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Connections between cognitive development and moraldevelopment

When I frst attend the psychology lesson, I ound this subjectto be very meaningul to me because it aims to study people’s

behavior and mental processes and to explore how they are aectedby the physical and mental state and external environment!tudying psychology ma"es me understand more about humanbehaviors, and what’s on top o this is that I am able to apply those"nowledge that I learnt to my daily lie to ma"e more sense

 #he parts that I am specifcally interested are the cognitivedevelopment and moral development over the lie span$ there areour stages o cognitive development, which are% sensorimotor,preoperational, concrete operational, and ormal operational &ere, Iound out that I am more attached to the second stage o cognitivedevelopment, which is preoperational stage because I’m able torelate this stage to my younger brother called 'ohn, who is ( yearsyounger than me

I remember when he’s at the age o ), my amily and I used tota"e him and one o his best riends to a *orean restaurant Whenwe were at the restaurant, 'ohn and his riend were running aroundin the restaurant ma"ing lots o noise #his made my parentsunhappy since there were other customers in the restaurant, so mymother critici+ed 'ohn harshly and banned him rom eating sweetsor days -ter that, whenever we went to the restaurant together, 'ohn oten managed himsel well at the restaurant and in addition

taught his riends about basic eti.uettes in the restaurants so thatthey won’t ma"e that much noises and same mista"es again

-ccording to /iaget’s cognitive stages o development 01231,p(45, this example demonstrates that at the stage opreoperational, 'ohn contains the characteristics o egocentrism #his is because that at frst when we were at the *orean restaurant,he was running around ma"ing a lot o noise with his riend, thisshows that he ignored other customers’ eelings, which emphasi+esthe inability o caring other people’s point o view I he managed toshare and care other people’s perspectives and viewpoint, he wouldma"e himsel and his riend be .uiet in the frst place without

disturbing others&owever, I can also counter argue this egocentrism theory at the

preoperational stage o cognitive development due to the existenceo *ohlberg’s theory o moral development 6rom my example wecan also see that when my brother was being punished andcritici+ed or his bad behaviors, he managed himsel not to ma"esimilar mista"es again in the uture due to the frst stage o pre7conventional moral development, which is obedience andpunishment driven *ohlberg 01231, p (85 states my brother’sbehavior as that 'ohn ma"es his moral judgment o what is right and

wrong simply by what is punishable and my parents’ reactionstoward his behaviors, emphasi+ing that the avoidance o

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punishment plays a signifcant role in 'ohn’s moral actions9oreover, due to the punishments that my parents gave, 'ohn is

able to share my parent’s point o view$ this can be seen throughthe part that he warned his riends about basic eti.uettes wheneverwe go to the restaurant ater he learned the lesson rom his

previous mista"es #his suggests that when 'ohn’s at the stage opreoperational, he is not ully egocentrism because he learned romhis mista"es through the punishment and he’s able to share myparents’ advice to his other riends #his portrays that he somehowmanaged to share other’s point o view ater being punished by myparents

!ince I study psychology, I am able to have deeperunderstandings on people’s behaviors and reasons behind theiractions In addition, I can apply those psychological theories to thereal lie situations around me$ this is why I thin" it is worthwhile orus to have deeper studies on psychology

:eerence%

How Do Children Develop Morality? Kohlberg's Theory. (n.d.). About . Retrieved October 2, 2014,

from http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg.htm 

Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2012). Invitation to psychology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.:

Pearson/Prentice Hall.

http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg.htmhttp://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg.htm