Morality throughout the Life Span

Morality is “the ability to distinguish right from wrong, to act on this distinction and to experience pride when we do the right things and guilt or shame when we do not.” Both Piaget and Kohlberg made significant contributions to this area of study. Developmental psychologists have divided the subject of morality into three main topics: affective element, cognitive element, and behavioral element. The affective element consists of the emotional response to actions that may be considered right or wrong. This is the emotional part of morality that covers the feeling of guilt as well as empathy. The cognitive element focuses on how people use social cognitive processes to determine what actions are right or wrong. For example, if an eight-year-old child was informed by an authoritative adult not to eat the cookies in the jar and then was left in the room alone with the cookies, what is going on in the child’s brain? The child may think “I really want that cookie, but it would be wrong to eat it and I will get into trouble.” Lastly, the behavioral element targets how people behave when they are being enticed to deceive or when they are assisting someone who needs help.