Moral Development

The belief's of how to divide material goods fairly.

-7: Authority figures are fair

7-12: Everyone should be equal

12+: Consider other factors

• Longitudinal Study
• Early to middle age children (4-10)
• Asked how to distribute money in their class

Results

• 4-5: Self + Arbitrary factors
• 5-7: Equal share
• 7+: Individual merit
• 8-9+: Based on need

Personal gain (5 Years) - Sharing is important and focus on self-intrest

Strict Equality (5-6 Years) - Everyone gets equal

Merit (6-7 Years) - Extra reward for working harder

Equity and Benevolence (8 Years) - Extra reward for the disadvantaged

• Older children rely on equality and interaction.

Hienz Dilemma - Wife near death so he steals her medication as he is unable to pay.

72 Middle and Lowerclass Boys (10, 13 and 16 years) asked questions such as should he steal the medication? Why?

Results

• Younger - Reward and Punishment
• Older - Intention and Acceptance

3 stages each with 2 stages - Invariant and Irreversible

Pre conventional stage - 1. Punishment and Obedience (Avoiding Punishment)

                                      - 2. Instrumental - Relatavist (Reward)

Conventional - 3. Good boy/Nice girl (Please others)

                      - 4. Law and Order (Obey law)

Pro conventional stage - 5. Social contact (Rights and laws changed by an agreed process)

                                                  - 6. Morality of  Individuals (Individual morals are important not laws) 

• Does the process really go through all the 6 stages?
• Is the process really invariant and irreversible?
• Culture bias
• Gender bias
• Ecological Validity - Low
• Predictive Validity - Low
• Subjective
• Support from Snarey (1985)