INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

BACHELOR OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

AY: 2022-2023 (1ST SEMESTER)
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E D V A L
(GOOD MORAL AND RIGHT CONDUCT)
STUDENT LEARNING MODULE
MIDTERM – WEEK 9-10
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CHAPTER 2 – LESSON 2
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN THE TEACHING OF GMRC/ESP
 Republic of the Philippines
POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE OF BOTOLAN
(Formerly Botolan Community College)
Botolan, Zambales, 2202
E-mail: polytechniccollegeofbotolan@gmail.com
Website: www.pcb2009.net

I. LEARNING OUTCOME:
At the end of the lesson, the students are able to:
 Explain what moral development mean; and
 Discuss the process through which children develop the standards of right and wrong within their
society, based on social and cultural norms, and laws.

INTRODUCTION
Neurological research shows that the early years play a key role in children’s brain development. Babies
begin to learn about the world around them from a very early age – including during the prenatal, perinatal
(immediately before and after birth) and postnatal period. Children’s early experiences – the bonds they form
with their parents and their first learning experiences – deeply affect their future physical, cognitive, emotional
and social development. Optimizing the early years of children’s lives is the best investment we can make as a
society in ensuring their future success.

JEAN PIAGET
Moral development refers to the
process through which children
develop the standards of right
and wrong within their society,
based on social and cultural
norms, and laws.
Piaget conceptualizes moral
development as a constructivist
process, whereby the interplay of
action and thought builds moral
concepts.
Piaget was principally interested
not in what children do (i.e., in
whether they break rules or not)
but in what they think. In other
words he was interested in
children’s moral reasoning.
Piaget found that children’s ideas regarding rules, moral judgments and punishment tended to change as
they got older. In other words just as there were stages to children’s cognitive development so there were also
universal stages to their moral development.
 PIAGET SUGGESTED TWO MAIN TYPES OF MORAL THINKING:

1. Heteronomous Morality (5-9 yrs.)

The stage of heteronomous morality is also known as moral realism – morality imposed from the outside.
Children regard morality as obeying other people's rules and laws, which cannot be changed. They accept that all
rules are made by some authority figure (e.g. parents, teacher, God), and that breaking the rules will lead to
immediate and severe punishment (immanent justice). The function of any punishment is to make the guilty
suffer in that the severity of the punishment should be related to severity of wrong-doing (expiatory
punishment). During this stage children consider rules as being absolute and unchanging, i.e. 'divine like'. They
think that rules cannot be changed and have always been the same as they are now. Behavior is judged as “bad”
in terms of the observable consequences, regardless on the intentions or reasons for that behavior. Therefore, a
large amount of accidental damage is viewed as worse than a small amount of deliberate damage.

Piaget was also interested in what children understand by a lie. Here he found that the seriousness of a lie is
measured by younger children in terms of the size of the departure from the truth. So a child who said he saw a
dog the size of an elephant would be judged to have told a worse lie than a child who said he saw a dog the size
of a horse even though the first child is less likely to be believed. With regard to punishment Piaget also found
that young children also had a characteristic view. Firstly they saw the function of punishment as make the guilty
suffer. Paint called this retributive justice (or expiatory punishment) because punishment is seen as an act of
retribution or revenge.

If you like young children have a very Old Testament view of punishment (“an eye for an eye”). Punishment
is seen as a deterrent to further wrongdoing and the stricter it is the more effective they imagine it will be. They
also believe in what Piaget called immanent justice (that punishment should automatically follow bad behavior).
For example one story he told was of two children who robbed the local farmer’s orchard (today we might take
the example of children who robbed cars). The farmer saw the children and tried to catch them. One was caught
and the farmer gave him a thrashing. The other, who could run faster, got away. However on the way home this
child had to cross the stream on a very slippery log. This child fell off the log and cut his leg badly. Now when
you ask younger children why the boy cut his leg they don’t say, “Because the log was slippery,” they say,
“Because he stole from the farmer”. In other words young children interpret misfortune as if it were some kind of
punishment from God of from some kind of superior force. For young children justice is seen as in the nature of
things. The guilty in their view are always punished (in the long run) and the natural world is like a policeman.
Piaget described the morality described above as heteronomous morality. This means a morality that is formed
out of being subject to another’s rules.

