<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings about a topic . Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style . (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood . In the field of moral development, morality is defined as principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to justice, others' welfare, and rights . In order to investigate how individuals understand morality, it is essential to measure their beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to moral understanding . The field of moral development studies the role of peers and parents in facilitating moral development, the role of conscience and values, socialization and cultural influences, empathy and altruism, and positive development . The interest in morality spans many disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, biology, and political science) and specializations within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, and cultural). Moral developmental psychology research focuses on questions of origins and change in morality across the lifespan . </P> <P> The founder of psychoanalysis, Freud (1962), proposed the existence of a tension between the needs of society and the individual . According to Freud, moral development proceeds when the individual's selfish desires are repressed and replaced by the values of important socializing agents in one's life (for instance, one's parents). A proponent of behaviorism, Skinner (1972) similarly focused on socialization as the primary force behind moral development . In contrast to Freud's notion of a struggle between internal and external forces, Skinner focused on the power of external forces (reinforcement contingencies) to shape an individual's development . While both Freud and Skinner focused on the external forces that bear on morality (parents in the case of Freud, and behavioral contingencies in the case of Skinner), Piaget (1965) focused on the individual's construction, construal, and interpretation of morality from a social - cognitive and social - emotional perspective . </P> <P> To understand adult morality, Piaget believed that it was necessary to study both how morality manifests in the child's world as well as the factors that contribute to the emergence of central moral concepts such as welfare, justice, and rights . Interviewing children using the Clinical Interview Method, Piaget (1965) found that young children were focused on authority mandates, and that with age children become autonomous, evaluating actions from a set of independent principles of morality . Kohlberg (1953) expanded upon Piagetian notions of moral development . While they both viewed moral development as a result of a deliberate attempt to increase the coordination and integration of one's orientation to the world, Kohlberg's studies and research provided a systematic 3 - level, 6 - stage sequence reflecting changes in moral judgment throughout the lifespan . Specifically, Kohlberg argued that development proceeds from a selfish desire to avoid punishment (personal), to a concern for group functioning (societal), to a concern for the consistent application of universal ethical principles (moral). Furthermore, Kohlberg believed that in order for a child to advance to a more developed level of morality, he or she must develop an equivalent level of intellectual ability . In the words of Kohlberg, "The child can internalize the moral values of his parents and culture and make them his own only as he comes to relate these values to a comprehended social order and to his own goals as a social self". Although Kohlberg is praised for his work there have been many questions raised whether or not it is 100% accurate . Many people believe his six - stage theory was sexist because only males were in the test group for this study . Regardless, Kolberg's research cemented his expanded ideas on moral development as legitimate in the field of developmental psychology . </P>

Who are the leading proponents of a developmental stage theory of children’s moral development