4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
MORALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH
PROBLEMS IN CHILDHOOD
UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES OF MORALITY.
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• Communicating ethical standards to a developing child and shaping and enforcing ‘good’
behaviour is one of the most basic tasks of socialisation
o Adults expect children to learn these rules and act accordingly
• Developing an understanding of morality is complex as well as understanding that people
often have conflicting perspectives
• Moral reasoning research can be divided into cognitive, behavioural, and emotional aspects
o Cognitive: knowledge of ethical rules, and judgements of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ actions
o Behavioural: actual behaviour in situations that relate to ethical issues
o Emotional: feelings about situations and behaviours involving moral decisions
Piaget’s Theory of the Development of Moral Judgement
• Piaget proposed that the child’s concepts evolve in an unvarying sequence of 3 stages
Stage Name of Stage Approx. Age Reasoning About Rules
Premoral Stage From birth to • Children show little concern or awareness of rules
0
(Amoral Stage) age 4 • No use of moral principles or notions of justice
Heteronomous Around ages • Greater concern and respect for rules, seeing them
Stage 4 to 10 as unchanging and not to be questioned
(Moral Realism • Egocentric, one-way thinking – judgements are
1 Stage) based on the act’s consequences rather than the
actor’s intentions
• Little sense of what punishment is appropriate
Autonomous 10 to 11 • More subjective and two-way understanding of
Stage years morality as reciprocal relations between people
(Stage of onwards • Rules are seen as human agreements that can be
2 Morality of changed with all parties’ consent
Reciprocity) • Judgements are based partly on intentions and
punishment should be appropriate to severity of
the transgression
Study Methods
• He studies how often children come to grasp and understand rules of games (similar to
understanding moral rules)
o Children in the moral realism stage will regard these rules as sacred, even if a
different rule would improve the game
o Children in the stage of morality of reciprocity will believe that the rules can be
changed if it will make it better, but only if everyone agrees with it
1
,4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
• Children are also asked to justify moral judgements in response to vignettes to judge which
boy is naughtier
o The vignettes show one boy who accidentally breaks lots of cups by opening a door
into them, and another boy who breaks one cup when he purposefully tries to take a
hidden jar of sweets from a shelf
o However, children and adults in the autonomous stage say boy B is naughtier as he is
intentionally doing something disobedient making it a worse moral transgression
o However, children in the heteronomous stage view boy A as naughtier, focusing only
on the consequences of the action and the possible reaction of an adult to the event
Evaluation
• The two moral world view (Youniss & Damon, 1992) – the shift between seeing morality as a
one-way street to two-way – does appear to correspond to age-related changes in children’s
social relationships
• However, although the stages seem to provide a good explanation of the cognitive aspects of
development (the understanding of right from wrong), it doesn’t consider the emotional
component to moral thinking – we can feel when something isn’t right without knowing why
o However, he may underestimate the cognitive capacities of young children since
Chandler (1973) found that when using videos rather than oral descriptions of the
vignettes, younger children responded similar to the older children
• Being a stage theory, it assumes that everyone follows the same sequence, however, some
argue that development isn’t as straightforward
o 8-month-old infants can perceive the intentions of others (Woodward, 1998, 2005;
Gergely & Csibra, 2003), suggesting that autonomous moral thinking is possible
much earlier than proposed
o However, Piaget didn’t claim that they could not understand this, but that they were
not as relevant to younger children when determining right or wrong
• Piaget’s theories were based on observations of white middle-class children, meaning that
the degree to the application of his theory across all cultures is somewhat unclear
Kohlberg’s Cognitive Theory of Moral Development
• Kohlberg (1969, 1985) based his theory on Piaget’s, but aimed to refine the stages and extend
the age-period covered
• He believed that cognitive capabilities determine the development of moral reasoning, and
moral judgements and development connected to children’s involvement in social relations
• People are said to pass through his stages of moral development in the same order, but at
different ages, and some may never attain the highest level
• Once attaining a high level, they will not regress back to the earlier stages
2
,4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
Study Methods
• Young boys were presented with moral dilemmas where they had to choose either to obey or
ignore rules and authority to respond to the needs of others
o The Heinz dilemma portrayed a man who stole from a laboratory in order to get a drug
to save his wife who was dying from a special kind of cancer
• From these interviews, Kohlberg developed his own model for moral reasoning
Level I – Preconventional Morality: Avoid Punishment and Gain Rewards
Stage 1
Obedience and • To avoid punishment, the child defers to prestigious or powerful
