What is Morality? Discovering the Development of Ethics in Childhood

Our daily lives are marked by different choices or attitudes that have an ethical aspect. Doing “good” or “evil” is a dilemma that we are usually presented with from a very young age.

But… What exactly is morality? How do we develop it in the first years of life? In today’s article we are going to learn everything necessary to understand the development of ethics in childhood and adolescence.

What is morality?

The morality It is the set of principles or ideals that help the individual to distinguish good from evil, to act in accordance with this distinction, and to feel proud of virtuous behavior and guilty of behavior that violates its norms.

The internalization It is the process of adopting the attributes or norms of other people; take these rules as your own

How development scholars view morality

Each of the three major theories of moral development focuses on a different component of morality: Moral Affects (Psychoanalysis), Moral Reasoning (Cognitive Development Theory), and Moral Behavior (Social Learning and Information Processing Theory).

Psychoanalytic explanations of moral development

Sigmund Freud claims that babies and toddlers lack superego and they act on their selfish impulses unless parents control their behavior. However, once the superego arises, it acts as an internal sensor that makes the child feel proud or ashamed of her behavior.

Freud’s theory of Oedipal morality

The superego develops in the phallic stage after the Oedipus or Electra Complex. It is then when the child internalizes the moral values ​​of his or her same-sex parent. For Freud, the internalization of the superego in a girl is weaker than in the case of boys.

Psychoanalysis Evaluation

Theory of cognitive development

For cognitive development theorists, both cognitive growth and social experience are determining factors for moral development.

Piaget’s theory of moral development

The first works of Piaget On morality they focused on respect for rules and conceptions of justice.

The movement from heteronomous morality to autonomous morality occurs when children learn to place themselves in the point of view of others.

Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

For Kohlberg, moral development is not yet complete at 10-11 years old. For him, development occurs in an invariable sequence (cognitive development is required) of 3 levels that are divided into 2 stages each. Each stage represents a type of moral thinking and not a moral decision.