Kohlberg's theory

Question 1

3 domains in which moral development takes place

Answer 1

affective

behavioural

cognitive

Question 2

affective

Answer 2

feelings about moral issues, e.g., things like – feeling good, feeling bad, righteous indignation, feeling sorry, upset, virtuous, etc. – associated with Freud – the superego (development of conscience) – also SLT – imitation and assimilation of external value, standards and ideals

Question 3

behavioural

Answer 3

what people actually do when confronted with a moral issue or dilemmas – early work (in 1920s by Hartshorne and May) – more recent work by Talwar and Lee and others

Question 4

cognitive

Answer 4

how you reason about moral issues – most influential work by Piaget and Kohlberg

Question 5

when can children be said to live in a world of moral issues?

Answer 5

The young infant, whatever it does, will not do anything that we could consider ‘naughty’/’bad’

The development of emotions, self-awareness and awareness of others is discussed with particular reference to 2 broad types of emotions – basic/primary emotions and self-conscious emotions

Question 6

basic/primary emotions

Answer 6

present in early infancy/birth

Inc. surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust

Question 7

self-conscious emotions

Answer 7

develop after first 6 months

Inc. embarrassment, envy, consciousness, pride, shame, guilt, empathy

Thought that full range of adult emotions present by 3 years, though may develop more subtle manifestations thereafter

Question 8

model of emotional development

Answer 8

see notes

Question 9

affective aspect of morality

Answer 9

Shame and guilt are common mechanisms for internalisation of social and moral values and standards

They play a key role in child’s interactions with others

Often appear in similar situations

Are involved in self-evaluation (e.g., the person failed social standards) – related to the self

Require self-reflection

Provide feedback on social acceptability

Question 10

are shame and guilt different?

Answer 10

Types of eliciting events

Public v private nature of transgression

Emotion eliciting event due to self/behaviour

Hide v amend

Empathy v distress

Constructive v destructive anger

Question 11

types of eliciting events

Answer 11

(e.g., cheating, stealing, lying, disobedience etc. but these types of events aren’t differentially associated with shame or guilt only)

Question 12

public v private nature of transgression

Answer 12

(shame is linked to public exposure and disapproval while guilt to a private conscience experience – but there was no empirical support)

Question 13

emotion eliciting event due to self/behav

Answer 13

(shame associated with a neg evaluation of the global self while guilt associated with neg evaluation of specific behaviour – supported by experiments and correlational studies)

Question 14

hide v amend

Answer 14

shame results in defensiveness, distancing and separation – guilt results in constructive actions, apologies, undoing the consequences of wrong behaviour

Question 15

empathy v distress

Answer 15

shame results in egocentric (self-focus) distress while guilt result in empathetic concern and perspective taking

Question 16

constructive v destructive anger

Answer 16

shame results in anger, hostility, neg consequences for themselves and for their r’ship while guilt results in nonhostile discussion and direct corrective action

Question 17

see notes for piaget

Answer 17

.

Question 18

Kohlberg

Answer 18

American psych born in NY in 1927

Known for theory of stages of moral development

Earned bachelor’s degree at Uni of Chicago in one year and served as professor at universities of Chicago and Harvard

Committed suicide at 59

Question 19

level 1

Answer 19

Pre-conventional morality

• Stage 1 - obedience /punishment orientation
• Stage 2 – self-interest orientation

At this level the child is responsive to cultural rules and evaluative labels (e.g. right, wrong, good, bad, naughty, etc.) but views them in terms of pleasant consequences of action, or in terms of the physical power of those who impose the rules

Question 20

level 1 stage 1

Answer 20

punishment and obedience orientation: Heteronomous morality

- Egocentric deference to superior power/prestige, and avoidance of punishment

Question 21

level 1 stage 1 pro

Answer 21

It isn’t really bad to take it – he did ask to pay for it first. He wouldn’t do any other damage or take anything else and the drug he’d take is only worth £200, he’s not really taking a £2000 drug.

Question 22

level 1 stage 1 con

Answer 22

Heinz doesn’t have any permission to take the drug. He can’t just go and break the door down. He’d be a bad criminal doing all that damage. That drug is worth a lot of money and stealing anything so expensive would really be a big crime.

Question 23

level 1 stage 2

Answer 23

naively egoistic orientation: Instrumental morality

• Right actions are those which are instrumental in satisfying one’s own needs and desires and those of others in so far as one cares about the others
• The intentions of others start to be taken into account

Question 24

level 1 stage 2 pro

Answer 24

Heinz isn’t really doing any harm to the chemist, and he can always pay him back. If he doesn’t really want to lose his wife, he should take the drug because it’s the only thing that will work.

Question 25

level 1 stage 2 con

Answer 25

The chemist isn’t wrong or bad, he just wants to make a profit like everyone else. That’s what you’re in business for, to make money. Business is business.

