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SOCIAL ASPECTS OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Moral Development and Social Interactions with Family – Summary and Lesson Plan
Topic and Objectives
Topic: The relationship between moral development and social interactions with family
during early childhood.
Objectives: After this lecture, students will be able to…
1. Clearly define their own perspective on the effect of family interaction on a child’s moral
development.
2. Define the early stages of moral sensibility.
3. Explain the influence of family relationships on a child’s moral development.
Summary of the Lecture Content
According to Killen and Smetana (2014), it is clearly known that children will face moral
issues with their families from a young age. This is due to the tensions between the child’s
desires and needs, discipline, challenges with control, justice and rights, reciprocity, obligations
and just the general welfare of others around them are both negotiated and experienced daily
with their family. Because children are consistently talking to their parents and siblings each day,
they hear what they say about others and how people behave or why they feel they way they do
and general moral matters. Once children begin to speak around their second year, they also
begin contributing to these conversations and building their own moral judgments of those
around them. Thus, why various theoretical approaches value this interaction in contributing to
the developmental story of a child.
The wide ranged issue of the relationship between emotions and cognition in moral
development is a consistent theme across many of the theories. Such research has been
conducted to further inquire about the nature of young children developing their understanding
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SOCIAL ASPECTS OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
of morals and the social processes involved. Beginning as early as infancy/toddlerhood, children
begin showing relation to others’ emotions and the interesting and understanding that comes with
it. They are building up the caring part of moral development as they begin to understand others
and their feelings. During a child’s second year, it can be observed how children begin engaging
in empathetic and prosocial behaviors. It has also been noticed that children will try to relinquish
the distress of others along with showing concern when they notice others around them
