Download stage 1: obedience and punishment.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT
MORAL DEVELOPMENT:
* Is the process of learning standards of right and wrong.
*Children learn from parents, caregivers, and observing others.
CONSCIENCE:
Between the ages of 5 and 7, children develop a conscience. This
is an inner sense of what is right and wrong in one’s own behavior.
It helps control his/her behavior.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
THE PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL: (Preschool and early elementary-age
children)
STAGE 1: OBEDIENCE AND PUNISHMENT.
The reason for doing or not doing something is to avoid
punishment. Being right means obeying an authority.
o Children do not understand accepted standards of behavior.
o They have no sense of right and wrong.
STAGE 2: NAIVELY EGOISTIC ORIENTATION
Reason for behavior is to get rewards.
THE CONVENTIONAL LEVEL (AGES 9-15)
Children understand the conventions (accepted
standards of behavior)
Children are sensitive to what other people
want and think.
STAGE 3: GOOD-BOY, NICE GIRL ORIENTATION
Reason for behavior is to maintain good relationships and
approval of others. One conforms to notions of majority or natural behavior.
STAGE 4: AUTHORITY AND SOCIAL ORDER-MAINTAINING ORIENTATION
Right behavior consists of following fixed rules and respecting
authority. Guilt occurs when authorities disapprove or punish.
THE POSTCONVENTIONAL LEVEL: (Adolescents and adults. Though not
everyone reaches this level)

Progressed beyond just following rules
 Develop universal ethical principles based on human equality.
STAGE 5: AUTONOMOUS
Decisions are based on upholding values of society and human
rights. Motivation is community respect.
STAGE 6: PRINCIPLED
Decisions are made according to individual principles of
conscience. Motivation is feeling right with oneself.
VOCABULARY
• AMORAL: Behavior which grows out of ignorance of what
society expects
• EGO: According to Freud, that part of the personality considered
to be rational, conscious decision maker
• EMPATHY: The ability to experience the emotions of another
• IMMORAL BEHAVIOR: Behavior that does not conform to social
standards
• JUSTICE: The rendering of what is due or merited
• MORALS: The standards of right and wrong that are dictated by
one’s one culture
• MORAL BEHAVIOR: The degree to which an individual
conforms to the morals that have been established by the larger
society or group within it
• MORAL CODES: Rules which communicate how individuals
should act in various settings
• MORAL INTELLIGENCE: the level of the child’s ability to make
decisions about conduct
• MORAL JUDGMENT: The decisions one makes to conform or
not conform to the moral code of ones society
• OBJECTIVE MORALITY: Evaluation of facts based on
consequences with no allowances for intention