Rachel Bostock December 15, 2015 In Chapter 7, of The Development Through Life Perspective, one reflection question asks what my earliest recollections are about my own moral development, if I developed a good sense of myself as good or naughty, difficulties that I faced in trying to comply with the standards of good behavior, and some factors that were most important in shaping what I personally believe to be right or wrong. The book says “lying, cheating, stealing, hurting others” are morally wrong and “truth, playing fairly, sharing, being helpful, and respecting peoples differences” are morally right (pg. 249). My childhood is a difficult one to explain, let alone think of the morally right and wrong things that I did. When I was a toddler …show more content…
He wasn’t a very happy child and caused a lot of trauma and problems for my family and especially my parents. He was defiantly more on the morally wrong scale. So, they were mostly focused on him while I was growing up. Also, my dad had to leave a lot because he is in the Navy so when he wasn’t around it was a very stressful time for my family. Mom would get so frustrated and upset with my brother that she would put that all on me as I am the youngest and the easiest to yell at. Because of this, it seemed like I was always screwing up or doing bad things. I think that counts as a difficulty I faced in trying to comply with the standards of good behavior because I had a hard time distinguishing if I was good at all. I think my childhood also shaped what I personally believe to be right or wrong as well because I basically learned that everything my brother did was wrong. I believe I developed a good sense of moral development and I …show more content…
The bidirectional nature of influence between children and the media seems to be that children use media because they grew up with it being in their everyday lives so it’s all they know. The books says “children spend an average of 2 hours a day with some electronic device and they are making choices and affecting their media environment” (pg. 270). In my own childhood, mom tried to limit our tv time but it didn’t really work because she wanted to watch tv as well and she didn’t want to be hypocritical. The media didn’t do much to teach me any educational things except a song that I learned taught me my
Morality, which is one’s general standards about right and wrong behavior, also includes prosocial behavior and other traits such as honesty, fairness, and concern about other people’s rights and welfare (Omrod, 2014). Both morality and prosocial behavior involve multiple parts of the brain, emotions and complex reasoning abilities. Some age-typical characteristics for preschool aged children include, some understanding that behaviors causing physical or psychological harm are morally wrong, a sense of guilt and shame about misbehaviors that cause harm to others, also display empathy and sympathy, and children at this age also show an appreciation for the need to be fair.
Comstock, George A., and Erica Scharrer. Media and the American child. Burlington, MA: Elsevier, 2007. Print.
Rideout, Victoria J., Foehr, Ulla G., and Roberts, Donald F. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. Rep. Menlo Park: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010.
Lawrence Kohlberg conducted research on the moral development of children. He wanted to understand how they develop a sense of right or wrong and how justice is served. Kohlberg used surveys in which he included moral dilemmas where he asked the subjects to evaluate a moral conflict. Through his studies, Kohlberg observed that moral growth and development precedes through stages such as those of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. He theorized that moral growth begins at the beginning of life and continues until the day one dies. He believed that people proceed through each stage of moral development consecutively without skipping or going back to a previous stage. The stages of thought processing, implying qualitatively different modes of thinking and of problem solving are included in the three levels of pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional development. (2)
The moral development of children can depend on many factors. Parenting and upbringing of the child, their environment, social environment, gender, and race are all aspects that can contribute to how a child develops their moral standards and expectations. Many psychologists have tried for several years to develop a theory of how morality is developed. One in particular is Lawrence Kohlberg (1958). His moral development theory is based on the cognitive development of children and it is thought that moral development proceeds and changes as cognitive development occurs (Arnett, 2012).
The effect of the media on young children is especially salient. Young children often learn how to act and behave from what they observe at home, from the adults and older peers they come in contact with, and from what they see on television.
Kohlberg is a well-known theorist in social development, who built on to Jean Piaget’s theory of moral development. Piaget’s theory was based on two-stages of moral development, however Kohlberg’s theory is based on six stages with in three levels of moral development. Kohlberg wanted to develop his ideas further with the hopes of discovering the ways in which children develop moral reasoning and how it changes as they grow older. People can only pass through these levels in the order given. Each new stage replaces the reasoning of the earlier stage. And not everyone achieves all the
What is moral development? In a nutshell, it’s the progression of morality throughout one’s lifetime by means of different stages. There are six of these stages, developed by Lawrence Kohlberg, that help to explain our moral choices and cognitive skills relative to our approximate age. Furthermore, as Kohlberg suggests, everyone reaches stages one through four: Punishment and Obedience, Instrumental Purpose and Exchange, Interpersonal Expectations and Conformity, and Law and order, respectively. Stage1 is characterized by the threat of punishment and the promise of reward. Stage 2 actions are
A person's ability to develop is due to two factors, maturation and learning. Although maturation, or the biological development of genes, is important, it is the learning - the process through which we develop through our experiences, which make us who we are (Shaffer, 8). In pre-modern times, a child was not treated like they are today. The child was dressed like and worked along side adults, in hope that they would become them, yet more modern times the child's need to play and be treated differently than adults has become recognized. Along with these notions of pre-modern children and their developmental skills came the ideas of original sin and innate purity. These philosophical ideas about children were the views that children were either born "good" or "bad" and that these were the basis for what would come of their life.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Woodard, E.H. & Gridina, N. “Media in the Home 2000, The fifth annual survey of parents and children.” The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA. Feb 2001. 20 Mar 2008 .
During this semester in the course human development and learning, the class has been learning about a range of ways that children develop and learn. This also develops the understanding of the human growth process in terms of different learning styles and what teaching strategies can be used. Learning about a child’s learning in primary school is vital in being able to successfully develop a range of strategies to benefit both student and teachers learning. Communication strategies to support learning, strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in learning, and organisation of the classroom and providing directions to learners managing challenging behaviour are all significantly important to uphold in
Television is something that is easily accessible for any child. I can agree with Postman when he stated that the transformation of childhood was when literacy disappeared, education disappeared, shame disappeared and essentially childhood disappeared. Though, he predicted all of this in the 90’s, I see it happening every day. The culture of our current generation of children has completely changed from when I was a child and the young are more tech-savvy than generations before (Postman, 1994).
...alues, judging other people’s actions, and questioning the righteousness of our own morals. Though depending on our religion or background we may all have different feelings and opinions about what is right and wrong, it is virtually impossible to go throughout one’s life without taking part in some sort of exploration into one’s own morals. Even though many of us may inherit our morals from our families or cultures, it is important that we explore why we believe what we feel is morally right or wrong, morally good or bad. Are the morals we get from our families truly our own? Have we been through enough life experiences to distinguish our own morals from those that have been pushed on us by our culture and society? Through exploring these feelings, we are able to make the best possible decisions for ourselves that will in turn determine the standards of our lives.
..., DF (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8-18 year olds. Merlo Park CA: Henry J Kaiser Foundation