Durkheim 1925/1961 on morality
Believed that the development from theistic monarchy to secular democracy had caused a moral crisis
Moral realism: D believed in objective moral facts and wanted them to be upheld
Scientific methods like observation and experiments can be used to understand morality. Known as naturalism
Society is a real entity that has its own consciousness, thoughts, feelings, behaviour and personality. Produces morality to regulate its members as it needs unity to function
2 essential elements: spirit of discipline and attachment to the group. Autonomy is a third element but it non-essential
Not innate as morality is a product of society
Believed early childhood is critical for moral development. Children have 2 natural tendencies which make them receptive to obtain the 2 elements of morality. The 2 natural tendencies are: traditionalist and suggestibility
Believed people who were failing to limit their impulses were showing signs of disease
Morality imposes limits which lead to the development of self-control, and complying with the moral rules makes a child happy
Pedagogical applications by Durkheim 1925/1961
More important for schools rather than parents as it’s the first time a children is shown cold rules
Recommended teachers cultivate discipline by: believing in their own authority, introducing the child to cold and unmodifiable rules, punishing rule breakers
Advised teachers to cultivate attachment by: teaching sciences/history, using phrases like ‘we’ not ‘i’ and alumni activities
Middleton 2008 on Physical punishment
Middleton went against the prevailing attitude of the time (19th century Britain) of using physical punishment in schools. Many believed it was justified as it instilled discipline
Teachers believed children would accept whatever the teacher does, and the child would be happier
Children viewed the practice as an unjust exercise of power motivated by sadism
Leach 1993 on professional responsibility
Believed psychologists recognise that commenting on the morality of physical punishment is inappropriate but have a responsibility to report the effectiveness of the practise
Research shows parental physical punishment is ineffective at creating self-discipline desired
Piaget criticised Durkheim’s theory. Piaget 1932/1965
Criticised D’s theory for: assuming society is a unitary independent being, assuming society is the only source of obligation, assuming the child is a passive conformist
Believed that D’s techniques wouldn’t promote relations that are necessary for democratic citizens
Ross 1930, Kohlberg 1980 and Turiel 2002 criticising Durkheim’s relativism.
Relativist: what is right and wrong depends on the society you’re in
Ross 1930 criticised the theory for assuming moral relativism, whereby no society’s moral code is no nearer to objective truth compared to other societies
Kohlberg 1980 believed the theory was not entirely relativistic since it allows for moral adequacy of individuals within society to be assessed
Turiel 2002 argued that D’s idea of moral decline demonstrates that the morality of societies were evaluated but Durkheim did not identify his criteria
Piaget 1932/1965 ideas on morality
Believed society results from cooperative interactions between people. And rules are necessary for such relations
Children develop an understanding about the world by acting upon their environment and observing the effects (constructivism)
Judgements about the world are organised which form a cognitive structure. And there are transformations of structure throughout development in defined sequence (structuralism)
Intellectual development leads to moral judgement in children. Quality of social interactions influence moral development e.g. coercive adult-child relations arrest development whereas cooperative peer relations progresses development
Philosophical implications: reasoned if moral realism and retributive justice were rational, we would not observe its demise as the child cognitively develops
Piaget 1932/1965 on Heteronomous and Autonomous morality
Heteronomous morality: believed 3 - 8 years old children have a HM orientation. Whereby moral rules are understood to be the same as physical laws (external and unalterable). Adult-child relation is characterised by unilateral respect (coercive) and a heteronomous child believes obedience to adult’s commands is both right and good. They also respond to rule-breaking by considering objective features which assesses responsibility and believes retribution is inescapable
Autonomous morality: autonomous child differentiates moral rules from physical laws, whereby the former is alterable by seeking common agreement and upholding self-regulation. Child-peer relationship is characterised by mutual respect and that the autonomous child judges a rule as good if it is a necessary condition for cooperative reciprocal relations. Become more forgiving rule breakers overtime, consider subjective factors when judging responsibility, and believes the aim of punishment is to communicate that social bonds have been broken
DeVries and Zan 2012 on a constructivist education
Advised teachers to organise spaces and plan activities to facilitate peer interaction
When conflicts between peers arise, teachers should facilitate resolutions by setting expectations that conflicts are resolved by talking about it
Teachers should take the role of a peer in the class-room whereby they must agree to and abide by rules
