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A Topical Approach to
LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
Chapter Thirteen:
Moral Development,
Values, and Religion
John W. Santrock
© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Domains of Moral Development
• What is moral development?
– Changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
regarding standards of right and wrong
– An intrapersonal dimension: regulates activities
– An interpersonal dimension: regulates social
interactions and arbitrates conflict
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Domains of Moral Development
• Piaget’s theory
– Heteronymous morality (ages 4 to 7)
• Justice, rules are seen as unchangeable properties of the
world, removed from the control of people
• (ages 7 to 10): in transition between the two stages
– Autonomous morality (ages 10 and older)
• Becomes aware rules and laws created by people; in
judging an action, they intentions and consequences
– Immanent justice
• If a rule is broken, punishment will be meted out
immediately
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Domains of Moral Development
• Kohlberg’s theory
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Moral reasoning unfolds in universal stages
Tested by story with moral dilemma
Theory of three levels, two stages in each
Reflects some of Piaget’s concepts
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Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Preconventional reasoning
— lowest level (good or
bad based on external
rewards and punishment)
Stage 1. Heteronomous morality — tied
to punishment
Conventional reasoning —
intermediate level (one
applies certain standards,
but are set by others)
Stage 3. Mutual interpersonal
conformity, expectations, relationships
to others is basis of judgment
Postconventional - highest
level (recognizes other
moral courses, explores
options, decides own
moral code
Stage 5. Social contract or utility and
individual rights (evaluates validity of
actual laws, social systems for preserving/
protecting basic human rights, values)
Stage 2. Individualism, instrumental
purpose, and exchange tied to equality
Stage 4. Social systems morality based
on social order, law, justice, and duty
Stage 6. Universal ethical principles —
moral standard on universal human rights
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Domains of Moral Development
• Kohlberg’s theory
– Evaluation
• Seventh stage added: cosmic perspective
• Peer interaction critical influence
– Criticisms
• Moral reasons (overemphasized) can be shelter for
immoral behavior (underemphasized)
• Faulty research: difficult to measure morality
• Culturally biased? – universality of stages one to four
found in twenty-seven mostly non-European cultures
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Mean percent of moral reasoning
at each stage
Age and Percentage of Individuals at Each
Kohlberg Stages
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10 12 14 16 18 20
22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36
Age (years)
Fig. 13.2
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Domains of Moral Development
• Families and moral reasoning
– Family processes, relationships important in
children’s moral development
– Gilligan: Kohlberg’s theory is gender-biased
• Korlberg’s theory has justice perspective — focus on
rights of individual, one stands alone and independently
• Gilligan’s care perspective — views people in terms of
connectedness with others; girls interpret moral
dilemmas in terms of human relationships
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Domains of Moral Development
• Reasoning
– Social conventional reasoning
• Focus on conventional rules created by social consensus
to control behavior, maintain society
– Arbitrary and subject to individual judgment
– Moral reasoning
• Focuses on ethical issues and rules of morality
• Obligatory, widely accepted, somewhat impersonal
– Distinction: personal domain (issues are personal)
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Domains of Moral Development
• Moral behavior
– Basic Processes of reinforcement, punishment,
and imitation: behavior is situation-specific
• Influence of others present like peers
– Resistance to Temptation and Self-Control
• Influenced by cognitive rationales, factors
– Social Cognitive Theory of Morality
• Distinguishes between moral competence (ability to
produce moral behaviors) and moral performance
(actually performing them)
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Domains of Moral Development
• Moral feeling
– Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
• Foundation of moral behavior is avoid guilt feelings
• Superego: moral branch of personality (two parts)
– Ego ideal — rewards for acting ideal standards;
sense of pride and personal value
– Conscience — punishes for disapproved acts;
feeling guilty and worthless
– Children internalize parents’ standards; self-control
replaces parental control
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Domains of Moral Development
• Moral feeling
– Empathy
• Reacting to another’s feelings with emotional response
similar to other’s feelings
• Cognitive component — perspective-taking
• Develops from infant’s global empathy
• Children’s ability depends on awareness that people
have different reactions to situations
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Domains of Moral Development
• Role of emotion in moral development
– Contemporary perspective
• When strongly felt, both positive and negative feelings
contribute to moral behavior
– Positive feelings: empathy, sympathy, admiration,
self-esteem
– Negative feelings: anger, outrage, shame, guilt
– Some emotions undergo developmental change
throughout childhood and beyond; interwoven with
cognitive and social aspects of development
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Domains of Moral Development
• Moral personality
– Three key dimensions: thoughts, behavior,
feelings
– Fourth dimension: personality
• Core that may constitute moral personality
– Moral identity: willpower, integrity, moral desire
– Moral character: convictions, persistence, focus
– Moral exemplars: being honest and dependable;
having set of virtues reflecting moral excellence
» Different types (e.g. brave, caring)
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Parenting
– Piaget and Kohlberg discounted parents’ input to
children’s moral development
– Parents see themselves in primary role
• Relational quality
– Mutual obligations of close relationship
– Parental power of discipline, child’s self-control
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Parenting
– Parents see themselves in primary role
• Proactive strategies (monitoring, distracting child)
– Cocooning (protect from exposure)
– Pre-arming (discuss what could happen, what to do)
• Conversational dialogue
– Can be planned or spontaneous
– Can encourage, teach, contribute to child’s moral
development
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Parenting linked to child’s moral behavior
– Parenting recommendations
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Warm and supportive, not punitive
Use inductive discipline
Provide opportunities for children
Involve children in decisions
Model moral behaviors
Provide info and foster internal morality
