Moral Development by Jean Piaget

Research Findings

First Insight
From the reading of Moral Development by Jean Piaget, Piaget studied children
morality. How a child thinks and reason is quite different from adolescence. I learned that there
are two morality standards of a child have which is the heteronomous morality and the
autonomous morality. When a child reaches the age of five to nine years old, she or he regard
morality as obeying other people’s rules which cannot be changed. They accept that the rules
are made or impose by authority figure such as parents, teachers, God and others is called
heteronomous morality. Expiatory punishment comes when a good intention turns our
carelessly where the child seemingly judges the severity of punishment related to severity of
wrong doing and the immanent justice comes after if a rule is broken, punishment will me meted
immediately. The second morality is the autonomous morality, it is the capability to appreciate
the significance of subjective facts and internal responsibility and it common to child reaches
ages nine to ten years old. Children recognize that there is no absolute right and wrong and
morality depends on intentions not consequences. Punishments is not to make the guilty suffer
but to put thing right. It helps the offender to understand what he did so he or she won’t do it
again.

Second Insight

Piaget was interested in children’s moral reasoning and how children understands moral
issues. I realized that cognitive development is closely tied to moral development. It involves
how children tell the difference between right and wrong. Children has different views and
behavior towards their and others action. Children will continue to improve their ability to act
accordingly where their moral compass operates to guide their choices and to direct their
behavior when they grow older.

Moral Development of Jean Piaget

Fist Insight

I realized that as people get older the ideas regarding rules, moral, judgements, and
punishment tend to change from what we believed when we were a kid. According to Piaget
there are two types of moral thinking that a child has in certain ages; the heteronomous morality
and the autonomous morality. Heteronomous morality or also known as the moral realism it is
the morality that imposed from the outside. It is the rules made by our parents, teacher, God
and others. This rule should be followed and if a child breaks this rule it will lead to immediate
punishment that is called immanent justice. The purpose of the punishment is to make the guilty
suffer related to the severity of wrongdoings, expiatory punishment. In the contrast,
autonomous morality where children recognize there is no absolute right or wrong. The morality
is based on your own rules and it depends on the intentions not the consequences. If a child
behaves in ways that appear to be wrong but have a good intention, punishment is not needed.

Second Insight

I learned that children that has different age see and tell the difference between right and
wrong. It is the moral development that involves how children tell the right and wrong and use
their knowledge to arrive at right decision when they faced with complicated situation or choices.

Moral Development

First Insight

Children move through levels of mortality as they grow, develop and mature. The moral
development is linked to cognitive growth. Children make better moral judgements when they
are mature cognitively to see things from one perspective. According to Piaget there are two
main stages of a child moral reasoning. The first stage is the morality of constraint When a child
ages of two up to seven, he or she has no consciousness of the rules and their action are based
on their own desire. Children cannot comprehend that there may be more that one way of
looking at a moral situation that cannot asses the level of intention of a behavior. Heteronomous
is called to this stage where in the rules are inflexible and behavior is either right and wrong,
with no room for negotiation to the situation. The second of morality is the morality of
cooperation where I characterized by flexibility and the ability to compromise and change rules a
required with mutual consent of others involved in the rule making. When children being mature
they cognitive development are developed and advanced. Children have a life experiences that
help them determine their own moral standard.