Chapter 4 Flashcards
Biological Factors
Behavior depends on an individual’s biological
predispositions.
Learning Theories
Behavior depends on the rewards an individual has received.
– Modeling Theory
– Reinforcement Theory
Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory
Emotional, physical, and cognitive development happen in stages
Biological Factors (1 of 2)
Links between brain and predisposition to certain behaviors.
Genetics plays a role in determining schizophrenia, autism, dyslexia, learning disabilities, gambling addictions, and criminality
Including such differences as whether someone is introverted/extroverted, neurotic/stable, etc
Shermer and Evolution
- Shermer argues that traits such as sympathy, fairness, self-control, and duty are inherited because they are adaptive.
That over millions of generations human groups
evolved these traits because they helped them survive
And that we are hardwired for these feelings and emotions through genetic selection
The Moral Molecule
Research focuses on hormones, including oxytocin, serotonin, and testosterone.
Paul Zak focuses on the importance of oxytocin going so far as to call it the “moral molecule”
It is released in pregnant woman and when nursing
It is also released when people pet their dogs(yeah!), have sex, or hug someone.
The brain releases it when we feel trust and safety and promotes altruistic reciprocity
Oxytocin
People that do not have the receptors to receive it are at best selfish and at worse psychopaths.
Churchland (2011) explains that the hardwiring of the brain promotes bonding and empathy, through oxytocin.
And that it is the fundamental building block of all moral reasoning.
Serotonin
Enhancing serotonin has been shown to make subjects more likely to judge harmful acts as forbidden, and increased subject’s aversion to blaming others
Serotonin can affect both moral judgment and moral behavior
Testosterone, men and women
Testosterone has long been identified as being
associated with aggression.
Over 70 studies have shown that men are more likely to cheat, be more antisocial, commit more serious types of offenses, and have more serious childhood conduct disorders
There are also sex differences in delinquency, school performance, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and attention deficit disorders
Biological Factors (2 of 2)
Frontal lobes of the brain implicated in:
– Feelings of empathy
– Shame
– Moral reasoning
individuals with frontal-lobe damage may display related to unethical behaviors.
Research shows moral decision-making seems to take place in different areas of brain.
The Frontal Lobes
The frontal lobes of the brain are implicated in not only reasoning but also feelings of empathy, shame and moral reasoning.
Phineas Gage.
People with frontal lobe damage display unethical behaviors including increased impulsiveness, decreased attention span,
tendency toward rude, unrestrained, tactless behavior, and a tendency to be able to follow instructions
Emotions and Rationality
Jonathon Haidt (2001) decribed the relationship
between emotions and rationality as a rider on an elephant,
With the elephant representing the emotional part of human reactions and choices and the rider representing cognitive, rational, ethical decision making.
Learning Theory (premise)
Premise: All human behavior is learned; therefore, ethics is a function of learning rather than reasoning.
Children learn what they are taught.
Including morals and values and well as behavior in general.
Modeling
Imitating the behavior of others
* Parents and other adults provide role models for children through their behavior
* Religion??
* Sports team??
* Politics??
* Smoking/drinking?
* Violence?
* Winning sports teams??
* Models and the “cool kids” ??
Reinforcement
A behavior that is rewarded will be repeated
After enough reinforcement, the behavior becomes permanent
The individual develops values consistent with the behavior (cognitive dissonance)
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Piaget believed individuals go through stages of
cognitive, or intellectual, growth that is related to their moral awareness.
He believed that children move from egocentrism to cooperativeness as they lean to play with others
To eventual organized play and further development
Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory (1 of 3)
Premise: Moral development, like physical growth, occurs in stages.
- They involve qualitative differences in modes of thinking, as opposed to quantitative differences.
- Each stage forms a structured whole; cognitive development and moral growth are integrated.
- Stages form an invariant sequence; no one bypasses any stage, and not all people develop to the higher stages.
- Stages are hierarchical integrations.
-With each stage moving away from pure egoism toward altruism
Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory (2 of 3) (Pre-conventional)
Approach to moral issues motivated purely by personal interests
Conventional Level
Approach to moral issues motivated by socialization
Post-Conventional Level
Approach to moral issues motivated by desire to discover universal good beyond own self or own society.