2. Autonomous Morality (9-10 yrs.)

The stage of autonomous morality is also known as moral relativism – morality based on your own rules.
Children recognize there is no absolute right or wrong and that morality depends on intentions not consequences.
Piaget believed that around the age of 9-10 children’s understanding of moral issues underwent a fundamental
reorganization. By now they are beginning to overcome the egocentrism of middle childhood and have developed
the ability to see moral rules from other people’s point of view.
A child who can decentre to take other people’s intentions and circumstances into account can move to making
the more independent moral judgments of the second stage. As a result children’s ideas on the nature of rules
themselves, on moral responsibility and on punishment and justice all change and their thinking becomes more
like that of adults.
Children now understand that rules do not come from some mystical “divine-like” source. People make rules and
people can change them – they are not inscribed on tablets of stone. With regard to the “rules of the game” older
children recognize that rules are needed to prevent quarrelling and to ensure fair play.
Indeed sometimes they even become quite fascinated with the whole issue and will for example discuss the rules
of board games (like chess, Monopoly, cards) or sport (the off-side rule) with all the interest of a lawyer. They
also recognize that rules can be changed if circumstances dictate (e.g. “You’ve got one player less so we will give
you a three goal start”) and if everybody agrees.
With regard to issues of blame and moral responsibility older children don’t just take the consequences into
account they also consider motives. Children begin to realize that if they behave in ways that appear to be wrong,
but have good intentions, they are not necessarily going to be punished. Thus for them a well-intentioned act that
turned out badly is less blameworthy than a malicious act that did no harm.
It all goes to show, in Piaget’s opinion, that children are now able to appreciate the significance of subjective facts
and of internal responsibility. Children’s views on lying also change. The seriousness of a lie is judged in terms
of betrayal of trust. They now recognize that all lies are not the same and, for example, you might tell a “white
lie” in order to spare someone’s feelings. They also recognize that if someone says something that they know not
to be the case this doesn’t necessarily mean the other person is telling a lie. It could be that they made a mistake
or that this is a difference of opinion. Overall lying is now considered wrong not because you get punished for it
by adults (the younger children’s view) but because it is a betrayal of trust and undermines friendship and co-
operation. With regard to punishment the emphasis now moves from retribution to restitution. Its purpose is not
primarily to make the guilty suffer but to put things right again.
Overall Piaget describes the morality of the older child as an autonomous morality i.e. a morality that is subject
to its own laws. The change is partly seen as a result of the child’s general cognitive development partly due to
declining egocentrism and partly to the growing importance of the peer group. The reference group for children’s
moral beliefs is increasingly focused on other children and disputes between equals need to be negotiated and
compromises made. In place of the unilateral respect the younger children owed to their parents an attitude of
mutual respect governs relations between peers. In other words punishment should be aimed at helping the
offender understand the harm (s)he has caused so that (s)he will not be motivated to repeat the offence and,
wherever possible, punishment should fit the crime – say for example when a vandal is required to make good
the damage (s)he has caused. Older children also recognize that justice in real life is an imperfect system.
Sometimes the guilty get away with their crimes and sometimes the innocent suffer unfairly. For younger children
collective punishment is seen as acceptable.

 ACTIVITY #1. Answer the following questions:

A. Why are the early years so important to children’s development?

B. What defines moral development to you?
C. Does Piaget tell us what we want to know?
D. Why is moral development important?
E. What are the two suggested main types of moral thinking? Explain each by your own understanding.
F. What do you mean by:
1) Children’s understanding of rules.
2) Children’s understanding of moral responsibility.
3) Children’s understanding of justice.
 LAWRENCE KOHLBERG

Kohlberg believed that moral development, like cognitive development,

follows a series of stages. He used the idea of moral dilemmas—stories that present
conflicting ideas about two moral values—to teach 10 to 16 year-old boys about
morality and values. The best known moral dilemma created by Kohlberg is the
“Heinz” dilemma, which discusses the idea of obeying the law versus saving a life.
Kohlberg emphasized that it is the way an individual reasons about a dilemma that
determines positive moral development.

