Moral Development, the focus on thoughts, behaviors, and feelings concerning interactions with others and society, consists of three developmental components. The three developmental components of moral development: moral reasoning, moral behavior, and moral emotions. The three theorists of moral reasoning are Jean Piaget's theory of moral development, Lawrence Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development, and Elliot Turiel's Social Domain Theory. Moral development has three of it's own major components: cognition, behavior, and emotions. The cognitive component considers what we think about as right or wrong, and why we choose to think that.
Moral reasoning is when you decide how and why a behavior is right or wrong. Jean Piaget was interested in the development of children's logico-mathematical reasoning and he thought of this in two ways. Piaget's (1932) two stages are heteronomous and autonomous moral reasoning. Heteronomous moral reasoning focuses on how bad or wrong something was dependent on the size of the outcome. Autonomous moral reasoning focuses on the intention meaning it is more dependent on what the child intended to happen.
Lawrence Kohlberg's theory was used for extensiveness across the entire lifespan. His theory consisted of three levels and six stages. The three stages were: 1).Preconventional, 2).Conventional, 3).Postconventional with two stages between each level. Stage one, punishment obedience orientation, mirrored Piaget's heteronomous stage, meaning that children obey parents to avoid punishment. Stage two, instrumental purpose and exchange, is about making a deal with another person. Stage three, mutual interpersonal expectations, is focused on what others in a society think according to social roles. Stage four, social system, focuses on what society wants according to society's laws. Stage five, the social contract, covers what an individual uses their personal discretion to decided what should or should not be followed. Lastly, stage six universal ethical principles is described as all human beings being treated equally no matter age, race, or gender. Kohlberg's theory did consist of two major critiques, one was that he underestimates the abilities of young children and the other was that he confused moral issues with social-conventional issues.
Moral behavior is behavior that is rewarded, influenced by two important factors: reinforcement and observational learning. Albert Bandura (1986) suggested that just as children learn from their own enactive experiences, children and adults learn vicariously (from other's experiences) as well. Basically, children learn from watching how others behave, represented by acting morally and resisting temptation. Modeling is not only represented by behaviors that a child sees, but those that are restrained as well.
Things that encourage us to act ethically or allows us to whether or not we have acted ethically are moral emotions. Moral emotions consist of shame, guilt, pride, and gratitude. Moral emotions let ourselves and others know what we care about. Shame and guilt are the negative moral emotions, the purpose of negative moral emotions is to "inhibit actions that violate moral norms" (Hart & Matsuba, 2007, p. 116), such as cheating. The purpose of positive moral emotions is to motive good behaviors like sharing, either for the self which is pride or the others, gratitude.
Temptation is the itch to do something wrong. Temptation is usually considered breaking a rule which occurs through social modeling. Albert Bandura theorized that children learn from what they see and from their own experiences. Resisting temptation is centered on moral behavior. Moral behavior is behavior that is rewarded. Encouraging moral behavior results in reinforcements and punishments. The reinforcements and punishments are a way to promote moral behavior and avoid temptation. Resisting temptation must first be verbalized to indicate the rule being followed. Second, a good reason to stray from the rule should be expressed also. Regulating moral behavior in the classroom allows students to control their own moral behavior.
There have been multiple occasions where I was faced with temptation. However, I can say that it has never affected me greatly. I remember the last time I was faced with temptation was during high school. I wanted a tattoo badly because it was the latest fashion trend for my generation. First, I asked my mother could I get one and without hesitation she said I couldn’t and she gave me the reasons why. I decided that I was old enough to go without her so I was going to go get a tattoo anyway. After deciding that, resisting temptation kicked in. I told myself that I was not getting a tattoo because according to the word of God and my religion it was not the right thing to do. If I would have continued to follow temptation I would have committed a sin and disobeyed my mother as well.
As a parent, I will help my children fight temptation the best way I can. I will always remind them to avoid people and places that lead them into temptation. There are plenty ways to avoid temptation. You can do so by occupying your time with different hobbies to keep you busy, trusting in God that he will lead you in the right direction, and studying the bible. As a teacher, I will help my students resist temptation by using their classmates as examples for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in the classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment