Children's Ethical Reasoning Correlate With Their Moral Behavior?

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

“Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual” (Nietzsche, 2017). Within the psyche of every human being, the fundamental idea of right and wrong exists. The basis of this distinction is primarily innate and instinctual in nature. This preexisting component of the individual translates into the caliber of character the person exhibits and what drives them to do and act in certain ways. Some individuals might errantly refer to this as simply good and evil. This oversimplification neglects the fact that these matters are not always black or white or all or nothing. The evidence of this will be shown in every human being who has the potential for both good and bad behavior.

This paper will go over the two semi-structured interviews with an 18-year-old subject in order to evaluate the subjects Moral Cognition. To start off this paper will be the conceptual overview followed by two summaries of articles about the Moral Cognition of individuals. This paper will give a description of the subject, the area where this interview was conducted, and the procedure of the semi-structured interview. This will lead into the results, analysis and possible limitations that took place throughout the study. To end this research paper will be a quick overview/summary of the project.

Every individual within a society develops morality, either independently or with the help of other people. For an individual to grow morally, he or she needs knowledge or background information in order to differentiate right from wrong. Moral psychology, is defined in the field of psychology, as the study of the development of the moral sense (Britannica Moral psychology). In other words, it is the capacity for forming judgments about what is morally right or wrong, good or bad. Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg hypothesized an individual’s development of moral standards progresses through various levels. The early level, the child utilizes physical experiences such as pleasure or pain, as the source for moral decisions. At this level, the child’s

The primary purpose of this study was to examine and explore how children classify and assess moral transgressions as well as conflicts with their families, teachers, and peers, how they measure different situations and how they solve them and make decisions (Castiglia, P. T., Glenister, A. M., Haughey, BP., & Kansk, G. W, 1989). Melanie Killen used sixty-four children in grades one to seven to develop the study and produce the findings. In the study, the children had stories told to them and were then asked to decide whether or not they thought the actions taken by the children in each story were right or wrong and to explain why they believed that. The stories consisted of moral transgressions with no conflict situation, for example, there were stories of one child hitting another on the head, stories dealing with social order/moral conflicts (such as, a teacher keeping a class quiet, maintaining social order, instead of preventing two children from hurting themselves, and stories about personal relations/moral conflicts such as, a decision about whether to harm a sibling or a stranger. Melanie’s study found that children gave priority to the prevention of harm and a failure to share for only some moral conflicts and that their overall evaluation was influenced by the salience of moral consequences (Castiglia, P. T., Glenister, A. M.,

The two main theorists of morality were Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. Piaget explained that young children see adults as authority figures and that they should follow whatever they say. As they grow older, they rules become a little more flexible due to the fact that they learn to be less self-focused and develop more abstract thinking (Oswalt, 2008). Kohlberg took Piaget’s theory and expanded upon it and created his stages of moral understanding. Young children often fear authority and will do anything to make sure they do not get in trouble and are not punished.

that fits a child in middle childhood. In this aspect, moral skills are determined by the standards and

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of moral reasoning by creating the six stages of moral development. The six stages are divided into three categories: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Though the theory has several important criticisms, including its focus on individualistic cultures and the discrepancy between what people say they'd do in a situation vs their actual course of action, the theory provides an interesting breakdown of motivation and the way it factors into moral decision-making.

As you aged, did you ever notice that your understanding of right and wrong principles changed? According to psychologists Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg it should have. Individually the two psychologists have made remarkable discoveries on how children develop and use their moral development.

Lawrence Kohlberg (who was Director of Harvard 's Center of Moral Development), was a child development expert of his time, and considered himself a philosopher of morality. His work on stages of moral development proved indispensable (though not without its critiques), and continues to serve as a fundamental study on our motivation and reasoning, in relation to ethics and morality. Kohlberg 's studies are an adaption of earlier principles from a theory conceived by a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher (Jean Piaget). There are three main stages of moral developmental as described by Kohlberg, which I will discuss, and also critiques on Kohlberg 's work, which include the lack of evidence as it pertains to gender-related differences in moral development and moral reasoning styles. To begin the dissection of Kohlberg 's studies, one must begin with defining and understanding Kohlberg 's stages. They are classified as pre-convention, conventional, and post-conventional.

As we grow, we go through series of stages of development weather it is mentally or morally, causing us to become more independent and allowing us to make our own choices. Cognitive development focuses on change, understanding and the development of morals, which teaches us how to treat and respect one another. Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on Jean Paget’s theory of cognitive development, Piaget’s studies focused more on cognitive reasoning behind the transformation of development and the way of thinking, while Kohlberg focused more on the moral aspect of development focusing on the individual and their moral beliefs and reasoning’s behind the choices made. How does learning about people’s lifelong moral development help us manage and

The current study considered the recent debate in moral psychology as to the primacy of emotion in individual moral foundations and judgments (Haidt, 2001) against previous conceptions of consciously driven reasoning processes as the major determinant in moral decisions (Turiel, 1983). The study, involving 596 undergraduate psychology students, was in part derived from the Dual Process Model (Greene, Nystrom, Engell, Darley, & Cohen, 2004) and questioned how distinct characteristics of personal and impersonal moral dilemmas appealed to emotion and reason respectively. It was suspected that the individual character trait Need For Cognition (NFC) would show positive correlation with utilitarian (i.e. harm minimising) responses for both personal and impersonal dilemmas. These hypotheses were not supported. The intuitive measure Disgust Propensity (DP) was expected to show negative correlation with utilitarian responses for the personal dilemma. It was also forecast that individuals with high levels of DP would demonstrate sensitivity to violations of the moral foundation of purity (Graham, Nosek, Haidt, Iyer, Koleva, & Ditto, 2011). These hypotheses were supported. The findings provide limited proof of the role of individual characteristics in moral activities. Further research accounting for factors such as age,

For nearly thirty years he has amplified his Cognitive-Developmental theory of moralisation which has now become prominent in the field of moral development and its application to moral education. Kohlberg proposed that moral difficulties motivated their own development through a fixed sequence of increasingly adaptable kinds of moral reasoning.

“It should be determined that the moral development of the youngster is deficient or stagnated. After all, if there is no reason to think that there is any developmental delay or shortcoming, then there is no reason to believe that this youngster lacked moral education.” (Le Sage)

As we move through life we learn and develop our moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg morality and moral reasoning is the process of “six stages” and “levels” of development that start from an early age to adulthood (Williams & Arrigo, 2011, p. 122). In addition, Kohlberg believed that moral choices and behavior are established by cognitive thinking and reasoning like imagination (Williams & Arrigo, 2011, p.122). Consequently, Kohlberg produces those six stages which are grouped into three levels, first level is Preconventional Morality with stage one punishment and obedience, and stage two instrumental purpose and exchange (Martinez, Salcedo, Sailva, & Vanden-Berghen, 2018, p. 144). The second level is Conventional Morality, which contains