Morality and Early Childhood

Discussion 6: Morality and Early Childhood
COLLAPSE

According to the article, how do children become “moral”? According to the video, how do children become “moral”? Do the video and article have similar views, or conflicting views? How are morals dependent on social development and how are they dependent on cognitive development? What role do parents have in helping children develop morals? What roles do teachers have in helping children develop morals? Finally, imagine that two children are watching a skit. In the skit, a child takes a toy that clearly belongs to the other child. How would a 3-year-old who was watching the skit respond, and how might a 6-year-old who was watching the skit respond? And tell us why you think they would respond that way, based on their experiences and moral development.

Remember when responding to peers, bring in content and not just opinion. What did the reading and video say? Do you agree with their thoughts on the 3 and 6 year olds response to the skit? Why or why not, according to the material?

Welcome to topic 6!

Welcome to Topic 6!! This topic we will be covering early childhood. After this topic we have reached the halfway point of the course!

Early Childhood

When we’re talking about early childhood we’re typically referring to ages 3-6 years. During this time children become more agile and more graceful in the skills they have previously developed. They engage in imaginary play which is a way they practice their cognitive skills. Prior to now children’s primary social system was parents and sibling. But now many children start preschool, and begin to interact with peers and teachers with a much greater frequency. Children also start to be able to identify characteristics of themselves as well as make social comparisons.

First, review the slides here:

Early Childhood Powerpoints
Early Childhood Powerpoints – Alternative Formats

Next you have a video to watch and an article to read. With more interaction possibilities in early childhood, moral development begins to emerge at this age. Morality can be thought of as a set of beliefs that are right or wrong – and vary across people. But how do we become moral? Read the article below and watch the video. While engaging with this material, think about how morals develop. What is necessary for a child to become moral? How do children of varying ages view what is “moral” differently, even if they are seeing the same situation?

Raising a Moral Child

I will upload the article above

Born good? Babies help unlock the origins of morality

Below are the peer responses (2):
Alyssa Lyon
RE: Discussion 6: Morality and Early Childhood
COLLAPSE

According to the article, children become moral depending on parenting styles. Experiments have shown that it is better for parents to compliment their child’s character rather than their behavior. Praising the child’s character helps them internalize it as part of their identities. When actions become a reflection of our character, we make moral and generous choices. Moral behavior is found more when using nouns rather than verbs. An example of this is using the phrase “be a helper” is more effective than “to help” when trying to get children to complete a task. Actions shape our character which helps develop moral children.

According to the film “the seeds to our moral understanding of justice of right and wrong are part of our biological nature” meaning we are born knowing a basic understanding of what’s right vs wrong, good vs bad. The impact of this biological impact was shown from many experiments in the baby lab. Babies as young as 3 months old show and understanding of liking nice individuals over mean individuals. The video also found 87% of infants favorited the stuffed animals who harmed the others who were unlike them meaning we want people who are different than us to be punished. In other words we have “a bias to favor the self”.

The video and article have different but similar ideas of where morals come from. Both the video and the article The video stated that morals were biological to a degree but also the article believed morals were taught by parents. The video says that moral behavior is biological but is also taught whereas the article says that moral behavior is just taught.

The video showed that after learning about morals from your environment whether your family, schools, peers, we start to become more generous. The experiment that showed this was when kids got to pick how many tokens they would earn and how many the next kid who came in the room who got.Kids in the study continuously picked for the next person to receive no tokens even if it meant they would get less compared to them both receiving the same amount. By the age of nine however, the kids in the study would pick the option that they would receive less tokens and the other would receive more.

Lastly I believe the 3 year old would not like the child who took the toy that belonged to the other and a 6 year old could either think it might think it’s funny or at that age has been taught to know that is wrong. I think they would respond this way because of how the kids reacted in the video but also what the article stated.

Gloria Verganza
RE: Discussion 6: Morality and Early Childhood
COLLAPSE

Becoming “moral” can be viewed in many different ways. For starters, we read this article that stated children become moral with with parental guidance like praise and demonstrating moral acts themselves. The article stated “for moral behaviors, nouns work better then verbs.” In other words, the article gave examples like when you tell a child “to help” versus “be a helper” or “don’t cheat” versus ” don’t be a cheater”. The differences between the two is not jut “verb vs noun” but the meaning behind the sentences. Telling a child to “be a helper” is now reflecting his/her character which helps them learn who they are and us praising them implants this and engraves it to them to become part of their identities. There are other views of how children become moral. Aside from the article, we were introduced to a video that explained a different theory. The video explained just about the same idea that morals can be taught but mainly it is biological. The video emphasizes that even though we can be taught morals, we are born to, how they phrased it, “hate”. To be more precise the video had also shown experiments they performed. The experiment was to show babies, under 5 months, examples of a good act and a bad act. The baby at the end would choose which they wanted to hold, the bear that acted good or bad. This is when they realized that babies show a interest to the good bear. We then are shown older children under three years old and the kids are then showing “greed” or “unfairness”. This is because we are born with “good” and “bad”. Towards the end we see older kids above nine and they have now been introduced to fairness, sharing and etc. While the video shows morals are biological but can be taught, the article just focuses on the fact that morals are taught. It is clear in the article or video that morals help us become more empathetic towards others. Empathy helps balance ourselves amongst each others. Parents and teachers have a big role to developing morals. Children from birth look up to their mother or father. Therefore, when kids grow older and start to understand things better, they tend to do what they see. They see their parents doing good acts, the children then want to do the same. Teachers are another major role being that teachers “preach”. In the article they mention how physically seeing good act helps enormously but when they watch and are also explained wrong from right, fairness and unfairness etc., they tend to have more understanding and now not only will they want to do it because they watched it being done, children then have it penetrated into their minds.

I do believe that if a 3 year old who sees another child take a toy that does not belong to him, there is a high possibility he will not like the boy/girl. The chances are high because in the video the kids around the same age who were doing the experiment with the coins showed selfishness/unfairness. So, they would probably want that child to get his karma or get what he deserves. He/she would not use those exact words but he would display such behavior. A 6 year old may react either way. Being that at this age they are still trying to understand wrong from right, yet, they have been most likely introduced to the concept. Therefore, they may condone the idea and not say anything at all or they may react by telling on them. In the article they gave examples how children around this age have two ways of handling such scenario depending on how they are raised. One child shows guilt while the other shows shame. Even though, the 6 year old would not be the one to take the toy, seeing the wrong dewing may cause shame or guilt depending on the child. Guild would kick in if the child decided to tell on him. Shame kicks in and they decide not to mention anything because they are afraid of the risks or punishment.

Topic 6 Original Discussion Post: 11/14 Topic 6 Peer Responses (2): 11/15