punishment people, usually the parents
orientation • Morality of an act is defined by its physical consequences
Stage 2
Naïve hedonistic and • The child conforms to gain rewards and meet personal needs
instrumental • The child understands reciprocity and sharing, but this reciprocity is
orientation manipulative and self-serving
Level II – Conventional Morality: Conventional Rules and Conformity
Stage 3
Good boy morality • The child’s good behaviour is driven by a need to be accepted and
maintain good relations with others
• The child is still basing judgements of right and wrong on others’
responses, but primarily concerned with their approval/disapproval
• Conformity to families’ and friends’ standards to maintain goodwill
Stage 4
Authority and morality • Conformity driven by a desire to adhere to law and authority
that maintain social • Blindly accepts social conventions and rules, believing they should
order be maintained if society accepts them to avoid disapproval
Level III: Postconventional Morality: Self-Accepted Moral Principles
Stage 5
Morality of contract, • Morality is based on agreement among individuals to conform to
individual rights, and norms necessary to maintain the social order and rights of others
democratically • Since it is a social contract, it can be modified by within a society
accepted law through rational discussion of alternatives
Stage 6
Morality of individual • Conforming to both social standards and internalised principles
principles and • Intent is to avoid self-condemnation rather than criticism by others
conscience • People base their decisions on abstract principles of justice,
compassion, and equality
Evaluation
• Colby et al. (1983) found that young children tend to give more
preconventional responses, and older children more
postconventional responses
o Level I reasoning was high in preadolescence, with
stage 1 disappearing in teens, and Stage 2 by age 30
o Most stop progression at Stage 4, and only 10%
continue to develop during their 20s into Stage 5, with
none reaching Stage 6 (Colby et al., 1983)
• However, like Piaget, he exclusively focused on cognitive processes underlying moral
development, ignoring the possible influence other factors like social and emotional factors
3
, 4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
Cultural Differences
• Studies in Turkey (Nisan & Kohlberg, 1982), Taiwan (Lei & Cheng, 1989) and Israel (Snarey et
al., 1985) have showed that stage progression is universal, regardless of cultural background
• However, others found cultural differences as in New Guinea, people place community
obligations over individual rights
• Moreover, those in the developing world tend to be at lower levels of moral reasoning than
those in Western Europe and North America (Snarey, 1985)
Gender Bias
• Gilligan (1982) argued Kohlberg failed to take account of possible difference in moral
orientations of males and females, mostly studying male participants
o Women usually score lower than men on Kohlberg’s tests
o Traditionally ‘good’ female qualities conflict with moral development such that
women tend to be in Stage 3 – motivated to maintain goodwill and others’ approval
• His theory is too focused on reason, rules and logic as the basis of moral judgements, likely
since he only studied males
o However, women tend to take caring and interpersonal approaches to moral
judgements
• However, others have found no gender differences in moral reasoning (Jaffe & Hyde, 2000)
o Gender instead tends to be a better predictor of orientation used when making moral
judgements such as care or justice (Sochting et al., 1994; Haviv & Leman, 2002)
Evaluating Methods of Measurement
• Kohlberg oversimplified the nature of everyday moral decisions
• When an issue is abstract, people are more likely to support the default position than if
context and realistic descriptions of a situation or conflict are given
o For example, all children endorsed freedom of speech and religion, but when given
context such that it conflicted with other liberties, fewer did (Helwig, 2003, 2006)
• Kohlberg’s exclusive emphasis on cognitive processes neglects to consider how factors
other than cognitive ability affect moral judgement, such as political beliefs
• Elmer et al. (1983) found that left-wing students scored higher on moral reasoning, but when
asked to adopt the opposite political perspective, right-wing students scored higher
o This suggests potential political bias in Kohlberg’s measure
Social Convention versus Moral Laws
• Children must also learn social-convention rules such as dress, greetings, and etiquette
• Social conventions tend to be more relative and vary across culture (Helwig, 2006; Turiel,
2006), whereas core moral issues tend to remain consistent universally
• Social-convention rules are made distinct from moral rules by children as young as 3
(Smetana & Braeges, 1990; Turiel 1983, 2002, 2006)
o For example, children and adolescents tend to see moral violations as more wrong
than violations of social convention (Nucci & Turiel, 1978)
o These findings have also been found across cultures (Wainryb, 2006)
• However, some argue that this distinction between morality and convention is not always
clear cut across cultures and societies (Shweder et al., 1987)
o Moral judgements are usually intertwined with social, historical, and other contextual
factors that change how people understand and think about moral rules, and their
personal significance across cultures
4
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
MORALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH
PROBLEMS IN CHILDHOOD
UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES OF MORALITY.
