Adolescence and Moral Development Two major reasons exist for studying moral development and during adolescence. First, congnitive changes that occur during adolescence are related to moral develpment. formal operational thinking allows the adolescent to interpret the social environment in new and different ways. Second, because adolescents are capable of devising anew and idealisftic social orders to which all are expected to conform, we may view whtn as moral philosophers. A number of researchers have noted …showed first 75 words of 240 total…

…showed last 75 words of 240 total…left to philosophers, who evolved three major doctrines of morality, each of which major doctrines of morality, each of which is represented incontemporary psychological theirizing. the "doctrine of the original sin" asumed that parental intervention was necessary to save the child's soul. Cureent-day vestiges of this viewpoint may be found in theories of personality structures and the develpment of the conscience, or superego, which argue that the child internalizes parental standards of right and wrong.