MORAL PRINCIPLES GUIDING LIFE DECISIONS

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In this paper we will focus on childhood moral reasoning and how it is developed. In particular how an individualistic culture and a more collectivistic culture may have different conceptions of morality. Is a person born with morals? If not where does a person’s morality come from? These are some of the questions to which researchers have sought to answer. The development of morals stem from rules and norms of conduct by the culture in which you are raised in and you then determine how you should live your life. Moral development has been a major topic and we will further explore this topic more.

Have you ever thought about what your moral principles are and how you developed these principles? What exactly are morals? Morals are attitudes and beliefs that people hold that help them decide what is right and wrong (Hock, 2002). You are not born with morals it is something that is developed through childhood and through adolescence and into adulthood. (Kolberg, 1963). As you are aware different cultures have different goals and different images of ideal behaviors for their members. With that in mind different cultures provide different early childhood experiences. These interactions are very important in shaping a child’s development of morals. The experiences are influenced by whatever is seen by the culture as being acceptable. Depending on where you were raised and what is culturally desirable this will have some influence on what you decide your own ideas of what is right and wrong should be. So the rules of your culture become a part of you and the choices you make in life. The interactions the child has with the parents guide cultural development and is seen as an important cultural practice (Heine, 2012). Childhood is...

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...rds but they definitely had a deciding factor in my actions as a child. As I grew older I realized that these rules were more flexible than I once thought. The needs and interest of others also play a role in how a child behaves morally they learn that have to behave morally to get moral behavior back. Children have to figure out their own standards of what is the right thing to do, and feel guilty and ashamed when they do wrong even if no one else knows (Harter, 1996).
During level 2 according to Kohlberg’s stages, conventional morality, children behave morally in order to live up to the expectations of others and maintain relationships that contain trust and loyalty. Children also recognize law and order during this level. As I noted before children are mostly in the first two levels of Kohlberg’s three levels so that is what we have focused on in this paper

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