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Issues and debates: morality and development

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How do children learn right from wrong? Psychologists link the development of morality to the development of thinking.

Key terms

Morality: principles about the difference between right and wrong behaviour, shared in a society.
Moral(s): a person's own standards of right and wrong, which guide their behaviour.
Piaget studied children's moral thinking. For example, he asked children who was naughtier: a boy who broke 15 cups by accident, or a boy who broke one cup while trying to take jam secretly. Young children often judged by the damage done; older children judged by intentions.

Kohlberg's three levels

Lawrence Kohlberg built on Piaget's ideas. He gave people moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma (should a man steal a drug he cannot afford to save his dying wife?), and looked at their reasons.

Using cognitive development to explain morality

Pre-conventional reasoning is egocentric, like Piaget's pre-operational thinking: what will happen to me?
Conventional reasoning needs a child to understand other people's views and society's rules, which fits with decentring in the concrete operational stage.
Post-conventional reasoning needs abstract thinking about ideas like justice, which fits the formal operational stage.
Willingham's idea that knowledge precedes skill suggests people need to understand moral principles before they can reason with them.
Evaluation: this links morality to thinking, but moral reasoning does not always match moral behaviour, and morality is also shaped by culture, family and social norms.
Worked example

Asked about the Heinz dilemma, Lena says, 'He shouldn't steal because he'd go to prison.' Which level of Kohlberg's theory is this?

  1. Her reason is about avoiding punishment for Heinz.
  2. Avoiding punishment is stage 1.
  3. Stage 1 is in the pre-conventional level.

Answer: Pre-conventional (stage 1: obedience and punishment).

Key idea

Morality is about principles of right and wrong; morals are a person's own standards. Kohlberg described pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional levels. These link to Piaget: egocentric thinking early on, abstract thinking needed for post-conventional morality.

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