1. Moral behavior- meaning
Moral behavior means behavior in conformity with the moral code of the social group. Moral comes from the Latin word mores, meaning manners, customs and folkways. Moral behavior is controlled by moral concepts-the rules of behavior to which the members of a culture have become accustomed and which determine the expected behavior patterns of all group members
2. Moral development in babyhood
Babies have no scale of values and no conscience. They are therefore neither moral nor immoral but nonmoral in the sense that their behavior is not guided by moral standards. Eventually they will learn moral codes from their parents, and later from their teachers and playmates etc.
Learning to behave in a morally approved manner is a long, slow process. However, foundations are laid in babyhood and on these foundations children build moral codes which guide their behavior as they grow older. Because of their limited intelligence, babies judge the rightness or wrongness of an act in terms of the pleasures or pain it brings them rather than in terms of its good and harmful effects on others. They therefore perceive an act as wrong only when it has some harmful defect in themselves. They have no sense of guilt because they lack definite standards of right and wrong. They so not feel guilty when they take things that belong to others because they have no concept of personal property rights.
Baby is in a stage of moral development which Piaget has called morality by constraint- the first of three stages in development. This stage lasts until the age of seven or eight years and is characterized by automatic obedience to rules without reasoning or judgment.
2.1. Role of discipline in babyhood
The major purpose of discipline is to each children what the group with which they are identified regards as right and wrong, and then see to it that they act in accordance with the knowledge.
Before babies are punished for wrongdoing, however, they must learn what is right and wrong. This they cannot do overnight. Therefore, during babyhood, emphasis should be on the educational aspect of discipline- teaching babies what is right and what is wrong- and rewarding them with approval and affection when they do what is right rather than on punishment when they do what is wrong. This does not mean that punishment should not be used. It should be used because of its educational value.
Many parents assume that babies cannot understand words of praise and therefore they refrain from telling their babies that they have done something good. Although few babies are able to understand what is said in praise, they do not understand the accompanying pleasant facial expressions- which are different from those accompanying scolding or other forms of punishment. As a result they motivate babies to repeat the acts that brought them such favorable responses.
3. Moral development in early childhood
Moral development in early childhood is on a low level. The reason for this is that young children’s intellectual development has not yet reached the point where they can learn or apply abstract principles of right and wrong. Neither do they have the necessary motivation adhere to rules and regulations because they do not understand how these benefits them as well as members of the social group. Because of their inability to comprehend the whys and wherefores of moral standards young children must learn moral behavior in specific situations. They merely learn how to act without knowing why they do so. Children may be told not to do something one day but, by the next day of even the day after that, they may have forgotten what they were told not to do. Thus what may appear to adults to be willful disobedience is often only a case of forgetting. At this point, many young children also start to show empathy-based guilt when they break the rules. During early childhood, children also grow in their ability to tell the difference between moral rules, social norms, and personal choices. By around age 5, children see that moral rules are intended to prevent "really wrong" behavior that could potentially hurt or take away from others. In contrast, social norms are rules about socially-defined behaviors that are wrong or right; however, violating these rules will not hurt other people.
Early childhood has been characterized by what Piaget has called “morality by constraint”. In this stage of moral development, children obey rules automatically, without using reason or judgment, and they regard adults in authority as omnipotent. According to the way young children view a matter, a wrong act results in punishment, which is dealt with either by other human beings or natural or supernatural factors.
Kohlberg has elaborated Piaget’s stage of moral development by including to two stages which he has labeled “preconventional morality”. In the first stage, children are obedience-and punishment oriented in the sense that they judge acts as right or wrong in terms of the physical consequences of these acts. The motivation of individuals here is to avoid punishment and seek reward. A person will behave in such a way as to avoid being punished. In the second stage, children conform to social expectations in the hope of gaining rewards. As early childhood comes to an end, habits of obedience should be established, provided children have had consistent discipline. However, young children have not yet developed conscience and as a result, they do not feel guilty or ashamed if caught doing something they know is wrong. Instead, they may be frightened at the prospect of punishment or they may try to rationalize their acts in the hope of escaping punishment.
3.1. Discipline in early childhood
Discipline is society’s way of teaching children the moral behavior approved and to motivate them to behave in accordance with these standards. In discipline there are three essential elements: rules and laws which serve as guidelines for approved behavior, punishment for willful violation of rules and laws, and rewards for behavior or attempts to behave in a socially approved way.
Today there are three methods in common use for disciplining children and adolescents.
a) Authoritarian discipline
In authoritarian discipline, parents and other caretakers establish rules and inform children that they are expected to abide by them. No attempt is made to explain to the children why they must conform nor are children given opportunities to express their opinions about the fairness or the reasonableness of the rules. If children fail to conform to the rules, they are subjected to corporal punishment. Their reason for breaking the rule is not taken into consideration. It is assumed that they knew the rule and willfully violated it.
b) Permissive disciplines
Permissive discipline developed as a revolt against the authoritarian discipline many adults had been subjected to during their own childhoods. The philosophy behind this type of disciplinary technique was that children would learn from the consequences of their acts how to behave in a socially approved way.
c) Democratic discipline
This principle emphasizes the rights of the child to know why rules are made and to have an opportunity to express their opinions if they believe a rule is unfair. Blind obedience is not expected even when children are very young. Attempts are made to have children understand the meaning of the rules ad reasons the social group expects them to abide by them. Here the punishment is related to the misdeed instead of corporal punishment.
