Case Study of three students' Moral Behaviour

Moral behaviour means behaviour in conformity (agreement) with the moral codes (rules) of the social groups. “Moral” comes from the Latin word ‘mores’, meaning manners, customs and folkways (tradition). Moral behaviour is controlled by moral concepts – the rules of behaviour to which the members of a culture have become accustomed and which determine the expected behaviour patterns of all group members. But immoral behaviour fails to conform the social expectations and does not approve the social standard. Very young children or uneducated people sometimes show unmoral or nonmoral behaviour because of ignorance of norms and values or social expectation.

When child born, no child has a sense of right or wrong (conscience) or a scale of values. No child can be expected to develop a moral code alone. Instead, every child must be taught the group standards of right and wrong. Learning to behave in a socially approved manner is a long, slow process, which extends into adolescence. It is one of the important developmental tasks of childhood. Moral development has both an intellectual and an impulsive aspect. Children can learn to behave in a socially approved manner through trial and error, direct teaching or through identification. Early childhood has been characterized by what Piaget has called ‘stage of moral realism’ or ‘morality by constraint’ and ‘stage of autonomous morality’ or ‘morality of cooperation or reciprocity.’

Kohlberg has elaborated and extended Piaget’s stages of moral development during the early childhood to include three levels of moral development, each having two stages.

They are: 1. ‘pre-convention Morality’ (up to age 9), 2. ‘Conventional Morality’ (age 9-20), 3. ‘Post conventional Morality’  (after age 20). Kohlberg studied the development of children’s moral standards and concluded that the way we think about moral issues is not a simply a reflection of our society but it is also based on stages of growth or age. 

Findings

The three secondary level students are observed for the case study in order to know the moral development level of the children. The first two students were of same age, class and sex. The consequences observation as says Kohlberg that the boys are in the level of ‘Conventional Morality’ or morality of conventional rules and conformity. Both of them were mannerless as they were behaving in inappropriate manner and weren’t doing what is said to done. Their attitude is complex. They were not paying attention to what the teacher was teaching and saying in the classroom. Instead of paying attention in the class, the boy in the first second bench was passing coins to other friends for game. The next boy is just writing something on the paper and showing it to next to his friend time and again disturbing other friends. These boys were doing many wrong things which don’t confirm the social standards and norms of the society. They were not respecting their teachers and maintaining the rules and regulations of the classroom. The teacher was trying to draw their attention by asking them questions from their text book but were unable to response as they were not paying attention. Their activities weren’t cooperative as they were doing wrong thing in the classroom. It seemed that the boys have not learned making appropriate response in specific situation as the parents and seniors in authority are responsible for conforming the rules to set for the children. It shows that the boys have not developed a desire to do what is right and what is wrong, don’t want to distinguish between right and wrong to act for four common good and to avoid wrong from the behavior and the attitude they showed in the classroom.

According to Piaget, individuals construct and reconstruct their knowledge of the world as a result of interactions with the environment. When the second student a girl is observed she is found completely affected by the environment. She is in the period of faster growth and it looks as if it is her whole growth. Her physical growth and mental growth is in proper balance. Therefore, she has maintained social responsibilities and understood the duties and responsibilities well to be performed as a student and a daughter. She is more conscious on her study rather than beautifying herself. Since at their teen age most girls spend their time on beautifying and dressing up to appear good and cool looking. This period is very critical for girls as they seek more attention and care from others and want the support of the parents and others.  They face lots of mental pressure because of the changes in their physical and friends. She almost spoiled herself being following her friends.  Because of her friends she started smoking which was not acceptable in the society so didn’t like to co-operate with her parents and teachers. Therefore, being problematic to the teachers and parents won’t let her foster her ability further and develop herself as a whole .But later she realized her mistake because of counselling. Now, she has developed a good moral character that she can easily adopt social norms and values as she has been following the school rules and regulations. As Carol Gilligan’s View of Identity and Moral Development shows that many adolescent females careless of separation and independence and more of remaining loyal to others through expressions of love, caring, understanding and sharing their experiences, detachment for the female adolescents is moral. She shares less however understands the feelings very well.
Finally she has understood autonomous morality characterized by the child's understanding that rules are made by people for people. As the adolescents tend to lose interest in adult-imposed regulations and feel pleasure in formulating their own variations of rules to fit in a specific situation, she has developed a good sense of judgment which shows her maturity.

 Conclusion

In short, learning to behave in a socially approved manner is a long and slow process that fosters into adolescence. It is one of the most important developmental stage of childhood. The way how we think about moral issues is based on stages of growth or age not simply a reflection of our society. According to Kohlberg and Piaget, there is a considerable amount of reasoning in moral judgments and behavior, although they differ on specifics. Both also believe that social arrangements and society play a major role; however, Piaget gives more emphasis on maturation. This can be accomplished most successfully by associating pleasant reactions with what are right and unpleasant reactions with what is wrong. Family background also plays an important role in developing a child’s moral growth and development. As we know that home is the first school of child for learning. Whereas Carol Gilligan believes that instead of remaining loyal to adult authority, individuals as they mature shift their loyalty to abstract principles for instance self-reliance, independence, justice  and adults should understand their stages and handle them properly and understanding them the students should be given counseling so that they could be on the right track and move ahead in proper way in their career.