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• Communicating ethical standards to a developing child and shaping and enforcing ‘good’
behaviour is one of the most basic tasks of socialisation
o Adults expect children to learn these rules and act accordingly
• Developing an understanding of morality is complex as well as understanding that people
often have conflicting perspectives
• Moral reasoning research can be divided into cognitive, behavioural, and emotional aspects
o Cognitive: knowledge of ethical rules, and judgements of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ actions
o Behavioural: actual behaviour in situations that relate to ethical issues
o Emotional: feelings about situations and behaviours involving moral decisions
Piaget’s Theory of the Development of Moral Judgement
• Piaget proposed that the child’s concepts evolve in an unvarying sequence of 3 stages
Stage Name of Stage Approx. Age Reasoning About Rules
Premoral Stage From birth to • Children show little concern or awareness of rules
0
(Amoral Stage) age 4 • No use of moral principles or notions of justice
Heteronomous Around ages • Greater concern and respect for rules, seeing them
Stage 4 to 10 as unchanging and not to be questioned
(Moral Realism • Egocentric, one-way thinking – judgements are
1 Stage) based on the act’s consequences rather than the
actor’s intentions
• Little sense of what punishment is appropriate
Autonomous 10 to 11 • More subjective and two-way understanding of
Stage years morality as reciprocal relations between people
(Stage of onwards • Rules are seen as human agreements that can be
2 Morality of changed with all parties’ consent
Reciprocity) • Judgements are based partly on intentions and
punishment should be appropriate to severity of
the transgression
Study Methods
• He studies how often children come to grasp and understand rules of games (similar to
understanding moral rules)
o Children in the moral realism stage will regard these rules as sacred, even if a
different rule would improve the game
o Children in the stage of morality of reciprocity will believe that the rules can be
changed if it will make it better, but only if everyone agrees with it
1
,4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
• Children are also asked to justify moral judgements in response to vignettes to judge which
boy is naughtier
o The vignettes show one boy who accidentally breaks lots of cups by opening a door
into them, and another boy who breaks one cup when he purposefully tries to take a
hidden jar of sweets from a shelf
o However, children and adults in the autonomous stage say boy B is naughtier as he is
intentionally doing something disobedient making it a worse moral transgression
o However, children in the heteronomous stage view boy A as naughtier, focusing only
on the consequences of the action and the possible reaction of an adult to the event
Evaluation
• The two moral world view (Youniss & Damon, 1992) – the shift between seeing morality as a
one-way street to two-way – does appear to correspond to age-related changes in children’s
social relationships
• However, although the stages seem to provide a good explanation of the cognitive aspects of
development (the understanding of right from wrong), it doesn’t consider the emotional
component to moral thinking – we can feel when something isn’t right without knowing why
o However, he may underestimate the cognitive capacities of young children since
Chandler (1973) found that when using videos rather than oral descriptions of the
vignettes, younger children responded similar to the older children
• Being a stage theory, it assumes that everyone follows the same sequence, however, some
argue that development isn’t as straightforward
o 8-month-old infants can perceive the intentions of others (Woodward, 1998, 2005;
Gergely & Csibra, 2003), suggesting that autonomous moral thinking is possible
much earlier than proposed
o However, Piaget didn’t claim that they could not understand this, but that they were
not as relevant to younger children when determining right or wrong
• Piaget’s theories were based on observations of white middle-class children, meaning that
the degree to the application of his theory across all cultures is somewhat unclear
Kohlberg’s Cognitive Theory of Moral Development
• Kohlberg (1969, 1985) based his theory on Piaget’s, but aimed to refine the stages and extend
the age-period covered
• He believed that cognitive capabilities determine the development of moral reasoning, and
moral judgements and development connected to children’s involvement in social relations
• People are said to pass through his stages of moral development in the same order, but at
different ages, and some may never attain the highest level
• Once attaining a high level, they will not regress back to the earlier stages
2
,4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
Study Methods
• Young boys were presented with moral dilemmas where they had to choose either to obey or
ignore rules and authority to respond to the needs of others
o The Heinz dilemma portrayed a man who stole from a laboratory in order to get a drug
to save his wife who was dying from a special kind of cancer
• From these interviews, Kohlberg developed his own model for moral reasoning
Level I – Preconventional Morality: Avoid Punishment and Gain Rewards
Stage 1
Obedience and • To avoid punishment, the child defers to prestigious or powerful
punishment people, usually the parents
