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Values and Moral Development of an Adolescent
Values and Moral Development of an Adolescent
COMPETENCY: Develop a positive attitude about conflicts as important to personal development
Adolescent Moral Development
Adolescent Moral Development
Morality refers to the way people choose to live their lives according to a set of guidelines or principles that govern their decisions about right versus wrong, and good versus evil. As youths' cognitive, emotional, social development continue to mature, their understanding of morality expands and their behavior becomes more closely aligned with their values and beliefs. Therefore, moral development describes the evolution of these guiding principles and is demonstrated by ability to apply these guidelines in daily life.
Teens must make moral judgments on a daily basis. When children are younger, their family, culture, and religion greatly influence their moral decision-making. However, during the early adolescent period, peers have a much greater influence. Peer pressure can exert a powerful influence because friends play a more significant role in teens' lives. Furthermore, the new ability to think abstractly enables youth to recognize that rules are simply created by other people. As a result, teens begin to question the absolute authority of parents, schools, government, and other traditional institutions.
By late adolescence most teens are less rebellious as they have begun to establish their own identity, their own belief system, and their own place in the world. Some youth who have reached the highest levels of moral development may feel passionate about their moral code; as such, they may choose to participate in activities that demonstrate their moral convictions. For example, some college students may organize and participate in demonstrations and protests while other students may volunteer their time for projects that advance the ethical principles they hold important.
Unfortunately some youth have life experiences that may interfere with their moral development. Perhaps they survived some traumatic experience such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; the death of a family member or close friend; or were witness to senseless violence. These types of experiences can cause them to view the world as unjust and unfair. Or perhaps they observed the adults in their life making immoral decisions that disregarded the rights and welfare of others, leading these youth to develop beliefs and values that are contrary to the rest of society. Lacking a moral compass, these youth may never reach their full potential and may find it difficult to form meaningful and rewarding relationships with others. Thus, while parents may find this process of moral development difficult or challenging, it is important to remember that this developmental step is essential to their children's well-being and ultimate success in life.
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development generally occurring during the period from puberty to adulthood.
It is the bridge between childhood and adulthood (10 to 21It is the bridge between childhood and adulthood (10 to 21 years of age).years of age).
Adolescent refers not only to biological growth, but to social, emotional, psychological and moral growth within a cultural framework.
It is the best of times, it is the worst of time, it is the age of wisdom, it is the age of foolishness. (Charles Dickens)
Stanley Hall (1904), the first American Psychologist describes adolescence as the tension between biological and social dependence which created a period of “storm and stress”.
Adolescence Unhappiness
Social Pressures
Problem of Adjustment Lack of Status
Idealism
Defeats in Heterosexual Relationship
Feelings of Inadequacy
What are Morals?
Morals – attitudes or beliefs people hold that help them decide what is right or wrong.
Morality – this is determined by norms and rules that are set by culture and internalized since birth.
Components of Moral Character
Moral behavior (pro-social, sharing, donating to charity, telling the truth).
Moral values (believe in moral goods).
Moral emotion (guilt, empathy, compassion).
Moral reasoning (about right and wrong).
Moral identity (morality as an aspect self-image).
Moral personality (enduring tendency to act with honesty, altruism, responsibility.
“Meta-moral” characteristics meaning they make morality possible even though they are not inherently moral.
Moral Development
Moral development is the development that involves thoughts, feelings, and actions regarding rules and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people.
Domains of Moral Development
Moral Thought
Moral Behavior
Moral Feeling
Moral Personality
Contexts of Moral Development
Parenting
Schooling
Moral development involves thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding standard of right and wrong.
Piaget's Theory of Moral Development
Piaget's Theory of Moral Development
Piaget (1932) was principally interested not in what children do (i.e., in whether they break rules or not) but in what they think. In other words he was interested in children’s moral reasoning.
Piaget was interested in three main aspects of children’s understanding of moral issues. Piaget found that children’s ideas regarding rules, moral judgements and punishment tended to change as they got older. In other words just as there were stages to children’s cognitive development so there were also universal stages to their moral development.
Piaget (1932) suggested two main types of moral thinking:
Heteronomous morality (moral realism)
Autonomous morality (moral relativism)
Heteronomous Morality (5-9 yrs)
The stage of heteronomous morality is also known as moral realism – morality imposed from the outside. Children regard morality as obeying other people's rules and laws, which cannot be changed.
They accept that all rules are made by some authority figure (e.g. parents, teacher, God), and that breaking the rules will lead to immediate and severe punishment (immanent justice).
The function of any punishment is to make the guilty suffer in that the severity of the punishment should be related to severity of wrong-doing (expiatory punishment).
During this stage children consider rules as being absolute and unchanging, i.e. 'divine like'. They think that rules cannot be changed and have always been the same as they are now.
Behavior is judged as “bad” in terms of the observable consequences, regardless on the intentions or reasons for that behavior. Therefore, a large amount of accidental damage is viewed as worse than a small amount of deliberate damage.
Autonomous Morality (9-10 yrs)
The stage of autonomous morality is also known as moral relativism – morality based on your own rules. Children recognize there is no absolute right or wrong and that morality depends on intentions not consequences.
Piaget believed that around the age of 9-10 children’s understanding of moral issues underwent a fundamental reorganization. By now they are beginning to overcome the ego-centrism of middle childhood and have developed the ability to see moral rules from other people’s point of view.
Critical Evaluation
Critical Evaluation
Piaget’s theory of children’s moral development can be seen as an application of his ideas on cognitive development generally. As such his theory here has both the strengths and weaknesses of his overall theory.
1. Reliability
Piaget uses qualitative methods (observation and clinical interviews). His research is based on very small samples. His methods are not standardized and therefore not replicable.
It is impossible to say from his research how generalizable the results are. His is exploratory research, which is useful for generating new ideas rather than for the rigorous testing of hypotheses.
2. Validity
Is Piaget testing what he thinks he is testing? This isn’t clear. For example in his story of the broken cups Piaget claims to find a difference in children’s views of what is right or fair.
However it may be that the answer the children give is based on their view of what would actually happen in such circumstances not what they think should happen.
3. Underestimating children’s rate of development
Piaget argues that the shift from “moral realism” to “moral relativism” occurs around the age of 9 to 10 and that children younger than this do not take motives into account when judging how much someone is to blame.
Other research suggests that children develop an understanding of the significance of subjective facts at a much earlier age. Nelson (1980) found that even 3-year olds could distinguish intentions from consequences if the story was made simple enough.
4. What do children’s replies to a story actually mean?
This again isn’t necessarily clear. Do they understand the story? Are they able to remember it correctly? Do they give the answer that they think will please the experimenter? Is their reply governed by the substantive aspects of the story (what actually happens) or by the moral principle embedded in it?
5. Does Piaget tell us what we want to know?
Piaget’s research is about children’s moral reasoning. Many psychologists argue that what is far more important is not what children think about moral issues but how they actually behave.
And we should not forget that there is no one to one relationship between attitudes and behavior. La Pierre (1934) proved that in his research with the Chinese couple driving round America.
Activities
Activities
I. Reflect on the following questions.
II. Exercises and Critical Thinking
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