Emotional and Moral Development

Developmental psychologists recognized that when an individual begins conduct, we are all a clean-living or in other words, an individual do non yet take in the rudiments of moral design. By the epoch an individual becomes adults, however, he/she whitethorn possess a complex notion of morality. object lessonity is defined by roughly psychology books is a system of personal value and judgments active the fundamental chastenness or unlawfulness of acts, and of an individuals obligations to accept in just ways that do not interfere with the rights of others.Moral victimization on the other hand, is the acquisition of moral standards and the ability to lead judgments. But how do an individual evolve from amoral to moral, from a total omit of understanding on responsibilities to a complex perception of right and wrong? This question has occupied the attention of many ontogenyal psychologists. The two most influential psychological researchers on moral study were Lawrence Kohlberg and Piaget as Kohlbergs research on moral development was heavily influenced by Piagets cognitive development.According to Kohlberg, people progress through stages in the development of moral reasoning. I would like to choose the children, adolescence, and adulthood emotional and moral-related life events and apply understanding of emotional and moral development.Moral development in Children. Piaget (1975) called the first rate of flow in a childs moral development as moral realism. Before the age of seven or eight, the child has little concern for the reason that specific ways are allowed or forbidden he is a self-centered creature, and his mind does not come along flexible enough to fully comprehend the violation of rules as an hinderance with others (which theoretically, provides the basis for morality).Another label for the early moral realism period is the rules stage, a term that suggests that a child blindly follows rules without reason or unreasoning adherence to authority. For Kohlberg, this stage of moral development is known as preconventional morality that is exemplified by most children at the preschool years (Fischer, 1993).Preconventional morality is a kind of self-serving approach to right and wrong where children tend to coif in certain ways in order to avoid cosmos punished and in certain ways to obtain rewards. In his longitudinal study of moral judgment, Kohlberg (1976) reinter construeed several children at different points in time. At age 8, John, one(a) of the participants, was asked, Why shouldnt you slew from a fund?Johns preconventional response was Its not good to steal from the store. Its against the law. Someone could see you and call the police (Kohlberg, 1976). At this utmost aim of moral development, children have not assignd a personal write in code of morality. Rather, they are molded by the standards of adult caregivers and the consequences of adhering to or rejecting these rules.Moral development durin g Adolescence. It is during early adolescence stage that a persons sense of right and wrong typically matures to the level of conventional morality as Kohlberg calls it. conventional morality is the level shown by most adolescents and some adults (Colby et al., 1983). Maintaining conventional expectations has a moral value in its own right. From Kohlbergs (1976) study at age 17, Johns conventional-level response to the question about thievery from a store was Its a matter of law. Its one of our rules that were trying to help to protect everyone.Its something thats needed in our society. If we didnt have these laws, people would steal, they wouldnt have to work for a living. Here, the motivating force behind behaving in a just or moral fashion is the desire either to help others and gain their flattery or to help maintain the social order. Individuals at the conventional level make moral judgments on the basis of expectations those of the family, the social group, or the dry lan d at large. As young adolescents progress through these stages, they begin to internalize the moral standards of valued adult or role models.Moral development in Adulthood. The next level of moral judgment is postconventional level and barely a few individuals may progress to this final level. Though a person may progress from conventional to postconventional level any time during adolescence, Kohlberg maintained that only about 25 percent of adults in the realness progress beyond the conventional level, and most of these individuals do so erstwhile(prenominal) during their adult years.Moral judgments at the postconventional level transcend the authority of persons or conformity to groups. Now, values and principles guide moral judgments. Individuals at this level may understand and accept societys rules and laws but tend to view them in terms of the underlying principles. Postconventional morality affirms peoples agreed-upon rights and exhibited in such statements as People have a right to conk, If you steal the drug, you wont lived up to your own ideals.Hence it affirms values agreed on by society, including individuals rights and the need for democratically determined rules and guided by universal ethical principles in which they do what they think is right as a matter of conscience, even if their acts contravene with societys rules. As stated, not many people die this level of moral reasoning. Only those who develop the abstract reasoning of imposing operational thought may come to this level.Hence the exact temperament of the stages and their sequence in moral development of an individual remain an rude question. But one thing is clear though, that moral development is not fixed at adolescence, but rather continues throughout adulthood. Also, how quickly and how off the beaten track(predicate) people progress in moral development depends on a number of factors, including their cognitive development. One thing is certain though, that moral judgmen t and moral behavior are important aspects of an individuals character development.ReferencesColby, A., Kohlberg, L.,Gibbs, J., & Lieberman, M. (1983). A longitudinal study of moraldevelopment. Monographs of the Society for search in Child Development, 48 (1-2, accompanying No. 200).Fisher, K.W. (1993). Commentary illume the processes of moral development.Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 48 (1-2, Serial No. 200).Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization The cognitive-developmental approach. InT. Lickona (Ed.), Moral development and behavior Theory, research and social issues.New York Holt, Rinehart, Winston.Piaget, J. (1975). The moral judgment of the child. New York The bighearted Press.