Paper 1

Social and Moral Development
Crissy Bontrager
Axia College of University of Phoenix

There are many areas that are affected by a child’s growth and development. Two of those areas are social understanding and morality. As the child grows and develops, knowledge and understanding of these two areas will also continue to develop. Thus, a look at each developmental stage will show the progression of development in social understanding and morality.
During the infancy stage, or birth to two years the child begins to develop social understanding and morality. One of the behaviors a child may express is distress when aggression is displayed (2004). Additionally, a child in this stage may look to others to understand how to react to things (2004). With this also begins the understanding of others having needs and wants that may be different from the child’s. This stage shows the beginning of the development of these two areas.
In early childhood social understanding and morality continue to develop. The child may be more aware of a person’s emotional state and may show signs of empathy (2004). The child may also show guilt after a wrong behavior such as breaking an item (2004). Additionally, the understanding that others may have different perspectives begins to develop. However, the child’s own needs are still more important to the child than the needs of others. A larger social view is beginning to develop along with an understanding of right and wrong.
The next two stages are middle childhood and early adolescence. To show differences in development of social understanding and morality between these two stages the following table offers a comparison. In addition to these two areas this comparison also shows the development of emotions as they relate to morality during these developmental stages.
Table 1
A Comparison of Social Understanding and Morality in the Developmental Stages of Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence
|Middle Childhood... [continues]

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