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Schools
– The Hidden Curriculum
• Character Education
– Direct moral education approach teaches students
basic moral literacy to prevent immoral behavior,
doing harm to themselves or others
• Values Clarification
– Helps clarify what life is for, what to work for
– Students encouraged to define own values and
understand others’ values
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Schools
– The Hidden Curriculum
• Cognitive Moral Education
– Students should value things like democracy and
justice as moral reasoning develops
– Instructor is facilitator, not director
• Service Learning
– Form of education that promotes social responsibility
and service to community
– Benefits student volunteers and recipients
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Cheating in schools
– Moral education concern
• Plagiarism, cheat sheets in exams, purchasing papers
• Copying from another student, falsifying lab reports
– 2006 survey: 60% had cheated
• Many reasons given for ‘why’
– Power of the situation has impact
– Strategies, preventive measures need to occur
• Promote academic integrity
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Contexts of Moral Development
• Moral education
– Integrative approach
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Use reflective moral thinking and commitment to justice
Discuss students’ experiences
Adult coach students in ethical decision making
Students need to experience a caring community
– Integrative ethical education
• Program builds on concepts of expertise
• Goal: turn moral novices into moral experts
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Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
• Prosocial behavior
– Altruism and Reciprocity
• Altruism: unselfish interest in helping another person,
mostly evoked by empathy
– Many prosocial behaviors involve reciprocity; the
obligation to return a favor with a favor
• Sharing and fairness: a developmental sequence
– Equality (same, fair)
– Merit (earned, deserve it)
– Benevolence (special treatment for disadvantaged)
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Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
• Prosocial behavior and gender
– Females engage in more prosocial behavior than
males
– Altruism and volunteerism in older adults
• Older adults engage in more altruistic behavior and
volunteering
• Volunteering linked to positive outcomes
• More satisfied in life, less depressed and anxious, better
physical health
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Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
• Antisocial behavior
– Most children diagnosed with “conduct disorder”
– Conduct disorder
• Age-inappropriate behaviors, attitudes violating norms,
rights of others
• Behaviors encompass a wide range
• Serious conduct problems
– Externalizing or undercontrolled patterns of behavior
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Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
• Antisocial behavior
– Juvenile delinquency: adolescents who commit
illegal acts
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Broad concept; behaviors from littering to murder
More males than females; female behaviors increasing
Behaviors peak at ages 16 to 18
Early onset more negative outcome than late onset
Rates among minority groups and lower-socioeconomicstatus youth
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Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
• Causes of Juvenile delinquency
– Pittsburgh Youth Study:
• Antecedents
– Authority conflict
– Covert Acts
– Overt Aggression
• Not exclusively lower-SES phenomenon; characteristics
of lower-SES culture can promote delinquency
– High-status traits for boys
– Affected by family and peer relationships
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Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
• Causes of Juvenile delinquency
– Family
• Less skilled parents, lack of child monitoring, family
discord, inappropriate discipline methods, physical
abuse, presence of delinquent siblings or peers
– Cognitive factors
• Low self-esteem, low IQ, lack of sustained attention, low
self-control
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Spirituality
– A sense of connectedness to a sacred other
• Values
– Beliefs, attitudes about the way things should be
– Measured by asking what one’s goals are
– Youth of today have stronger interest in welfare of
society
• Lack of clear goals leads to only short-term focus
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Religion and spirituality
– Societies use many methods to ensure people
carry on religious traditions
– Most adopt religious teachings of upbringing
– Most religious change occurs in adolescence
– Positive relationship or secure attachment with
parents make adolescents more likely to adopt
religious orientation of parents
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Religion and spirituality
– Piaget’s views
• Adolescents think more abstractly, idealistically, logical
• Logical reasoning gives ability to form hypothesis and
systematically sort through religious questions
– Religion important to most adolescents
• Link between identity and spirituality in adolescence and
early adulthood
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Positive role of religion in adolescents’ lives
– Church going linked to better grades from lowincome backgrounds
– Lower rates of delinquency and drug use
– Better ability to cope with problems
– More sensitivity to well-being of others,
commitment to community service
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Positive role of religion in adults’ lives
– More important to women than men
– Important to adults around the world; importance
may change with aging
• 70% of Americans religious
– African Americans and Latinos show higher rates
of religious participation
– Individual differences in religion in middle
adulthood
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Religion and health
– Religious sect members resist using medical
treatments and pain-relieving medications
– Positive link between religious commitment and
health
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Lifestyle: lower drug use
Social networks: more connected to others
Coping with stress; more comfort and support
More optimism, positive perceptions of pain, loss
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Religion in older adults
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Linked to mortality; church attendance lowers risk
Increased more for women than men
Linked to spirituality in early adulthood
Faith is most significant influence in one’s life
Put faith into practice more often
Highest commitment linked to highest self-esteem,
life satisfaction, and optimism
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Values, Religion,
Spirituality, and Meaning
• Religion in older adults
– Has psychological benefits
• Derived sense of meaning in life
• Meaning in Life
– Frankl’s three most distinct human qualities
• Spirituality, freedom, responsibility
– Quest for meaningful life is need for
• Purpose and values
• A sense of self-efficacy and self-worth
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The End
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