Developmental Psychology

7.6 Adolescent Morality One of the leading researchers of moral development was a gentleman by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg . His researched was based on moral dilemmas, and then those were used to classify different levels of moral reasoning in children aged 10 through 16. The question he posed was “Why shouldn’t you steal from a store?” After asking this question, he looked at and scored the responses and the came up with three different levels of morality and 6 stages of moral reasoning. Level Definition St ges Level 1: Pre- Conventional Morality Understanding the difference between right and wrong; being determined by rewards and punishment Stage 1: Punishment, knowing what lead to the punishment means that it was wrong. Stage 2: Rewards, the right thing done is when rewards are given Level 2: Conventional Morality The view that others matter, Either avoiding the blame or attempting to seek approval Step 3: When there are good intentions, one will conform to good behavior. Step 4: Being obedient to authority, and understanding the importance of doing the duty that is necessary Level 3: Post- Conventional Morality This is an abstract notion of justice. The rights of others can override obedience to laws and rules Stage 5: Knowing the difference between right and wrong (moral and legal rights). Sometimes it is found that rules can be broken or will be. Stage 6: Conscience by individuals and principles. Takes into account of the views that may affect everyone due to a moral decision. These theories proposed by Kohlberg, have been challenged several times. Carol Gilligan suggested the research conducted by Kohlberg was gender biased. She thought this because he had only used male adolescents in the research that created these levels and stages. Kohlberg responded by saying that females give moral weight to their relationships and tend to not see moral issues in black and white. This is due to the moral weight differences, and that females will score lower on his tests. 7.7 Adolescent Psychosocial Development Erik Erikson believed that adolescents were in the Identity vs Role Confusion stage of development. There have been conflicts, where adolescents have gone through an identity crisis, and will act not like themselves. Usually between the ages of 12 and 18, is when adolescents will try and steer away from their parents and try to find out what kind of person that they as an individual want to become. If adolescents are able to combine their roles, then they will achieve a sense of identity. James Marcia, another influential psychologist in development created 4 different identity statuses. Let’s look at them below. • Identity Achievement o This is when individuals find out that they are unique o This includes sexual identity, moral identity, political identity as well as vocational identity

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