After presenting people with various moral dilemmas, Kohlberg reviewed people’s
responses and placed them in different stages of moral reasoning. According to
Kohlberg, an individual progresses from the capacity for pre-conventional morality
(before age 9) to the capacity for conventional morality (early adolescence), and
toward attaining post-conventional morality (once Piaget’s idea of formal operational thought is attained), which
only a few fully achieve. Each level of morality contains two stages, which provide the basis for moral
development in various contexts.
 KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

 LEVEL 1: PRE-CONVENTIONAL

Throughout the pre conventional level, a child’s sense of morality is externally controlled. Children accept
and believe the rules of authority figures, such as parents and teachers. A child with pre-conventional morality
has not yet adopted or internalized society’s conventions regarding what is right or wrong, but instead focuses
largely on external consequences that certain actions may bring.

 LEVEL 2: CONVENTIONAL

Throughout the conventional level, a child’s sense of morality is tied to personal and societal relationships.
Children continue to accept the rules of authority figures, but this is now due to their belief that this is necessary
to ensure positive relationships and societal order. Adherence to rules and conventions is somewhat rigid during
these stages, and a rule’s appropriateness or fairness is seldom questioned.

 LEVEL 3: POST CONVENTIONAL

Throughout the post conventional level, a person’s sense of morality is defined in terms of more abstract
principles and values. People now believe that some laws are unjust and should be changed or eliminated. This
level is marked by a growing realization that individuals are separate entities from society and that individuals
may disobey rules inconsistent with their own principles. Post-conventional moralists live by their
own ethical principles—principles that typically include such basic human rights as life, liberty, and justice—and
view rules as useful but changeable mechanisms, rather than absolute dictates that must be obeyed without
question. Because post-conventional individuals elevate their own moral evaluation of a situation over social
conventions, their behavior, especially at stage six, can sometimes be confused with that of those at the pre-
conventional level. Some theorists have speculated that many people may never reach this level of abstract moral
reasoning.

 ACTIVITY #2. Answer the following questions:

A. What is the theory of Kohlberg?

B. What are the 3 levels of Kohlberg’s theory?
C. Why is Kohlberg's theory important?
 ERIK ERIKSON

Erik Erikson was an ego psychologist who developed one of the most popular and influential theories of
development. While his theory was impacted by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's work, Erikson's theory centered
on psychosocial development rather than psychosexual development.

THE STAGES THAT MAKE UP HIS THEORY ARE AS FOLLOWS:

 Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

 Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
 Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt
 Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority
 Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion
 Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation
 Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation
 Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

Let's take a closer look at the background and different stages that make up Erikson's psychosocial theory.
Unlike Freud's theory of psychosexual stages, however, Erikson's theory described the impact of social experience
across the whole lifespan. Erikson was interested in how social interaction and relationships played a role in the
development and growth of human beings.
MASTERY LEADS TO EGO STRENGTH
Erikson also believed that a sense of competence motivates behaviors and actions. Each stage in Erikson's
theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel
a sense of mastery, which is sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly,
the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy in that aspect of development.

 STAGE 1: TRUST VS. MISTRUST

The first stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development occurs between birth and 1 year of age
and is the most fundamental stage in life. Because an infant is utterly dependent, developing trust is based on
the dependability and quality of the child's caregivers. At this point in development, the child is utterly
dependent upon adult caregivers for everything they need to survive including food, love, warmth, safety, and
nurturing. If a caregiver fails to provide adequate care and love, the child will come to feel that they cannot
trust or depend upon the adults in their life.

 STAGE 2: AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT

The second stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development takes place during early childhood and
is focused on children developing a greater sense of personal control.

