"AGES AND STAGES"
ETHOLOGICAL V. SOCIAL-LEARNING EXPLANATIONS OF ATTACHMENT

Question: "What are the major advantages and disadvantages of an 'ages and stages' view of morality?"

One advantage to an "ages and stages" view, with our Western, linear mindset, is that it fits conventional wisdom in a world-view which frames experience as progressing through channels which are predictable, sequential and secure. In Piagetian theory, for example, moral responsibility parallels cognitive development, which can be objectively demonstrated. Children who have not attained concrete operations rely on adults as sources of morality and truth. Once a child reaches a formal operations, between ages 11 and 15, however, s/he becomes capable of rationalizing morality more or less autonomously. Piaget (1969, pp. 179-180) describes this process in a series of neat, easily understood and predictable stages which can be born out empirically (Sigel & Cocking, 1977, pp. 85-88).

One disadvantage to an "ages and stages" view is that it may be measuring language development rather than an actual construct of something called morality. Such an affirmative, childlike perspective of morality is summed up by Winnie the Pooh in Hoff, 1982 (p. 158):

To know the Way,
We go the Way;
We do the Way
The way we do
The things we do.
It's all there in front of you,
But if you try too hard to see it,
You'll only become Confused.

Another disadvantage to linear thinking is that, taken alone, it does not address the role circularity inherent in human systems plays in moral development. Children grow in families where complementarity and homeostasis are critical to the process. The nature of "morality," absent the basic family structure as we know it, would be dramatically different. A holistic view of moral development needs to consider more than just the age or developmental stage of the child (GAP, 1983, pp. 269-280).

REFERENCES

Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (1983). "The system of values to which the family is oriented" in Treatment of Families in Conflict, New York: Jason Aronson, Inc.

Hoff, Benjamin (1982). The Tao of Pooh, New York: Penguin Books.

Piaget, Jean (1969). Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child, New York: Viking Press.

Sigel & Cocking (1977). Cognitive Development from Childhood to Adolescence: A constructivist perspective, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

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Thomas S. Rue, MA, NCC
December 28, 1991

Psychological and Quantitative Foundations 7P:109
The University of Iowa - College of Education
Socialization of the School Age Child - Assignment #2
© 1991, Thomas S. Rue

Thomas Rue 1991-1993.
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