Piaget on
Cognitive
Development
Piaget
on Moral
Development
Kohlberg
on Moral
Development
Preschool
Early Childhood
Kindergarten
Pre-Kindergarten
● They can’t decenter or take the
perspective of others but are imitative.
● They can sense and perceive but not symbolically manipulate.
● They cannot comprehend classes and subclasses.
● They cannot relate to adults’ abstract reasoning.
● They can’t reflect on or think about their own thinking.
● They assume you know what they know.
● They are subject to the morality of constraint.
●
They exhibit social play but do not try to win.
●
Justice is viewed as that commanded by authority.
● Casual attitude about rules.
● Authority maintains egocentrism.
● Egocentrism a step between the solitary play of younger children and the social play of children six and
older.
(Preconventional
1)
●
They display heteronomous or adult-dependent morality.
●
They think in absolutes of right and wrong.
● They have an egocentric viewpoint.
● They are good to avoid
punishment or gain rewards.
● They view the value of life the way they do the value of objects.
Early Elementary
Middle Childhood
First and Second
Grades
Concrete Operations
● They move from perceptual or pre-
operational to conceptual or concrete-operational thought,
i.e., they begin to
solve problems in their heads because
they can manipulate objects symbolically.
● They cannot imagine events that are not real events, need real things to think about, and
cannot think abstractly.
● They can take the perspective of others.
● They are becoming more and more interested in their peers.
● They willfully engage
in social cooperation.
● They display instrumental cooperation.
●
They are largely subject to the morality of constraint.
●
They want to win by age seven but have a vague notion of game rules.
●
They view rules as sacred and unchangeable.
●
They view justice as that which is commanded by authority.
(Preconventional
2)
● They see right as that which satisfies their needs.
● They have a concrete, pleasure/ reward-seeking, individualistic perspective.
● Their cooperation is instrumental, and they exchange favors to satisfy needs.
●
The value of life is viewed as instrumental to need satisfaction.
Late Elementary
Late Childhood
Grades
Three Through Five
● They are in transition between heteronomy and moral autonomy.
● They come to know codified game rules and show an intense interest in them.
●
They continue to view rules as unchangeable.
●
They view justice in terms of equality that comes about from solidarity and mutual respect.
(Conventional
3)
● They view right as what gains approval.
● They have an interpersonal, Golden Rule, good-child/bad-child perspective.
● They gain approval by being caring and accommodating toward significant others.
● They view the value of life in terms of affectional bonds.
Middle School
Early Adolescence
Grades
Six Through Eight
High School
Late Adolescence
Grades
Nine Through Twelve
Formal
Operations
● They move from concrete operational to formal-operational thought, think logically and abstractly, and begin to manipulate
symbols in their heads. They can imagine hypothetical as well as real
events.
●
They can introspect, reflect, and think about their own thinking.
● They can consider many view-points and take the perspective of others fully.
● They are much more self-conscious than they were previously.
●
They have principled moral autonomy, morality emerging from cooperation.
●
Their rule mastery and codification of game rules, that began at about age
ten, continues.
● They view justice as equity,not equality.
●
Rules are viewed as a changeable product of mutual consent.
(Conventional
4)
●
They view right as doing one's duty, showing respect to authority, and main-
taining social order.
●
They have an organizational-need, societal-need, law-maintaining view.
●
They view life as sacred within the context of a scheme or moral rights.
(Post-conventional)
● They view right as guarding basic rights and legal contracts, or as meeting mutual obligations in context of societal rights and standards.
● They have a law-creating, moral-legal view that obligates them to honor social commitments.
● Principled moral reasoning.
unexplained
Juxtaposition
of Relevant
Developmental
Theories
(part 2 is on the next slide)
Developed by Gordon Vessels 1998 ©