Developmental (CLASSIC) - moral development - KOHLBERG Flashcards
define morality
having principles for how individuals ought to treat one another with respect to justice, others’ welfare and rights
freud’s psychoanalytic theory
freud believed personality comprises of three parts, the id, ego and superego
id - contains everything inherited, present from birth, instincts
ego - part of personality balancing out needs ofid and superego
superego - individuals described as moral beings
piaget’s cognitive theory
focused on individual’s morality from a social cognitive and social emotional perspective. To understand adult morality, Piaget believed morality develops in the child’s world and factors that contribute to central moral development are factors such as welfare, justice and rights
kohlberg’s stage theory of moral development
provided a systematic three level, six staged sequence of development which reflected changes in moral judgement throughout lifespan
level 1
pre conventional morality - up to age 10
stage 1, level 1
punishment and obedience. Rules are followed and children do what is right of fear of punishment (will i get into trouble?)
stage 2, level 1
instrumental/hedonistic orientation. Doing what is right for personal gain, perhaps a reward (what is in it for me?)
level 2
conventional morality - early teens
stage 3, level 2
conformity. Doing what is right according to the majority to ne good girl/boy (what will people think of me?)
stage 4, level 2
law and order. Doing what is right because it is your duty and helps society. Laws must be obeyed for the common good (no one is above the law)
level 3
post conventional morality - adulthood to the rest of life
stage 5, level 3
social contract v individual rights. Doing what is morally right even if it is against the law because the law is too restrictive (we should not just blindly obey)
stage 6, level 3
universal ethical principles orientation. Doing what is right because of our inner conscience which has absorbed the principles of justice, equality and the value of human life (what do my personal opinions and conscience tell me?)
aim
investigate development in moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood, and the extent to which these changes hold true in a range of cultural contexts
sample
75 American boys aged 10-16 who were followed at three year intervals through ages 22-28. Other cultures were used including Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey
research method
longitudinal study following same group of boys for 12 years re interviewed every 3-5 years
procedure
boys presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas taken from medieval literature covering 25 different moral themes. They were asked to solve and suggest what the character in the dilemma should do. Responses were all stage coded based on structure of their explanations
examples of moral themes
value of human life tested using questions like
aged 10 - is it better to save the life of one important person or a lot of unimportant people?
aged 13,16,20,24 - should the doctor mercy kill a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?
key findings
-participants showed progress through stages with increased age so morality changed the older they got
-participants progressed through the stages one at a time and always in the same order - suggesting moral development is fixed - once a person reached a particular stage they either stopped or continued to move upward
-not all participants progressed through all stages and reached stage 6
motive give for rule obedience or moral action
level 1
- obey rules to avoid punishment - how can i avoid punishment
- conform to obtain rewards, have favors returned - what is in it for me
motive give for rule obedience or moral action
level 2
- conform to avoid disapproval and dislike by others - i am a good boy
- conform to avoid censure by legitimate authorities and resultant guilt - i must respect others
motive give for rule obedience or moral action
level 3
- conform to maintain the respect of the impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare - there is a difference between the law and morality
6 conform to avoid self condemnation - all individuals have value, even those who do not value themselves
the value of human life
level 1
value of human life is confused with value of physical objects and is based on the social status or physical attributes of its possessor - saving lives of a whole bunch of people with a lot of furniture is better than saving he life of one person - 10 year old
the value of human life
level 2
the value of human life is based on the empathy and affection of family members and others towards its possessor - it might be best to kill the woman for her but not for her husband, you can become much for attached to a human than a pet, a pet just doesn’t have the same relationship as you would with a human - 16 year old
the value of human life
level 3
life is valued in terms of its relation to community welfare and in terms of life being a universal human right - if it is the woman’s own choice, i think there are certain rights which go along with being a human, i am human too and i have certain desires and wants for my life and so does everyone else, in that sense we are all equal
cross cultural research
Taiwanese in 10-13 age group were presented with a moral dilemma involving theft of food - a man’s wife is starving to death but the store owner won’t give the man any food unless he can pay which he can’t so should he break in and steal some food.
