Piaget studied moral reasoning in children. Young children (from birth to about 2 or 3 years of age) begin to learn about right and wrong from their parents. During these early years, modeling is especially effective. Lacking cognitive sophistication, young children who have good relationships with their parents usually are impressed by what they see their parents doing.

The next phase of moral growth (about 2 to 6 years of age) reflects children’s growing cognitive maturity and their developing ability to decide what is right or wrong. As they approach school age, they begin to understand intent as another factor in doing wrong—for example, dropping and breaking a dish “on purpose” versus “by accident.”

As children move into middle childhood (about 6 to 12 years of age), they interact with their siblings in their family lives, with their schoolmates in classroom experiences, and with their friends in games and other social activities. Here they again encounter the reality of rules—but rules not established by parental edict. Consequently, they learn about making and following regulations as well as deriving insights into the children who don’t. School-aged children who are concrete thinkers tend to cling to absolute rules of right and wrong, whereas older school-aged children (10 to 13 years of age) begin to appreciate the principle behind the rules. For example, think about children of different ages playing a baseball game. A 9-year-old may declare that allowing the 5-year-old to stay at bat until he or she hits the ball is “unfair” and “breaking the rules,” whereas the 13-year-old pitcher looks at the discrepancy in skill between the 5- and 9-year-olds, and handicaps the younger player in an effort to “level the playing field” among players.