Moral development of boys and girls 8–9 years old

Abstract

The issues of moral and spiritual development of children have always been relevant. Teachers and psychologists pay a lot of attention to the theory and methodology of moral and spiritual education at school. Pedagogical and psychological literature presents a sufficient number of programs aimed at the formation and development of moral categories in children of various ages. The spiritual and moral spheres of the personality develop most actively in primary school age. That is why moral and spiritual education experts are specifically interested in this age group. The article presents the results of an empirical study of moral development in children aged 8–9 years. The study mainly focused on the level of formation of moral ideas. We used psychodiagnostic methods to measure all components of moral development in children (cognitive, behavioral, emotional), their reliance on moral principles in behavior and egocentric judgments, the level of development of moral qualities, and the level of education. The following hypotheses of the study were tested and confirmed: children aged 8–9 years are characterized by active development of the moral sphere. Primary school children demonstrate sociocentricity, independence in assessing moral actions and independence in making judgments. They also show moral egocentricity and reliance on ity based on the ‘fear of punishment’. The moral judgments of girls and boys have both differences and similarities. Both boys and girls in the group as a whole are characterized by appropriate emotional reactions (the emotional component) as well as the average and high levels of acquisition of moral categories (the cognitive component). The differences between boys and girls were most pronounced in relation to reliance on social norms. Girls, in comparison with boys, showed a higher degree of readiness to follow the rules and norms in behavior. The obtained research results can be useful for psychologists and teachers. The results may be taken into account when creating recommendations for conducting trainings, classes and lessons of various formats in order to develop the moral sphere in children 8–9 years old.