Standards of Moral Decision in Children: Transmission or Creation?
Abstract
The child's acquisition of the moral regulation norms of their own behavior has been analysed from two opposing theoretical perspectives.
Social learning theories (Bandura and others) state that child behavior duplicates the content of symbolic messages produced by his social enuironment. These contents are internalized by reinforcement mechanisms.
Cognitive maturation theories (Piaget and others) stress the importance of endogenow transformations of operational structures used by the child for information processing. Piaget distinguishes between two succesives mechanisms. An obedience mechanism to social environmental instructions and a constructivst mechanism which process cognitive elements generated by cooperative relations between children and their fellow-companions.
The autor argues against both theoretical orientations, by using un experimental procedure where the child's moral norms are contrasted with the adults' norm in reference to the school context. The results contradict the predictions of social learning theories and the first Piagetian mechanism (conformism), in so far as child norms appear to be opposed to adult norms. The second Piagetian mechanism (cooperation) is also unconfirmed in so far as children break solidarity
principies and use competition criteriums.
The author suggests a new theoretical interpretation based on child elaboration of autonomous moral criteriums, constructed through a negotiation process based on the real situation and the specific social status of children.
- Morality is constructed by and for social interaction.
