Piaget's Theory 5-9 Years Old

Piaget's theory of a 5-9-year-old is (1) Heteronomous, meaning that it is subject to another's law or rules. It incorporated a sense of Moral Realism. This means that all the elements of morality, such as rules, punishments etc., exist in their own right and come from external sources. Things are seen as being clearly right or wrong because the child has been told that this is the case.
The morality of 10 + year olds is Autonomous meaning being subject to one’s own laws or rules. It involves Moral Relativism whereby a child comes to realise that rules evolve from social relationships and it is important to take other people’s opinions into account.
The move from egocentric to operational thought showed a decline of egocentrism at the about the age of 7. However, moral development lags at least 1-2 years behind cognitive development. A progressive change in the child’s approach to social relationships. This goes from unilateral respect (unconditional obedience to adults) to mutual respect, which involves the type of compromise found in peer group relationships. Therefore unilateral respect is related to moral realism and mutual respect is related to moral relativism. …show more content…
He maintained that is essential to look at the reasoning behind approaches to moral issues, especially our understanding of justice, which represents the most fundamental moral principle. Kohlberg presented subjects with moral dilemmas – conflicts between two or more moral principles – and the subjects had to choose between them. The dilemmas involved ten universal moral