Kohlberg and Piaget’s Moral Development

Elizabeth, a seven year old child, was forbidden by her mother to play inside the house or else she’ll tie her up side down.  One day, her little friends invited her to play a “chasing” game.   Because she was not to play inside the house, she told her friends to play outside the house.  They got bored with the game and decided to change it into hide and seek.  Elizabeth, a very competitive child, doesn’t want to be caught by anyone.  She decided to hide inside the house keeping in mind to be as careful as possible.

But unfortunately for her, her friend Aspen, who was the seeker, saw her enter the house and followed her.  Elizabeth got nervous when she saw Aspen.   In the instant that Aspen entered the house, Elizabeth quickly ran towards the door but she was caught by Aspen.  They grab each other so that one of them might reach the base first.  But as they grab each other they bump into vase stand.  The vase fell and breaks. Her mother caught them.  Elizabeth told her mother that it’s not her fault and include Aspen as well.

Commonly, children exhibits a pre-conventional level of way of thinking, that is,  they enter the first and second stage of Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development  (Nucci, 2002).  In stage 1, children conceived an action to be right or wrong according to the punishment their parents give them.  In stage 2, the concept developed by a child is like “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”.

 For Piaget, children are more worried about the results and consequences of what they have done rather than the true reason underlying their action (Nucci, 2002). Applying these theories to Elizabeth’ situation, she would think of horrible situations like her mother’s going to tie her up side down.  Maybe she’ll also think of different scenarios like she’ll not allow her to play ever again.  Another thing, she’ll make sure that Aspen will take her punishment too – this is to include the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”. Obviously, the child’s age is appropriate to the stage since Elizabeth is exhibiting both the characteristics that Piaget and Kohlberg described.

Reference

1. Nucci, L. (2002, February 15).  Studies in Moral Development and Education: An Overview.
2. Retrieved September 23, 2007, from http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/overview.html.