4. Moral development in late childhood
In late childhood children gradually generalize their moral concepts so that they refer to any situation rather than to specific situations. Children discover that the social group attaches different degrees of seriousness to different acts. This knowledge is then incorporated in their moral concepts. Children predominantly focused in the needs and wants of themselves, although they have developed a conscience and move from thinking in terms of “What’s in it for me?” fairness (e.g. “If you did this for me, I would do that for you.”). They now want to gain social approval and live up to the expectations of people close to them. They tend to have a” Golden Rule” morality where they can take the perspective of others and may place the needs of others over their own self-interest. However, their moral thinking abilities are not always reflected in their behavior.
According to Piaget, between the ages of five and twelve, children’s concept of justice change. Their rigid and inflexible notions of right and wrong learned from parents become modified and they begin to take into account the specific circumstances surrounding a moral violation.
4.1. Development of moral codes
Moral codes develop fro generalized moral concepts. In late childhood, as is true of the early adolescent years, moral codes are greatly influenced by the moral standard of the groups with which are identified. It does not mean that 2they abandon family moral codes in favor of the code of the gang with which they are identified. Rather, it means that if children must make a choice, they go along with the gang’s standards while they are in the gang as a means of maintaining their status in the gang.
As children reach the end of childhood, their moral codes gradually approach those of the adults with whom they are associated ad their behavior conforms more closely to the standards set up by these adults. Children with high IQs, it has been reported tend to be more mature in their moral judgment that those of lower intellectual levels, and girls tend to form more mature moral judgments than boys.
4.2. Role of discipline in moral development.
Discipline plays an important role in the development of a moral code. In spite of child’s need for discipline, it becomes a serious problem with older children. Continuing use of the disciplinary techniques that proved to be too effective when the child was younger is likely to lead to strong resentments on the part of the older child. If discipline is to fill its role as a developmental need, it must be suited to the child’s level of development.
5. Moral development during adolescence
One of the important developmental tasks adolescents must master is learning what the group expects of them and then being willing to mold their behavior to conform to these expectations without the constant guidance, supervision and threats of punishment they experienced as children. They are expected to replace the specific moral concepts of childhood with general moral principles and to formulate these into a moral code which will act as a guide to their behavior. There is growing evidence on the biological basis of morally relevant tendencies and behaviors such as altruism and aggression. Provide added “role-taking opportunities” and expose adolescents to novel moral behaviors. Furthermore, moral dilemmas can become much more important and challenging because their moral consequences become increasingly significant and personally relevant to the self and to others. For example, the development of intimate and romantic relationships during adolescence can expose them to personally significant decision situations with far-reaching implications about who they are as a moral agent. Adolescents also have more opportunities to become agentic in their social roles and responsibilities. For example, their engagement in work and community activities (e.g., community service, extracurricular) and their increased exposure to socially regulated behaviors (e.g., driving, smoking, alcohol, joining the military) frequently places adolescents in moral decision-making situations. The media (e.g., internet, magazines, film) access and literacy level among many adolescents provide additional unique and significant socializing experiences that cannot be underestimated. Not only do adolescents have access to novel moral information but they are also capable of creating and promoting their moral beliefs and actions to others.
Fundamental changes in morality during adolescence
· The individual’s moral outlook becomes progressively more abstract and less concrete
· Moral convictions become more concerned with what is right and less concerned with what is wrong. Justice emerges as a dominant moral force.
· Moral judgment becomes increasingly cognitive. This encourages the adolescent to analyze social and personal codes more vigorously than during childhood and to decide on moral issues.
· Moral judgment becomes less egocentric
· Moral judgment becomes psychologically expensive in the sense that it takes an emotional toll and creates psychological tension.
According to Piaget, by adolescence, boys and girls have reached the stage of formal operations in cognitive ability. They are now capable of considering all possible ways of solving a particular problem and can reason on the basis of hypotheses or propositions. Thus they can look at their problems from several points of view and can take many factors into account when solving them.
According to Kohlberg, the third level of moral development, post conventional morality should be reached during adolescence. This is the level of self accepted principles, and it consists of two stages. In the first stage the individual believes that there should be flexibility in moral believes to make it possible to modify and change moral standards if this will be an advantageous to group members as a whole. In the second stage, individuals conform to both social standards and to internalized ideals to avoid social censure. In this stage, morality is based on respect for others rather than on personal desires.
5.1. Building a moral code
When they reach adolescence, children will no longer accept in an unquestioning way a moral code handed down to them by parents, teachers, or even their contemporaries. They now want to build their own moral codes on the basis of concepts of right and wrong which they have changed and modified to meet their more mature level of development and which they have supplemented with laws and rules learned from parents and teachers.
Building a moral code is difficult for adolescents because of inconsistencies in standards of right and wrong they encounter in daily life. These inconsistencies confuse them and impede their progress in building a moral code which is not only satisfactory to them but which will also lead to socially approved behavior
6. Hazards in moral development
With each passing year, reports from the justice department in Washington have indicated that the number of juvenile delinquents and adult criminals has been rising steadily. This information suggests that there is something seriously wrong with the moral development of children and adolescents.
A number of suggestions about the causes have been made in the hopes of fixing the blame where it belongs. It has been suggested that;
· The schools and colleges are to blame because they are too lenient and have been forbidden to use any form of corporal punishment on unruly pupils.
· The lack of religious training in the home and in schools and the decline in church attendance are to blame.
· The breakdown in family life and the increase in divorce, desertion, working mothers and one-parent families for the trouble
· No one expects babies to moral in the sense that behavior conforms to the moral standards of social group or they will feel guilty and shame if they fail to do.
· However, a serious psychological hazard to future moral development occurs when babies discover that they get more attention when they do things to annoy and provoke others than they behave in a more socially approved way.
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