Developmental: Kohlberg + Lee et al

Question 1

What is the developmental key assumption

Answer 1

there are clear identifiable changes in behvaiour as people progress though stages in life from conception to death
the changes are influenced by biological stages or by our experiences of the environment
holistic as both nature nurture

Question 2

What does the behaviourist perspective agrue

Answer 2

we are all born as blank slates and behaviour is learnt
Classical + operant conditioning and SLT within behaviourism theories

Question 3

Explain how social learning theory shapes moral development

Answer 3

behaviour that is perceived and observed will be imitated
moral-good behaviour is modled by adult

Question 4

Explain how operant conditioning shapes moral development

Answer 4

behaviour that is presented to situation as an incentive will increase the likelihood of behaviour repeating
moral- good behaviour in line with morals is rewarded

Question 5

Explain the background to kohlbergs study

Answer 5

Piaget argued that children were focused on authority mandates and when older (after 8) become more autonomous, evaluating actions from set principles but rules can be modified to situation
this is called heteronomous stages of moral reasoning
kohlberg disagreed to this structural approach to moral development

Question 6

Explain Kohlbergs stages of moral reasoning

Answer 6

1) Pre conventional 4-10, focused on self interest
-punishment and obedience concern with rules
-instrumental relativist orientation(good behaviour is reward)
2) conventional, focused on society as a whole and approval
-good boy/girl orientation to please others
-law and order orientation
3) Post- conventional, focused on agreed rules also personal conscience
-social contract orientation of democracy
-universal principles orientation of individual rights

Question 7

What is the aim for Kohlbergs study

Answer 7

to investigate development in moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early childhood.
to assess the extent to which these changes hold true in a range of cultural context

Question 8

What research method was used in Kohlbergs study

Answer 8

A cross-cultural longitudinal study of the same group of boys for 12 years presenting moral dilemas to study their moral reasoning development
using the SELF report method through interviews with participants

Question 9

What was Kohlbergs sample

Answer 9

75 American boys between ages 10-16 followed at 3 year intervals through ages 22-28
also studied in boys from UK, canada, Mexico, turkey- this part was snapshot

Question 10

Explain how kohlberg used different cultures in his study

Answer 10

he used a cross-sectional method by comparing different groups of participants of different ages much quicker than longitudinal as no follow up in development for this boys, just compare data to ages, but high in extraneous variables like individual differneces

Question 11

Explain the results of Kohlbergs study

Answer 11

based on p’s responses to the moral dilemas he proposed that they went through a series of three levels and six stages
-participants progressed through the staged as they got older, some not reached the final stage by end of study
-stages were always passed through stage by stage and in the fixed order and p’s never went back to the previous stage

Question 12

Explain the cross-cultural findings observed by Kohlberg

Answer 12

at age 16 stage 5 was more prevalent in USA than Mexico or Taiwan and others reached it at a later stage
middle class children were found to be ore advanced in moral judgement than matched lower class children at the same age

Question 13

What are the conclusions of kohlbergs study

Answer 13

there is set developmental sequence in an individuals moral development
the set stages are not affected by varying factors, factors only affect the rate at which individuals progress through sequence

Question 14

Link Kohlbergs study to practical applications

Answer 14

Many uses to PSHE to Military training
in schools he applied the method so kids and teacher put in place a rule system ethically based for more cooperation

Question 15

Stength and weakness of research method used by Kohlberg

Answer 15

rich insightful data during interviews to explore
but high risk of social desirability so reduces internal validity and low ecalogical validity as p’s asked about hypothetical dilemmas

Question 16

Strength and weakness of data type in Kohlbergs study

Answer 16

participants give full answers to questions rather than just selecting from options so insightful qualitative data
but difficult to draw conclusions so reduced external relibility

Question 17

strength and weakness for Kohlbers sample

Answer 17

cross cultural sample so increased generalisability of results
but androcentric sample since all males cant generalise to females
and cant generalise findings to under 10

Question 18

strength and weakness of reliability in Kohlbergs study

Answer 18

high internal relibility due to standerdised procedure evrey 3 year interviews
low due to data is difficult to replicate is qualitative