Bloom 1959’s limitations of Piaget’s theory
Claimed Piaget ignored cultural and class factors
Criticised his empirical work: interview method overestimated the child’s cognitive abilities to provide valid and reliable information. The sample may have had low IQ which explains for the apparent age differences
Piaget emphasised intellectual/logical thinking which led to him ignoring moral conflict and affective factors in a child’s life
Hardecker, Schmidt and Tomasello 2017 peer created rules study
Self made: children made the rules
Supports Piaget’s ideas that co-operation is necessary
Cushman et al 2013 on intent-based moral judgement
As they age, they become less condemning to accidental harms
Condemning of attempted harm doesn’t change overtime
Turiel 1983 criticised Piaget’s view of child’s relations with authority
Criticised Piaget for excluding the possibility of rational and cooperative relations between children and adults
Criticised the theory for assuming all rules as being judged the same, ignoring the possibility of some rules being judged as more moral than others
Disagreed that young children are heteronomous and instead argued children evaluate the morality of rules without relying upon the commands of authority
Kohlberg 1983 theory on morality
An active process of attending, information gathering and motivated thinking- an individual attempts to understand the world (structuralism)
Believed moral judgements are structured and reasoned that individuals would have the same thought patterns across moral scenarios e.g. individual consistency
There are different ways to organise moral thought and reasoned that different people will have qualitatively different kinds of cognitive structures e.g. individual differences
Transformation- development entails a re-organisation of cognitive structure
Maintained order of development (sequence) is culturally invariant (universal)
The more developmentally mature a stage is, the closer the individual judgements are to the philosophical criteria for adequacy
The rate of development (speed) is individually and culturally variable
Argued that social interactions influence the rate of development, namely through a process of perspective taking
Believed value-conflicts (intrapsychic and interpersonal) motivates individuals to transform their cognitive structure to reconcile the experience with earlier stage
Believed moral behaviour necessitates a moral judgement that is consistent with formalist principles
May not act consistently with their own moral judgement
Argued that a person’s action and judgement will be more consistent as a person matures
Kohlberg 1981 applications in schools
Believed value education in schools is inevitable which produces: the problem of relativity, the problem of arbitrary indoctrination
Argued that cognitive developmental approach overcomes both relativity and indoctrination problem
Limitations of Kohlbergs ideas:
Gilligan 1982:
Kohlberg argued girls are less morally developed than boys
Believed girls tend to be more cooperative and focused on emphasising with a specific other (they have an ethic based on care opposed to an ethic based on justice)
Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau and Thoma 1999:
Kohlberg’s view considers one aspect of moral psychology - judgement- and they argue that Kohlberg neglected other processes like motivation, sensitivity, character
Kohlberg’s stages are abstract which is insufficient for daily individual moral decision making
Focuses too much on macro-morality (formal structures of society) and ignores micro-reality (face to face relationships)
Turiel 1983 theory on morality
Children’s understanding of the world is organised into 2 domains of knowledge: conventional and moral
Children face issues in the world, some may link to morality and some may link to convention
Argued conventional prescriptions are arbitrary and uniformities are validated by consensus and help coordinate interaction of individuals within a social system
Believed moral prescriptions are insensitive to consensus and less arbitrary since they are derived from factors inherent in social relationships (e.g. welfare, justice, human rights)
Critical dimensions that separate morality from conventionality: morality is universal, morality isn’t personal preference, morality isn’t defined by agreement and institutional arrangement
Social knowledge in children is an active construction which arises through social interactions
Understanding of convention is through social interactions whereby agreed upon rules promote group functioning
Morality comes through interactions whereby children observe the intrinsic consequences of harm and injustice
Nucci 2001 domain appropriate feedback
Feedback for violations should be matched to the issue as social issues arise from social interactions
Feedback for moral transgressions should direct the child to the intrinsic features of the act and to adopt other perspectives
Advised that feedback for convectional transgressions should state what the rules are and point to disorder
Lourenco 2014 criticisms of Turiel’s theory of morality
Criticises the social domain theory for not being developmental unlike Piaget and Kohlberg’s theories
Argues that social domain theory is compatible with theories of moral development, not necessarily in competition with
Yoo and Smetana 2022
Gap between morality and conventionality gets greater the more you age
