Chapter 4

Question 1

Biological Factors

Answer 1

Behavior depends on an individual’s biological
predispositions.

Question 2

Learning Theories

Answer 2

Behavior depends on the rewards an individual has received.
– Modeling Theory
– Reinforcement Theory

Question 3

Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory

Answer 3

Emotional, physical, and cognitive development happen in stages

Question 4

Biological Factors (1 of 2)

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Shermer and Evolution

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

The Moral Molecule

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Oxytocin

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Serotonin

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Testosterone, men and women

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Biological Factors (2 of 2)

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

The Frontal Lobes

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Emotions and Rationality

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Learning Theory (premise)

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Modeling

Answer 14

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” ??

Question 15

Reinforcement

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory (1 of 3)

Answer 17

Premise: Moral development, like physical growth, occurs in stages.

1. They involve qualitative differences in modes of thinking, as opposed to quantitative differences.
2. Each stage forms a structured whole; cognitive development and moral growth are integrated.
3. Stages form an invariant sequence; no one bypasses any stage, and not all people develop to the higher stages.
4. Stages are hierarchical integrations.
   -With each stage moving away from pure egoism toward altruism

Question 18

Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory (2 of 3) (Pre-conventional)

Answer 18

Approach to moral issues motivated purely by personal interests

Question 19

Conventional Level

Answer 19

Approach to moral issues motivated by socialization

Question 20

Post-Conventional Level

Answer 20

Approach to moral issues motivated by desire to discover universal good beyond own self or own society.

Question 21

Stage 7

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Recognition Tests

Answer 22

Tests have been developed to measure what moral stage a person is in

Question 23

Workgroup and Organizational
Influence (1 of 2)

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Bandura (2002)

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Bandura, Cont. Bandura’s mechanisms that could be used to take away our
ethics were: Moral justification:

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Bandura’s mechanisms that could be used to take away our ethics were: Euphemistic labeling

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Advantageous comparison:

Answer 27

“we’ve killed civilians but have never used chemical weapons against them”

Question 28

Displacement of responsibility:

Answer 28

“I was only following orders” Or “I had to do it because the rules say so”

Question 29

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 29

Mob actions or the idea that “everyone does it”

Question 30

Disregard or distortion of the consequences:

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

Dehumanization:

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Bounded ethicality:

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Ethical Fading

Answer 33

Ethical people find themselves in organizations that concentrate on other factors besides ethics so that morals fade over time.

Question 34

Motivated Blindness

Answer 34

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.

Question 35

Ethical Organizations

Answer 35

Studies show that strong ethics result in less pressure to perform unethical acts, less misconduct, and less retaliation against whistleblowers.

Question 36

Procedural Justice at Organizations

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Organizational Ethics, Cont.

Answer 37

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”.

Question 38

Ethics Training

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Leadership

Answer 39

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

Question 40

Societal and Cultural Influences

Answer 40

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

Question 41

Sanctuary Cities

Answer 41

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