RS 108B

Reflection Paper 1

Due 10/6/00

The Search for Morality:

Balancing Objective and Subjective Decision Making

Moral growth in decision making is a very important part of achieving moral maturity. Learning to balance decisions between the objective and the subjective is a life-long process, and no steps can be skipped. It is only through many years of experience and knowledge that humans can learn to make the best decisions possible in a given situation.

In infancy, humans have little means for communication. We quickly learn that by crying, we can get the attention we need to care for our problems. In this way, babies learn that they are part of a community, and that their actions affect the people around them.

In early childhood, humans learn that all actions come with consequences. The issues of right and wrong come into play when being praised or punished by parents. They learn that some actions are good ones, and others are bad. Therefore, a child’s decision making in early childhood is based upon these consequences, making all decisions black and white. This is called objective reasoning: no matter what the situation, a certain action is either good or bad. We can see this in the example that a child would be taught that stealing is wrong. If one were to ask a child what would happen if someone stole something from him, the child would state that they should be punished. The child would tell you that it is not right take something that does not belong to you, no matter what the circumstances.

As children reach grade school age, they learn to communicate and cooperate with others of the same age. This introduces new decision making obstacles to overcome. Children quickly decide that the eye for an eye” way is the most fair and equal way to solve problems. In asking children of this age the