Question one
Introduction
Arguably, human beings are in a continuous process of development. In most cases, human development occurs in stages and each stage has physiological, emotional, and psychological changes. People always have mental stages that help in guiding their day to day behavior. Morality refers to the capability to distinguish between wrong and right, acting on distinctions as well as experiencing shame or pride.
Actually, most theories of moral development differ significantly in their opinions regarding the occurrence of moral development. According to Social learning theory individuals gain knowledge on how to morally behave through modeling, on the other hand cognitive-development theories state that the ability of individuals to reason depends on thinking ability. Additionally, Freud asserts that the degree and quality of relationship individuals have affects their moral development.
Factors that affect development of morality
There are numerous factors that are indispensable in the understanding of moral development. Gender identification and role are important factors in morality development. According to Gilligan, Kohlberg’s stages of development of morality are biased, they are against women. Female view moral issues differently, in this perspective women are concerned on relationships moral dilemmas, while men are more on the rights of people.
Studies reveal that culture affects the moral development of individuals. Based on Kohlberg’s stages of development, individuals from well developed cultures go through the stages quicker compared to those from underdeveloped cultures. Some stages require knowledge and skills so as to understand government institutions and laws. Furthermore, people from different cultures have unique moral beliefs.
The neighborhood environment and media too are important factors that affect moral development. Most of the programs on media have some violent content, hence it exposes individual to some violent acts. In most cases, children have no sense of morality; hence they cannot separate between right and wrong.
Ways in which parents support good moral development
Parents have obligations of ensuring that their children have fine moral development. They can do it through induction, authoritative parenting, responsibility, act as a model, punishing and rewarding and other democratic family process. Most of my friend and family members claimed that they developed the ideas of morality through their parents, education, reasoning and internal reflection, positive reinforcement, religious beliefs, experience and cultural ethics.
Question 2
Changes in ideas related to morality that occur over time
Perhaps, every individual in society have distinct foundation on which they develop and build their morality. The societies we live in mould us in a very unique way, which is why we have diversity in morality development. With time behaviors of individuals change, for example we do not expect children to behave the same way as adults. There is change in the way we think and act. Individuals realize that the moral developments that take place were not just handed during birth. In order to develop morally, we should be socially oriented, have self control, self esteem and be compliant with external factors. They develop and grow within you over many years; all these changes have been influenced by numerous factors.
Factors that explain changes in definitions of moral behavior over the last 100 years
In most cases, morality develops and changes for the better with age, but these does not completely affect all individual. During these century media have reported a lot of immorality cases, this include teen pregnancy, suicide, rape and violent juvenile crimes. These analyses have led to the declaration of moral crisis in many nations.
The definitions of morality have changed with time because of the influence that families have. In the world today there are many divorce cases that take place, hence children do not get to learn more on moral issues. Parents in most cases don’t dictate the morality of their children; they are only present to demonstrate. Therefore, with the effect of family breakdown children don’t learn from demonstration.
Globalization and westernization of cultures have also influenced morality. Cultural practices of many communities have been overtaken by westernization and globalization. Children learn more on the internet than what their parents teach. Each of them is more concern on the educational issue rather than morality. The events of life and changes in experience shifts morality and ethics to a different level. Actually, the concept of morality is incredibly complicated and it changes with time. Morality development should be natured from childhood to adulthood, and no stage should be skipped.