orientation • Morality of an act is defined by its physical consequences
Stage 2
Naïve hedonistic and • The child conforms to gain rewards and meet personal needs
instrumental • The child understands reciprocity and sharing, but this reciprocity is
orientation manipulative and self-serving
Level II – Conventional Morality: Conventional Rules and Conformity
Stage 3
Good boy morality • The child’s good behaviour is driven by a need to be accepted and
maintain good relations with others
• The child is still basing judgements of right and wrong on others’
responses, but primarily concerned with their approval/disapproval
• Conformity to families’ and friends’ standards to maintain goodwill
Stage 4
Authority and morality • Conformity driven by a desire to adhere to law and authority
that maintain social • Blindly accepts social conventions and rules, believing they should
order be maintained if society accepts them to avoid disapproval
Level III: Postconventional Morality: Self-Accepted Moral Principles
Stage 5
Morality of contract, • Morality is based on agreement among individuals to conform to
individual rights, and norms necessary to maintain the social order and rights of others
democratically • Since it is a social contract, it can be modified by within a society
accepted law through rational discussion of alternatives
Stage 6
Morality of individual • Conforming to both social standards and internalised principles
principles and • Intent is to avoid self-condemnation rather than criticism by others
conscience • People base their decisions on abstract principles of justice,
compassion, and equality
Evaluation
• Colby et al. (1983) found that young children tend to give more
preconventional responses, and older children more
postconventional responses
o Level I reasoning was high in preadolescence, with
stage 1 disappearing in teens, and Stage 2 by age 30
o Most stop progression at Stage 4, and only 10%
continue to develop during their 20s into Stage 5, with
none reaching Stage 6 (Colby et al., 1983)
• However, like Piaget, he exclusively focused on cognitive processes underlying moral
development, ignoring the possible influence other factors like social and emotional factors
3
, 4PAHPDEV Psychology and Development Week 3
BSc Psychology Year 1 Morality and Mental Health Problems in Childhood
Cultural Differences
• Studies in Turkey (Nisan & Kohlberg, 1982), Taiwan (Lei & Cheng, 1989) and Israel (Snarey et
al., 1985) have showed that stage progression is universal, regardless of cultural background
• However, others found cultural differences as in New Guinea, people place community
obligations over individual rights
• Moreover, those in the developing world tend to be at lower levels of moral reasoning than
those in Western Europe and North America (Snarey, 1985)
Gender Bias
• Gilligan (1982) argued Kohlberg failed to take account of possible difference in moral
orientations of males and females, mostly studying male participants
o Women usually score lower than men on Kohlberg’s tests
o Traditionally ‘good’ female qualities conflict with moral development such that
women tend to be in Stage 3 – motivated to maintain goodwill and others’ approval
• His theory is too focused on reason, rules and logic as the basis of moral judgements, likely
since he only studied males
o However, women tend to take caring and interpersonal approaches to moral
judgements
• However, others have found no gender differences in moral reasoning (Jaffe & Hyde, 2000)
o Gender instead tends to be a better predictor of orientation used when making moral
judgements such as care or justice (Sochting et al., 1994; Haviv & Leman, 2002)
Evaluating Methods of Measurement
• Kohlberg oversimplified the nature of everyday moral decisions
• When an issue is abstract, people are more likely to support the default position than if
context and realistic descriptions of a situation or conflict are given
o For example, all children endorsed freedom of speech and religion, but when given
context such that it conflicted with other liberties, fewer did (Helwig, 2003, 2006)
• Kohlberg’s exclusive emphasis on cognitive processes neglects to consider how factors
other than cognitive ability affect moral judgement, such as political beliefs
• Elmer et al. (1983) found that left-wing students scored higher on moral reasoning, but when
asked to adopt the opposite political perspective, right-wing students scored higher
o This suggests potential political bias in Kohlberg’s measure
Social Convention versus Moral Laws
• Children must also learn social-convention rules such as dress, greetings, and etiquette
• Social conventions tend to be more relative and vary across culture (Helwig, 2006; Turiel,
2006), whereas core moral issues tend to remain consistent universally
• Social-convention rules are made distinct from moral rules by children as young as 3
(Smetana & Braeges, 1990; Turiel 1983, 2002, 2006)
o For example, children and adolescents tend to see moral violations as more wrong
than violations of social convention (Nucci & Turiel, 1978)
o These findings have also been found across cultures (Wainryb, 2006)
• However, some argue that this distinction between morality and convention is not always
clear cut across cultures and societies (Shweder et al., 1987)
o Moral judgements are usually intertwined with social, historical, and other contextual
factors that change how people understand and think about moral rules, and their
personal significance across cultures
4
