1. Moral Development Introduction Definition of morality
Components of morality
Affective – Psychoanalytic
Cognitive – Cognitive-Developmental
Behavioral – Social-Learning
Psychoanalytic theory
Freud’s theory of Oedipal morality
Evaluation of Freud’s theory
Cognitive-developmental
Piaget’s theory
Piaget’s stages of moral development
Evaluation of Piaget’s theory
Kohlberg’s theory
Kohlberg’s levels of moral development
Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory
Is the theory culturally biased?
Is the theory biased against women?
Carol Gilligan’s theory of moral development
Morality as a product of social learning
Consistency of moral conduct and character
Learning to resist temptation
Reinforcement and moral conduct
Social models and moral behavior

2. Moral Development Definition of Morality
When asked about morality, most university students agree that it implies the ability to:
distinguish right from wrong
act on this distinction
experience pride in virtuous conduct, and shame or guilt over acts that violate one’s standards

3. Moral Development How psychologists look at morality:
The affective component:
Feelings (pride, guilt, shame) that surround right or wrong actions
The cognitive component:
The ways we conceptualize right and wrong
The behavioral component:
How we actually behave
Psychoanalytic theory – Affective component:
Emphasizes moral affects
Cognitive-Developmental theory – Cognitive component:
Examines moral reasoning
Social-Learning theory – Behavioral component:
Emphasizes moral behavior

4. Moral Development Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud
Components of the personality – id, ego, and superego
The superego as the moral arbiter of the personality
Freud’s theory of Oedipal morality
The development of the superego and the resolution of the Oedipal complex
Gender differences
Evaluation of Freud’s theory
Do threatening parents raise morally mature children?
Evidence for gender differences?
Age trends for the development of morality?

5. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Jean Piaget
Piaget’s theory of moral development
The premoral period (birth – 4-6 years)
Little awareness of the rules
The stage of moral realisim, or heteronomous morality (6 – 10 years)
Respect for rules and the belief that they must be obeyed
Actions are judged by consequences rather than intentions
Expiatory punishment
Immanent justice
The stage of moral relativism, or autonomous morality (10 year – )
Social rules as arbitrary
Reciprocal punishment

6. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Evaluation of Piaget’s theory
Do children ignore an actor’s intentions?
The confounding of intentions and consequences
Story A:
A little boy who is called John is in his room. He is called to dinner. He goes into the dining room. But behind the door there was a chair, and on the chair there was a tray with 15 cups on it. John couldn’t have known that there was all this behind the door. He goes in, the door knocks against the tray, bang go the 15 cups, and they all get broken.
Story B:
Once there was a little boy whose name was Henry. One day when his mother was out he tried to reach some jam out of the cupboard. He climbed onto a chair and stretched out his arm . But the jam was too high up, and he couldn’t reach it … While he was trying to get it, he knocked over a cup. The cup fell down and broke.

7. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Evaluation of Piaget’s theory
Do children ignore an actor’s intentions?
From Nelson (1980)

8. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Evaluation of Piaget’s theory
Do children ignore an actor’s intentions?
Do children respect all rules and adult authority?
Turiel – The distinction between moral rules and social-conventional rules
Smetana – The seriousness of violations of moral versus social-conventional rules

9. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Lawrence Kohlberg
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
Level 1: Preconventional morality: Rules are external to the self. The child conforms to avoid punishment and to obtain personal rewards. Morality is self-serving; what is right is what one can get away with.
Stage 1: Punishment and obediance: Goodness or badness of act based on consequences. Obey authorities to avoid punishment, but won’t consider an act wrong if not detected and punished. Seriousness depends on punishment received or harm done
Stage 2: Native hedonism: Conform to gain rewards and satisfy personal needs. Some concern for perspective of others, but motivated by hope of benefit in return.

10. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, con’t
Level 2: Conventional morality: Obey rules to win praise and recognition from others. Social praise and avoidance of blame replace tangible rewards and punishments as motivators of ethical conduct.
Stage 3: Good boy/Good girl orientation: Moral behavior pleases, helps, approved by others. Actions evaluated on basis of intent. Goal is to be a “good” person.
Stage 4: Authority and social order maintaining: Individual considers perspectives of the “generalized other” – that is, the will of society as reflected in law. What is right conforms to legal authority. Rules and laws maintain societal order, which is worth preserving.

11. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, con’t
Level 3: Postconventional morality: Define right and wrong in terms of broad principles of justice that could conflict with written laws, or with dictates of authority figures.
Stage 5: Morality of contract, individual rights, democratically accepted law: Laws express will of majority and further human values. Laws that accomplish these ends are impartially applied, and viewed as social contract that one has to follow. Laws that compromise human rights are unjust and worthy of challenge.
Stage 6: Morality of individual principles of conscience: Individual defines right and wrong by self-chosen ethical principles or his/her own conscience. Not concrete rules, but abstract moral guidelines.

12. Moral Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory
Is Kohlberg’s theory culturally biased?
Is Kohlberg’s theory biased against women?
Carol Gilligan
The Morality of Justice (stage 4)
The Morality of Caring (stage 3)

13. Moral Development Social Learning Theory
How consistent is moral behavior?
Character Education Inquiry (Hartshone & May, 1928 – 1930)
Doctrine of specificity
Burton’s re-evaluation
Learning to resist temptation
Reinforcement as a determinant of moral conduct
The effects of social models