10: Moral Development

Question 1

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Approach to Moral Development

Answer 1

• Idea that superego develops as a result of identification with same sex parent
• argues that fatherless children grow up less genderised - not true

Question 2

Piaget’s Cognitive Development

Answer 2

Proposed that children transition from the morality of constraint (heteronomous - imposed by others) to the morality of cooperation (autonomous - self imposed) at 7 years.

Question 3

Piaget - Intention v consequences

Answer 3

Argued that children initially believed that the morally wrong thing had the worse consequence, and only start to take into account intentions later.

Question 4

Methodological issues with Piaget’s approach

Answer 4

• Had confounding variables (only considered bad intention/small negative outcome and good intention/large negative outcome)

Question 5

Kohlberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory of Moral Judgment

Answer 5

• emphasised moral reasoning over the ‘answer’
• used the Heinz dilemma
• argued that there are 3 basic stages for moral reasoning
  1. Fear of punishment or desire for gain
  2. Right and wrong are defined by convention and what people say
  3. Internalisation of personal moral values

Question 6

Stages in Kohlberg’s theory

Answer 6

LEVEL 1: PRECONVENTIONAL MORALITY
Stage 1: avoid punishment
Stage 2: gain reward
LEVEL 2: CONVENTIONAL MORALITY
Stage 3: 'good boy' and 'good girl' morality
Stage 4: authority and law morality
LEVEL 3: POSTCONVENTIONAL MORALITY
Stage 5: social contract morality
Stage 6: based on abstract ethical principles

Question 7

Trends in thinking

Answer 7

Levels 1/2 decrease
Levels 5/6 increase
Levels 3/4 - dominant and asymptotes at 16

Question 8

How does Turiel distinguish between moral rules and social conventional rules?

Answer 8

Moral rules - universal

Social-conventional rules - rules that are appropriate in various contexts/don’t transfer between cultures

Question 9

Reciprocal determinism

Answer 9

Bandura

- behaviour is an interplay between personal factors and situational aspects

Question 10

Major modes of influence in Bandura’s socio-cognitive model?

Answer 10

1. Modelling
2. Enactive experience
3. Direct tuition

Question 11

According to Banduras, how do we regulate our behaviour?

Answer 11

Our moral standards provide guidance which our self sanctions follow.

Question 12

Hoffman’s theory of morality

Answer 12

Emotions are intertwined with moral development (sympathy & empathy)

Question 13

How do children conceptualise lying? Compare younger children to older children

Answer 13

• Any false statement (regardless of whether person stating it knows it’s false) - overinclusive
• younger children’s lying is regulated by anticipation of punishment whereas older children’s lying is regulated by anticipation of guilt
• lies about misdeeds are seen as v bad, interpersonal lies are seen less bad

Question 14

Compare how children view as they age

Answer 14

• Initially, a lie is a lie

- then, as they grow prosocial lies become more acceptable and antisocial lies become less acceptable

Question 15

Moral disengagement

Answer 15

Process of selectively switching off internal control mechanisms to reduce the discomfort and guilt felt when moral standards are being violated
- used to avoid

Question 16

How can self sanctions be disengaged?

Answer 16

• moral justification
• euphemistic language
• advantageous comparison
• displacement of responsibility
• diffusion of responsibility
• distorting consequences of an action
• dehumanising
• victim blaming

Question 17

What did Osofsky, Bandura and Zimbardo find?

Answer 17

• execution teams engaged in more moral disengagement

- over time, people in support roles morally disengaged to avoid stress

Question 18

What is the research on moral disengagement and aggression?

Answer 18

• Children who scored highly on moral disengagement were more aggressive over time than children with lower moral disengagement (Barchia & Bussey)

Question 19

Collective moral disengagement

Answer 19

moral disengagement at a group level which includes justificatory beliefs that are shares by a relevant group
- predicts bullying beyond individual level moral disengagement (gini, Pozzoli & Bussey)

Question 20

Origins of moral disengagement

Answer 20

• justifying behaviour to others to avoid external sanctions

- avoidance of self sanctions & negative self perception

Question 21

How do parents influence the use of moral disengagement?

Answer 21

Parents want to instill moral values in children but also want to protect child from forming negative self views
- will often justify behaviour for them and teach children moral disengagement