attitudes
towards moral lapses, and their behavior when faced
with moral issues.
* Theories of Moral Development *
• Psychoanalytic Development Theory
• Cognitive Development Theory
• Operant and Social Learning Theories
• Damon’s View of Moral Identity
Psychoanalytic Theory
a sense of right and wrong is forged in the
context of highly charged, close interpersonal
relationship.
Sigmund Freud is closely related to the
psychoanalytic theory.
- according to him, the human behavior is formed
through an interaction between the three components
of the wind, i.e. ld, Ego and Super Ego
 Super Ego
Id
“This is not
“I want
the way to
this”
get it”

Ego
“Let work
on it”
Cognitive Development Theory
 Children’s understanding of right ad wrong develops
in line with their understanding of other problem to be
solved.
 Thus, thinking about right and wrong is related to
sensorimotor, pre-concrete, and formal operational
thinking.
According to Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years old)
- Is the phase that spans from the birth of the
individual up to the time when he learns and acquire
language.
2. Pre Operational Stage (2-7 years old)
- In this stage, the child is more engaged with play and
uses pre operatory thought, which is the process by
which the child represent object through the use if words,
gribbles, drawing and pictures.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years old)
- This stage start when the child begin to use logic
opportunity.
4. Formal Operational Stage (11 years old)
- This Stage is the hallmark of abstract thinking and
usage of hypothetical rationalization.
Moral Identity
Damon’s Description
Age period Nature of Empathy
Early Infancy Characterized by global empathy the young infants
empathic response does not distinguish between
feelings and needs of self and others
1 to 2 years old Undifferentiated feelings of discomfort at another’s
distress grow into more genuine feelings of concern,
but infants cannot translate realization of other’s
unhappy feeling into effective action
Early Childhood Children became aware that every person’s
perspective is unique and that someone else may
have a different reaction to a situation. This
awareness allows the child to respond more
appropriately to another person’s distress.
10 to 12 years old Children develop an emergent orientation of
empathy for people who live in unfortunate
circumstances – the poor, handicapped and the social
outcast.
In adolescence this newfound sensitivity may give a
humanitarian flower to the individual’s ideological
and political views.
Learning Theories
Operant (B.F. Skinner)
- Based upon the idea that learning is a function of
change in overt behavior.
- Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s
response to events (stimuli) that occur in the
environment.
-Our sense of right and wrong is learned through a
history of reinforcement and punishers, much as any
behaviors or traits are learned.
Social Learning Theories
(Albert Bandura)
- Posses that people learn from one another via
observation, imitation an modeling.
- explain human behavior in terms of continuous
reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral and
environmental influences.
The End