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competencies and they tend to include more social
references about friends. They tend to be full of virtuosity.

Moral Development

Morality is related to the capacity to
take responsibility for one's own
actions. Moral reasoning develops from
infancy continuing to adulthood. It

begins with a concrete here and now thinking and moves to

abstract perspective taking. The development of abstract
thinking leads the way to making decisions for the greater
good (McGrath and Brown, 2008). Early childhood is
controlled by reinforcement, punishment, direct
instruction and modeling. These influences are provided by
significant others and are at first experienced as an external
standard that a child follows. As time goes on, children
begin to internalize rules of behavior and their behavior
comes under personal control through evaluations of self-
reactions.

Moral development is also linked to distinguishing the truth
from a lie. As noted by Talwar and Lee (2001) more 7 year
olds will lie than for instance 3 year olds, because 7 year-
olds can contemplate potential negative consequences of
being impulsively honest and they aim to avoid aversive
personal outcomes. Lying is an expected normative action
for all people. Taking credit for success and blaming others
for failure maintains a positive self-view.