Moral Development Flashcards

1
Q

Moral Views of the Infant

A

Three Traditional Views
1. Innately evil
- Society must stamp out with proper upbringing

  1. Innately good
    - Society corrupts
  2. Amoral
    - No sense of morality at all; must learn it all

Recent Frameworks
1. Evolutionary psychology
- Our moral sense has evolved
- Has adaptive value - inborn altruistic tendencies inspire cooperation; inborn moral judgements keep bad guys in check
- Universal constraints on what counts as good/bad reflect this common adapted base

  1. Cultural psychology
    - No universal constraints; our culture define what’s moral
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2
Q

Moral Reasoning

A

What makes a behavior ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’ is often not its face value, but the underlying INTENTIONS and MOTIVATIONS
- Understanding moral reasoning is the key to studying morality
- No morality without explicit reasoning skills

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3
Q

Piaget

A
  • Believed morality begins with rigid acceptance of rules and authority
  • Bad = against the rules; punishable
  • Eventually realize rules are modifiable
  • Interactions with peers (vs adults) critical to this change - “morality of cooperation” versus “morality of constraint”
  • General cognitive development also plays a crucial role
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4
Q

Evaluating Stage Theories

A

Equating the moral domain and other social domains: moral reasoning out of social reasoning

Domain theory: children do distinguish between domains - have a better grasp of morality than stage theorist believe

Domains
- Moral domain: right & wrong, fairness, justice
- Social-conventional domain: social customs & regulations
- Personal domain: individual preferences

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5
Q

Infant Morality

A

Everything suggests infants in the first year are likely amoral
- Stage theorist equate morality with complex reasoning
- Domain theorists distinguish domains between age 2-3, and experience adults’ differing reactions over time
- They all primarily use verbal reasoning tasks to probe moral development

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6
Q

Empathy

A
  • Stability in level of empathic concern from just 3 months of age
  • Infants who show more concern from 3-6 mos more prosocial toward distressed other at 18 months
  • Toddlers show early attempts to comfort unhappy others

Once physically able they perform prosocial acts:
- Help other achieve goals
- Inform others of things they should know
- Share their resources

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7
Q

Pro-sociality in Infants

A
  • Toddlers who have previously engaged in a social exchange with experimenter help more
  • In younger but not older toddlers there is a positive relationship between prenatal praise and prosocial acts
  • Toddlers with siblings more likely to give away objects
  • Rewarded toddlers eventually help less (suggests intrinsic motives)
  • Toddlers are happy when prosocial
  • Toddlers’ pupils dilate while seeing someone in need (= arousal), shrink
    post helping
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8
Q

Generosity + Fairness

A

Niceness and fairness don’t always go hand in hand - as children become increasingly concerned with/aware of fairness, they may become increasingly selfish

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9
Q

Guilt

A

Guilt when done something wrong, desire to comply with rules, evidence by age 2

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10
Q

Differences in Conscience

A

Parenting style: kids more “moral when parents deemphasize parental power, emphasize rational explanation & empathy

Temperament & environmental “fit”
- Fearful children exhibit more guilt in general, respond best to gentle discipline
- Fearless children seem motivated (only) by desire to please, may need more severe reactions

Gene-environment interaction: related to allele of serotonin transporter gene
- With “sensitive” allele, high maternal responsiveness -> high conscience; low responsiveness -> low conscience
- With “insensitive” allele, no relationship

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11
Q

Piaget Stages

A

Pre-operational (0-3)
- No explicit awareness of rules (so no morality at all)

The Morality of Constraint (3-7)
- Authority rules
- Outcomes (vs Intentions) rule

Transitional Period (8-10)
- Interactions with peers spur change toward relativism - fairness, equality, what works for the group

Moral Relativism (11 or 12+)

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12
Q

Conscience

A

Internal regulatory mechanism that increase ability to conform to societal standards

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