Kohlberg's theory Flashcards
3 domains in which moral development takes place
affective
behavioural
cognitive
affective
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
behavioural
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
cognitive
how you reason about moral issues – most influential work by Piaget and Kohlberg
when can children be said to live in a world of moral issues?
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
basic/primary emotions
present in early infancy/birth
Inc. surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust
self-conscious emotions
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
model of emotional development
see notes
affective aspect of morality
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
are shame and guilt different?
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
types of eliciting events
(e.g., cheating, stealing, lying, disobedience etc. but these types of events aren’t differentially associated with shame or guilt only)
public v private nature of transgression
(shame is linked to public exposure and disapproval while guilt to a private conscience experience – but there was no empirical support)
emotion eliciting event due to self/behav
(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)
hide v amend
shame results in defensiveness, distancing and separation – guilt results in constructive actions, apologies, undoing the consequences of wrong behaviour
empathy v distress
shame results in egocentric (self-focus) distress while guilt result in empathetic concern and perspective taking
constructive v destructive anger
shame results in anger, hostility, neg consequences for themselves and for their r’ship while guilt results in nonhostile discussion and direct corrective action
see notes for piaget
.
Kohlberg
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
level 1
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
level 1 stage 1
punishment and obedience orientation: Heteronomous morality
- Egocentric deference to superior power/prestige, and avoidance of punishment
level 1 stage 1 pro
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.
level 1 stage 1 con
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.
level 1 stage 2
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
level 1 stage 2 pro
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.
level 1 stage 2 con
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.
level 2
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
level 2 stage 3
good boy/girl orientation: interpersonal normative morality
- Orientation to approval and to pleasing and helping others
- Actions are judged primarily by intention
level 2 stage 3 pro
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.
level 2 stage 3 con
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.
level 2 stage 4
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
level 2 stage 4 pro
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.
level 2 stage 4 con
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
level 3
• Post-conventional morality
- Stage 5 – social contract orientation
- Stage 6 – universal ethics orientation
level 3 stage 5
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.
level 3 stage 5 pro
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.
level 3 stage 5 con
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
level 3 stage 6
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.
level 3 stage 6 pro
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.
level 3 stage 6 con
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.
how can one promote moral development?
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!
prosocial tendencies in infancy - recent work by Bloom, Wynn and Hamlin
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.”
5 phases of main exp
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