Young boys in Mexico and Turkey were tested in similar ways however there was no longitudinal follow up and was therefore instead cross sectional (only looking at snapshot of behavior)
cross cultural findings
- Taiwanese boys aged 10-13 tended to give classic stage 2 responses - based on instrumental gain and would for example suggest stealing was acceptable to feed his wife or she would die and he would have to pay for his funeral
- in Atayal (village in Taiwan) the same decision was based not on the cost of the funeral but because if the wife died the man would have no one to cook for him (funerals not such a big thing in this culture)
overall cross cultural findings
decision is still based on instrumental gain however instrumental gain is culture dependent
cross cultural findings + US
- Mexico and Taiwan showed same results as the US that development was a little slower
- At 16, stage 5 thinking was more prominent in US than Mexico or Taiwan
- In US stage 6 was rarely used, children didn’t seem to progress that far (neither did the other cultures)
-In US, Mexico and Taiwan,, middle class children were found to be more advanced in moral judgement than matched lower class children - No important differences found in development of moral thinking among Catholics, protestants, Jews, Buddhists, muslims or atheists
strength of longitudinal study
able to track and see how behaviour changes over time as you can see how each American boy progresses through each stage of morality and how this may improve over time and can therefore track the participant’s developmental changes
weakness of longitudinal study
may be extraneous variables which influence the changes in development over time like differences in upbringing and living circumstances which may impact the American boy’s morality levels rather than progressing through stages as they would have done
strength of cross cultural research
allows theory or findings to be applied to other cultures like the stages of moral development were studied using Taiwanese and Mexican children as well as American making the theory more useful in explaining children’s behaviours
weakness of cross cultural research
may be some cross cultural misunderstanding as it could be that the initial scenarios created from the medieval literature may be too focuses on cultures in the west or that there were some language barriers faced delivering the scenarios to the children so may potentially have an effect on the answers the children gave affecting the results
strength of data collected
qualitative data allows for great detail and insight into reasons behind behaviours, Kohlberg interested in listening to why children justified their moral actions which allows more valid conclusions formed as more detail about the decisions the children make justify theory better
weakness of data collected
qualitative data means it is open to subjective interpretation and misunderstanding, the researchers listening to the children’s explanations of the moral decisions they make could be perceived in a light which supports the theory of moral development, reducing validity of overall findings
strength of sample
mixture of cultures although majority were from America, some Taiwanese and Mexican participants were also included so results can be generalized to morality cross culturally rather than just western
weakness of sample
all male participants, all 75 were boys and this limits how much theory of morality can be generalized to girls of similar age. Majority of participants were also American as other cultures were not studied longitudinally which could limit how useful these participants results are
ecological validity
low as being faced with a moral dilemma which is presented to you and then arsed verbal questions on the scenario, is unlike real life dilemmas which have much more emotion involved and more consequences to the actions that somebody would make so you can’t assume that if the participants were put in the same scenario in real life they would act in the same way
low internal validity
self report method lacks internal validity as you can’ t be sure you are measuring true responses especially as participants get older they may respond in socially desirable ways as they are aware of what society would suggest as being moral when they actually believe alternative. Not able to form valid conclusions that the hypothetical dilemmas are truly measuring moral development
strength of reliability
highly standardized procedure as all participants received the same moral dilemmas with same questions so could be reused in other pieces of research or to test for external reliability
ethics
participants consented to take part and could have withdrawn from not returning for future research when recalled every 3 years so study is ethical
ethnocentrism
additional samples used from range of nationalities including Mexico, Taiwwan. Can argue he is not being ethnocentric and assuming all cultures will respond in similar ways or develop morality in similar was
concerns over dilemmas being more situated to a western culture and the fact that the longitudinal aspect of his research came from just an American sample
practical applications
moral dilemmas used and applied in variety of settings where ethical behaviour is considered important from education to defence and legal system to ensure that unethical or immoral people are not working in unsuitable settings. This can be in form of personality tests, scenarios and role play to see what responses people would give
