Values Acquisition and Moral Development: an Integration of Freudian, Eriksonian, Kohlbergian and Gilliganian Viewpoints

Consider the following important questions: Should values be transmitted or developed? As children grow up, what, if anything, should change in values acquisition? How important are locus of control issues in moral development? and Why might process versus product elements be crucial in the development of values? One key element missing in the values literature is a model that integrates major theoretical viewpoints and has the potential to guide teachers, parents, and others who work with children and adolescents. This paper will offer a synthesis of the theories offered by Sigmund Freud (personality elements of the id, ego, and superego), Erik Erikson (identity formation), Lawrence Kohlberg (moral development), and Carol Gilligan (female versus male moral development) in order to explain how values are acquired and maintained, moral decisions are made, and mental health is established and perpetuated. This two-stage model will highlight how the powerful socialization process initially claims a powerful influence upon children and then around adolescence an entirely new cognitive developmental moral decision-making process is theoretically available to be used to sustain the individual throughout adulthood. It is crucial to understand that this new state is not inevitable or guaranteed in any way, since many adults continue to function upon values established during childhood with little or no reflection upon or modification of these values. The psychological topics of values and moral development in children as they grow into adulthood have long captured the interest of parents, educators, religious leaders, politicians, youth group workers, and concerned citizens. Such topics have attracted the serious interest of prominent theorists, researchers, scholars, and practitioners. Lapsley (1996) suggested that "the study of moral functioning has been one of the most enduring and central of all the various research enterprises to be found within the scholarly psychological literature" (p.xiii). Wynne (1986) suggested that “the transmission of moral values has been the dominant educational concern of most cultures throughout