A Topical Approach to Life-Span
Development, 7th edition
John W. Santrock
Chapter 13 –
Moral Development, Values, and
Religion
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Development
• Moral development
• Changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding standards of
right and wrong
• Intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions
• Piaget’s theory
• Heteronomous morality (Ages 4-7)
• Rules and justice as unchangeable, removed from people’s control
• Transition from ages 7-10 years
• Autonomous morality (Ages 10+)
• Aware that rules and laws are created by people, and in judging action,
consider intentions and consequences
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Domains of Moral Development
• Kohlberg’s theory
• Universal stages of moral development
• Perspective taking and experience of conflict between one’s stage
and higher moral reasoning of others advances moral development
• Preconventional reasoning
• Lowest level of moral reasoning
• Good and bad interpreted according to external reward and
punishment
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Development
• Stage 1: Heteronomous morality
• Moral thinking is tied to punishment
• Stage 2: Individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange
• Individuals pursue their own interests but also let others do the
same
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Development
• Conventional reasoning
• Intermediate level in Kohlberg’s theory
• Individuals apply certain standards that are set by others, such as
parents or government
• Stage 3: Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and
interpersonal conformity
• Individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others as basis of moral
judgment
• Stage 4: Social systems morality
• Judgments based on understanding social order, law, justice, and duty
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Development
• Postconventional reasoning
• Highest level in Kohlberg’s theory
• Individual recognizes alternative moral courses, explores options,
then decides on a personal moral code
• Stage 5: Social contract or utility and individual rights
• Individuals reason that values, rights, and principles undergird or
transcend the law
• Stage 6: Universal ethical principle
• Individuals develop a moral standard based on universal human rights
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
• Heinz Steals the Drug
• In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer.
There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was
a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently
discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was
charging ten times what the drug cost him to
• make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small
dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get
together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the
druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or
let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug
and I’m going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and
broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the
husband have done that? (Kohlberg, 1963, p. 19)
Domains of Moral Development
• Levels and stages occur sequentially and are age-related
• Before age 9, children use stage 1 preconventional reasoning
• Most adolescents reason at stage 3
• By early adulthood, a small number of individuals reason in
postconventional ways
• Moral stages appeared somewhat later than Kohlberg
envisioned
• Reasoning at higher stages, especially stage 6, is rare
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Development
• Kohlberg’s theory criticized for placing emphasis on moral
thought and not enough on moral behavior
• Some critics claim that his theory is culturally biased
• As Kohlberg predicted, individuals do move through stages in
sequence
• Stages 5 and 6 have not been found in all cultures
• Cohort effects in moral reasoning
• Postconventional reasoning has declined in college students down to
lowest level
• Declines in prosocial behavior in recent years in Western cultures
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Development
• Parents may play larger role in moral development than
Kohlberg imagined
• Parent-child communication, discipline techniques, and other
aspects of parental relationship influence children’s moral
development
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Domains of Moral Development
• Gilligan’s theory
• Kohlberg’s theory is based on male norms that put abstract
principles above relationships and concern for others
• Justice perspective at the heart of morality
• Care perspective emphasizes connectedness with others,
interpersonal communication, social relationships, and concern
for others
• Girls consistently interpret moral dilemmas in terms of
human relationships
• Base interpretations on listening and watching other people
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Domains of Moral Behavior
• Processes of reinforcement, punishment, and imitation have
been used to explain how individuals learn moral behavior
• Effectiveness of reward and punishment depend on consistency
and timing
• Effectiveness of modeling depend on characteristics of the
model and cognitive skills of observer
• Individuals do not consistently display moral behavior in
different situations
• Behavior is situationally dependent
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Behavior
• Social cognitive theory of morality
• Distinguishes between moral competence and moral
performance
• Moral competence – ability to perform moral behaviors
• Moral performance – performing of moral behaviors
• Moral development is best understood by a combination of
social and cognitive factors
• Especially self-control
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014
Domains of Moral Behavior
• Freud’s perspective
• Guilt and desire to avoid feeling guilty are foundation of moral
behavior
• Ego ideal
• Component of superego that rewards the child by conveying a sense of
pride and personal value when acting in accordance to ideal standards
approved by parents
• Conscience
• Punishes the child for behaviors disapproved by parents
• Makes the child feel guilty and worthless
• Freud’s claims cannot be verified
Copyright McGraw-Hill Education, 2014