Question 26

level 2

Answer 26

Conventional morality - Stage 3 – social conformity orientation - Stage 4 – law and order orientation At this level the child/adolescent/adult is oriented actively towards maintaining the expectations of their family, peers, etc. as a value in its own right, and with justifying these expectations as such People’s intentions are imp

Question 27

level 2 stage 3

Answer 27

good boy/girl orientation: interpersonal normative morality - Orientation to approval and to pleasing and helping others - Actions are judged primarily by intention

Question 28

level 2 stage 3 pro

Answer 28

Stealing is bad but this is a bad situation. Heinz isn’t doing wrong in trying to save his wife; he has no choice but to take the drug. He is only doing something that is natural for a good husband to do. You can’t blame him for doing something out of love for his wife. You’d blame him if he didn’t love his wife enough to save her.

Question 29

level 2 stage 3 con

Answer 29

If Heinz’s wife dies he can’t be blamed in these circumstances. You can’t say he is a heartless husband just because he won’t commit a crime. The chemist is the selfish and heartless one in this situation. Heinz tried to do everything he really could.

Question 30

level 2 stage 4

Answer 30

law and order orientation: social system morality - Orientation to ‘doing one’s duty’ and to showing respect for authority and maintaining the social order for its own sake - People’s intentions are imp but the obligation to obey the law and support social order may override them

Question 31

level 2 stage 4 pro

Answer 31

The chemist is leading the wrong kind of life if he just lets someone die. You can’t let someone die like that, so it’s Heinz’s duty to save her. But Heinz can’t just go around breaking laws and let it go at that – he must pay the chemist back and he must take his punishment for stealing.

Question 32

level 2 stage 4 con

Answer 32

I can see the good that would come from illegally taking the drug, but the ends don’t justify the means. You can often find a good action behind illegal action. You can’t say Heinz would be completely wrong to steal the drug, but even these circumstances don’t make it right

Question 33

level 3

Answer 33

• Post-conventional morality - Stage 5 – social contract orientation - Stage 6 – universal ethics orientation

Question 34

level 3 stage 5

Answer 34

Social contract orientation: Human rights and social welfare morality - Right actions are usually those which society agrees upon, but there is a clear awareness that values, opinions and laws are relative and contain an arbitrary element, and can be changed – particularly with the approval of those who are affected by the values and laws. Duty is defined in terms of contract, general avoidance of violation of the will or rights of others, and majority good and welfare.

Question 35

level 3 stage 5 pro

Answer 35

Before you can say stealing is wrong you’ve got to really think about this whole situation. Of course, the laws are quite clear about breaking into a store. And even worse, Heinz would know there were no legal grounds for his actions. Yet, I can see why it would be reasonable for anybody in this kind of situation to steal the drug.

Question 36

level 3 stage 5 con

Answer 36

I can see the good that would come from illegally taking the drug, but the ends don’t justify the means. You can often find a good action behind illegal action. You can’t say Heinz would be completely wrong to steal the drug, but even these circumstances don’t make it right

Question 37

level 3 stage 6

Answer 37

Conscience or principle orientation - Orientation to universal ethical principles over and above existing laws – the self-chosen ethical principles of one’s own conscience. In recent times this stage has been dropped.

Question 38

level 3 stage 6 pro

Answer 38

Where the choice must be made between disobeying a law and saving a human life, the higher principle of preserving life makes it morally right – not just understandable – to steal the drug.

Question 39

level 3 stage 6 con

Answer 39

I’d assume that the drug would be scarce and that there wouldn’t be enough to go around to everybody. Heinz ought to act, not according to his feelings for his wife or for what is legal, but according to what he conceives an ideally just person would do in this situation.

Question 40

how can one promote moral development?

Answer 40

Kohlberg believed that children need to be more active if they are to reorganise their thinking He organised discussion groups in which children had to solve moral issues Arguments were one level above the child’s current level of competence Much of discussion left to students themselves Kohlberg created cog conflict (Kohlberg-Blatt method) Child takes one view Becomes confused by discrepant info Resolves confusion by forming more advanced and comprehensive position Dialectic process of Socratic teaching!

Question 41

prosocial tendencies in infancy - recent work by Bloom, Wynn and Hamlin

Answer 41

Climber = circle with eyes/trying to reach the top (first row) Helper = pusher upper Hindered = pusher downer Control conditions = inanimate object/lacked eyes (second and third rows) “Three-month-old Infants preferred a character that helped the Climber up the hill over one that pushed the Climber down, but did not prefer a character that pushed an inanimate object up the hill over one that pushed it down.”

Question 42

5 phases of main exp

Answer 42

Toddlers were (a) introduced to a puppet and (b) given eight treats. Then, in counterbalanced order, each toddler (c) watched as the experimenter gave one treat to the puppet, (d) was asked to give a “found” treat to the puppet, and (e) was asked to give one of their own treats to the puppet. Happiness displayed in each preliminary study and main exp condition