{"id":42919,"date":"2021-07-29T06:34:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T10:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=42919"},"modified":"2024-12-23T09:52:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T13:52:12","slug":"moral-development-in-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/moral-development-in-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Moral Development in Children: 2 Theories to Consider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What factors contribute to moral development in children? How do kids learn what’s right and what’s wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two schools of thought<\/a> exist. One view asserts that moral development in children is self-driven\u2014that kids figure it out on their own, through reason. Another perspective is that children learn morality through their society, which accounts for different moral codes in different parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to learn more about these two theories regarding moral development in children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Rationalist Theory of Moral Development in Children<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the theories of rationalism<\/em>, kids figure out and understand morality on their own, through reason.<\/strong> Consider the following experiment from psychologist Jean Piaget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When kids are younger than age six or seven, if they see two glasses of water, they\u2019ll always say the glass of water that\u2019s taller has more water in it, no matter the girth of the glasses. They can\u2019t understand the concept of volume, even if it\u2019s explained to them. But when they get to be about seven, they learn about the concept of volume by themselves by playing with the water in the glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After more experiments, Piaget concluded that moral development in children is similar to how they learn about volume\u2014understanding is not innate, nor is it taught. It\u2019s self-constructed<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>and it happens as kids socialize with other kids, learning how to play and creating and abiding by the rules of games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a child is exposed to enough experiences, she will eventually become a moral human being. Rationalists believe that it is the growth of reasoning<\/em> <\/strong>that helps us gain moral knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg updated and deepened Piaget\u2019s theories. He argued that moral development in children happens in six stages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n