Question 19

Is Kohlbers study ethnocentric or not

Answer 19

yes as the longitudinal study as its 75 american males but the cross sectional data was from other cultures to compare so balanced

Question 20

Explain the background of Lees study

Answer 20

Piaget concluded that children younger than 11 relied on How ‘big’ the lie was and whether or not they were punished
Wimmer disagree and says children younger have capability of moral judgement
Sweetser argues that the understanding of lying is influenced by cultural norms and moral values they are socialised to

Question 21

What is the aim of Lees study

Answer 21

to investigate cross-cultural differences in childrens understanding and moral valuations of lying
to compare chinease and canadian participants to stories that involved lying and truth telling prosocial and antisocial

Question 22

What was Lees research method

Answer 22

laboratory experiment using cross cultural method to compare aspects of cultures from canada and china chance of individual differences though

Question 23

Explain how Lee tried to reduce the individual differences across cultures

Answer 23

china- 120 children aged 7,9,11 Canada- 108 children aged 7,9,11 roughly equal numbers in each group
china- recruited from elementary chool in medicum sized city Canad- recruited from elementary school slightly smaller city but still both provincial capital
china- social class not know Canada- middle class families

Question 24

What were the IV/DV of Lees study

Answer 24

IV-
prosocial behviour/ truth telling story
antisocial behviour/ truth telling
prosocialbeviour/ lie telling
antisocial behviour/ lie telling
DV-
rating given to the story characters deed
rating given to what the character said

Question 25

What type of research method did Lee use in his study

Answer 25

Quisi experiment as you cant manioulate a persons opinion of turth and lies
data was collected by self report method

Question 26

Explain the procedure of lees study

Answer 26

chinese children randomly allocated to social or physical story conditions, read four scenarios individually and were told to identify a rating of good-very good or naught to very naughty
producing qualitative data

Question 27

Explain the results of Lees work

Answer 27

overall children from both cultures rated the prosocial behviours similarly, however chinease childrens ratings became less positive as age increases for prosocial truth telling
overall canadian children rated lie telling negatively but as age increased ratings became less -ve, but chinese children rating it more positive as age increases ]
7 year old- 25% for positve lying
9 year old- 43% for positive lying
11 year old- 70% for positve lying- more modest

Question 28

Explain the conclusions of Lees study

Answer 28

chinese children rate truth telling in prosocial situations less positively and lie telling less negitively than canadians, showing moreal reasoning is effected by culture and socio-cultural factors become stronger as we age

Question 29

Does Lees work support Kohlbergs work

Answer 29

no since it contradicts his findings as evidence supports that cultural norms affect development and challenges that development follows the same sequence
it shows us that development is not determined simply by age

Question 30

Assess the reliability of Lees study

Answer 30

the standardised procedure and scenarios make the study easy to replicate. Also, giving children four stories allowed Lee to see whether consistent responses are given in each of the different stories. If so results can be considered to be reliable.
One issue in this study was ensuring that testing conditions were consistent (reliable) across all participants as they were tested individually

Question 31

Asses the validity of Lees study

Answer 31

Counterbalancing to reduce order effects, matching age and gender in the different groups and randomly allocating participants to groups were all techniques used to reduce confounding variables and therefore increase internal validity.

Question 32

Assess the sample of Lees study

Answer 32

Large sample size - makes the results more generalisable, as anomalies will have less effect on the overall mean scores Researchers controlled the individualist issue by also looking at a collectivist culture
Sample can be seen as not representative of all communities The industrialised environments issue was not controlled , as all the children came from urban rather than rural backgrounds

Question 33

Link Lees study to debates

Answer 33

SITUATIONAL EXPLANATION- Explanations based on influences in the environment Lee offers great support for a situational explanation because the study emphasises social and cultural influences. NATURE AND NURTURE- Lee et al. suggest that nurture has the greater role (i.e. social and cultural influences.
DETERMINIST APPROACH Lee et al. argue that social and cultural factors determine how moral development progresses.
USEFULNESS The research questions whether children have a mature understanding of right and wrong and therefore may not be reliable witnesses in court