 STAGE 3: INITIATIVE VS. GUILT

The third stage of psychosocial development takes place during the preschool years. At this point in
psychosocial development, children begin to assert their power and control over the world through directing
play and other social interactions. Children who are successful at this stage feel capable and able to lead
others. Those who fail to acquire these skills are left with a sense of guilt, self-doubt, and lack of initiative.

 STAGE 4: INDUSTRY VS. INFERIORITY

The fourth psychosocial stage takes place during the early school years from approximately ages 5 to 11.
Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities.
Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while
failure results in feelings of inferiority.

 STAGE 5: IDENTITY VS. CONFUSION

The fifth psychosocial stage takes place during the often turbulent teenage years. This stage plays an
essential role in developing a sense of personal identity which will continue to influence behavior and
development for the rest of a person's life. Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success
leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self. During
adolescence, children explore their independence and develop a sense of self. Those who receive proper
encouragement and reinforcement through personal exploration will emerge from this stage with a strong
sense of self and feelings of independence and control. Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires
will feel insecure and confused about themselves and the future.
 STAGE 6: INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION
Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong
relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation. This stage covers the period of early adulthood
when people are exploring personal relationships. Erikson believed it was vital that people develop close,
committed relationships with other people. Those who are successful at this step will form relationships that
are enduring and secure.

 STAGE 7: GENERATIVITY VS. STAGNATION

Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by having children or creating a positive
change that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure
results in shallow involvement in the world. During adulthood, we continue to build our lives, focusing on
our career and family. Those who are successful during this phase will feel that they are contributing to the
world by being active in their home and community. Those who fail to attain this skill will feel unproductive
and uninvolved in the world.

 STAGE 8: INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR

The final psychosocial stage occurs during old age and is focused on reflecting back on life. At this point
in development, people look back on the events of their lives and determine if they are happy with the life
that they lived or if they regret the things they did or didn't do. Erikson's theory differed from many others
because it addressed development throughout the entire lifespan, including old age. Older adults need to look
back on life and feel a sense of fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while failure
results in regret, bitterness, and despair. At this stage, people reflect back on the events of their lives and take
stock. Those who look back on a life they feel was well-lived will feel satisfied and ready to face the end of
their lives with a sense of peace. Those who look back and only feel regret will instead feel fearful that their
lives will end without accomplishing the things they feel they should have.

It is important to remember that the psychosocial stages are just one theory of how personality develops. Some
research may support certain aspects of this theoretical framework, but that does not mean that every aspect of
the theory is supported by evidence. The theory can, however, be a helpful way to think about some of the different
conflicts and challenges that people may face as they go through life.
The emotional, social and physical development of young children has a direct effect on their overall
development and on the adult they will become. That is why understanding the need to invest in very young
children is so important, so as to maximize their future well-being.

 ACTIVITY #3 – Answer the following questions in 3 – 5 sentences.

A. What is the strength and weaknesses of Erikson’s theory?

B. What are Erikson's 8 stages of life?
C. What are the key concepts of Erikson theory?
D. What does Erikson's psychosocial theory emphasize?
E. What is personality and why does it matter?
REFERENCE:
o Dr. Barbara Wong-Fernandez, Estesa Xaris Que-Legaspi, et.al, (2016). Personal Development Reader.
Sunshine Interlinks Publishing House, Inc. 3F Maine City Tower, 236 Tomas Morato Avenue, Brgy.
South Triangle, Quezon City
o Roldan, Amelia S. (2003). On Becoming a Winner: A Workbook on Personality Development and
Character Building. AR Skills Development and Management Services (SDMS), Paranaque City, Metro
Manila.
o Sanchez, Bo. (2006). Life Dreams Success Journal: You’re Powerful Tool to Achieve and Surpass Your
Dreams One Step at a Time. Shepherd’s Voice Publishing.
o http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-self-concept-in-psychology-definitionlesson-quiz.html
http://study.com/academy/lesson/ideal-self-vs-real-self-definition-lesson-quiz.html
o https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740McLeod, S.
A. (2015).

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Prepared by: Reviewed by:

VERONICA ROSE B. GUTIERREZ, LPT NILO C. BALANGON, EdD

Instructor Program Coordinator