Week

2 Task and Reflection on Social, Moral, and Emotional Development of Children

Chapter 3 in Educational Psychology, Theory and Practice by Robert E. Slavin summarizes some
developmental theories on a child's social, moral, and emotional development. Some works
cited in this chapter are from Piaget, Eric Erikson, Kohlberg, and James Marcia. There are subtle
differences in the views of psychologists on the issue of moral and social development, but one
theory seems to appear recurrently in all of their views. All of them seem to believe that social
surroundings/relationships of an individual play a major role in his/her emotional and moral
development.
Erikson's work, for example, is often called a "psychosocial theory" which outlines the stages of
personal and social development. He seems to be inspired by the work of Sigmund
Freud. Erikson outlines 8 stages of personal and social development starting from Birth to Late
Adulthood. All of these stages are marked by a central crisis that must be resolved for the
development to take place. It is quite interesting that Erikson generalizes his theory in a manner
that it almost feels like a biography. I believe that while it is quite generic in its nature, Erikson's
theory is still quite limited in its approach. It is not necessary that all males/females go through
the same stages of development in life. For example, while most adolescents go through
identity crisis, some teens and adolescents are quite sure about who they are. I think that it's
not necessary that all people go through Erikson's crises at the same stage in life, for example,
many people in their mid-30s face an identity crisis. Also, it's quite interesting to note that
many people (men and women) may not be interested in "Generativity" as pointed out by
Erikson in Stage 7. However, I tend to agree with his idea that development in most part,
depends on a person's social surroundings/ relationships, such as his peers, teachers, parents,
and siblings etc.
Piaget, on the other hand, outlines only two stages of moral development which present a very
limited view of a person's moral development. You can not define morality simply
as heteronomous morality or autonomous morality. However, his theory of moral development
is just another addendum to his theory on cognitive development. Piaget thinks that children
can only make independent moral judgments once they are formally operational, that is, with
the onset of critical thinking and problem solving skills. However, it is a proven fact that even
very young kids are capable of making very sound moral judgments.
Kohlberg presents 3 levels of "moral reasoning", and not moral development. Like Piaget and
Erikson, Kohlberg's theory has many limitations, but the main limitation in his theory is
that Kohlberg associated morality with a person's ability to make sound moral judgments in
a given situation. While it may be true that many adults may make their moral decisions based


Week 2 Task and Reflection on Social, Moral, and Emotional Development of Children

on the context of a situation, it is also true that most people believe in a sort of "black and
white" moral reasoning. Also, often times, faltering or flexible moral reasoning is exhibited in
extreme cases such as the situation where the husband of a dying cancer-patient is forced to
steal medicine.
My Reflection
Although all of the above-mentioned theories outline the role, a person's social surroundings
play in his/her moral development/reasoning, yet some of the most important factors again
seem to be missing from all the theories. I believe that a person's culture, socio-economic
status, gender, and religion all play an important role in the moral make-up of an individual, but
it's strange that none of the psychologists points these factors out. It is important to note these
differences in a multi-cultural society where people make moral decisions based on their
cultural or religious up-bringing. Let's suppose, where a Muslim student might find it difficult to
cope with the pressure of joining a Sex-Ed class in an American public school setting because of
his religious guidelines, another student (non-Muslim) might not understand why joining a SexEd class could be such a big deal. Similarly, it is interesting to note that many adolescent boys
may display delinquent behavior, but girls, on the other hand, may not. Hence, the abovementioned theories only give us a fraction of understanding about a person's moral, social, and
emotional development. It is quite arguable that like cognitive development, there is need for
on-going research in the fields of social, moral, and emotional development. in this field.