Child Moral Development

Piaget proposed that Child moral development progresses in predictable stages, in this case from a very egocentric type of moral reasoning to one base on a system of justice base on cooperation and reciprocity.

As children develop their cognitive abilities, their understanding of moral problems also becomes more sophisticated. Yong children are more rigid in their view of right and wrong than older children and adults tend to be.

Heteronomous morality Stage

Heteronomous means being subject to rules imposed by others. During this period, young children are consistently faced with parents and other adults telling them what to do and what not to do. Children at this stage as judging the morality of behavior on the basis of its consequences. They judge behavior as bad if it results in negative consequences even if the actor's original intentions were good.

Piaget found that children did not conscientiously use and follow rules until the age of 10 or 12 years, when children are capable of formal operations. At this age, every child playing the game followed the same set of rules. Children understood that the rules existed to give the game direction and to minimize disputes between players. Children at this age tend to base moral judgments on the intentions of the actor rather than the consequences of the actions.

Autonomous Morality Stage

This stage arises as the child's social world expands to include more and more peers. By continually interacting and cooperating with other children, the child's ideas about the rules and therefore morality begin to change. Rules are now what we make them to be punishment for transgressions is no longer automatic but must be administered with a consideration of the transgressor's intentions and extenuating circumstances.

According to Piaget, children progress from the stage of heteronomous morality to that of autonomous morality with the development of cognitive structures but also because of interaction with equal-status peers. He believed that resolving conflicts with peers weakened children's reliance on adult authority and heightened their awareness that rules are changeable and should exist only as the result of mutual consent.

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