Compare and contrast moral and social conventional rules, and discuss the factors that influence the development of children's understanding of each type of rule, as well as their understanding of issues of personal choice.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
1. Moral rules center on issues of harm, personal welfare, and individual rights, and cover actions such as hitting, cheating, stealing, and lying.
2. Social conventional rules center on rules of conduct in particular social settings, such as school rules, game rules, and rules of politeness.
3. Children accept adult authority to regulate moral and social conventional rules, but are less accepting of adult authority over matters of personal choice.
4. Adults and children communicate about violations of moral and social conventional rules. Adults refer to issues of harm and individual rights in talking about moral rules, whereas they focus on issues of maintaining social harmony and adult authority in talking about social conventional rules.
5. Adults are less likely to try to impose authority in situations of personal choice.
6. Culture also influences learning about moral and social conventional rules. For example, a study of parents discussing a child's past misdeeds showed that parents in Taiwan spent more time talking about how the child embarrassed the family, in an attempt to correct the child's behavior, whereas parents in the United States talked more about the positive actions the child took after a misdeed, in an attempt to promote the child's self-esteem and autonomy.