Stage 7
Kolberg advanced the possibility of a seventh stage,
An orientation of cosmic or religious thinking
This stage focuses on “agape” a nonexclusive love and acceptance of the cosmos and one’s place in it.
Recognition Tests
Tests have been developed to measure what moral stage a person is in
Workgroup and Organizational
Influence (1 of 2)
individuals sometimes behave in ways that are
contrary to their belief systems when exposed to external influences.
Bandura’s mechanisms:
– Moral justification
– Euphemistic labeling
– Advantageous comparison
– Displacement of responsibility
– Diffusion of responsibility
– Disregard or distortion of the consequences
– Dehumanization
Bandura (2002)
Bandura sees social and moral maturity as being affected by outside forces such as work groups and organizations.
He argues that our ethical systems can be turned off, leading to inhumane acts and immorality through mechanisms
Bandura, Cont. Bandura’s mechanisms that could be used to take away our
ethics were: Moral justification:
An appeal to a more important end to
justify the wrong act. Such as we must create martial law to stop terror. The end justifies the means
Bandura’s mechanisms that could be used to take away our ethics were: Euphemistic labeling
sanitizing language, such as the term
“collateral damage” for killing civilians in times of war
– Advantageous comparison
– Displacement of responsibility
– Diffusion of responsibility
– Disregard or distortion of the consequences
– Dehumanization
Advantageous comparison:
“we’ve killed civilians but have never used chemical weapons against them”
Displacement of responsibility:
“I was only following orders” Or “I had to do it because the rules say so”
Diffusion of responsibility
Mob actions or the idea that “everyone does it”
Disregard or distortion of the consequences:
e.g. when a criminal says “the insurance will take care of it” or a prosecutor excuses misconduct by a belief that all defendants are guilty.
Dehumanization:
e.g. the use of terms such as “gooks, slant-eyes, pigs, wetbacks.
Police use many such terms to describe people in high crime neighborhoods, “infestation, thugs, animals, savages”
Rhwanda
Bounded ethicality:
cognitive structuring whereby
decisions are interpreted using variables that do not include ethics.
E.g. the Ford Pinto Case
the Ford executives decided that it was more
profitable to allow the public to buy a car that they knew would kill millions of people than to recall it and warn the public
Ethical Fading
Ethical people find themselves in organizations that concentrate on other factors besides ethics so that morals fade over time.
Motivated Blindness
Occurs when there is real and substantial pressures to ignore ethical issues
E.g. when mortgage brokers approved mortgages for people who could not afford them.
Ethical Organizations
Studies show that strong ethics result in less pressure to perform unethical acts, less misconduct, and less retaliation against whistleblowers.
Procedural Justice at Organizations
Research has found that when police officers
perceived departmental investigations of citizen
complaints were conducted in a fair and objective manner, they had a positive attitude toward the department, regardless of the outcome.
Unfair policies create perceptions of uncertainty among officers
Organizational Ethics, Cont.
Officers who perceived that organizational procedures were fair were less likely to engage in police misconduct.
When police officers perceived a disciplinary system as unfair, it led to negative behaviors such as adhering to the “code of silence”.
Ethics Training
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: held CEOs responsible for the actions of their employees.
This spurred the emergence of ethics courses for business and law enforcement
Most professional schools require at least one class in professional ethics
Look! You are in one now
Leadership
For a leader to influence ethical behavior among employees, they must act ethically themselves
I.e. if the leader is unethical it breeds immoral behavior
Societal and Cultural Influences
Organizational culture is subject to external influences.
External influences are both objective (e.g., laws and regulations that constrain the organization), and normative (public belief systems).
If the public protests then the immoral way the
organization behaves cannot stand
Sanctuary Cities
Only the federal government has the right to enforce immigration laws
Immigration, like coining money is 100% under the powers of the federal govt.
The Supreme Court has even ruled that police officers cannot be required to inquire as to immigration status and arrest illegal immigrants
