Moral Development Flashcards
What is morality?
an understanding of the difference between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’
Who are the two key theorists of moral development?
- Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
- Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Moral Development
Outline Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
- proposed children progressed in stages
- ran a study asking children to make judgements about relative naughtiness of two boys
- one scenario involved good intentions but large damage
- boy snuck into father’s office to help tidy up (good intention) but spilt ink on desk, ruining desk beyond repair (large damage)
- another scenario involved bad intentions but small damage
- boy snuck into father’s office and deliberately poured (bad intention) small amount of ink onto desk (small damage)
- based on experiment, children were categorised into two stages
What were the two stages the Piaget categorised children into based on his experiment?
- Moral Realists
- Moral Subjectivists
What are moral realists?
- children below age 7
- tended to be in preoperational stage of development
- judgements about boy were based on the scale of the damage
- intentions behind act were not considered
What are moral subjectivists?
- children above 7
- tended to be in concrete operational stage
- judgements were based on the context of the intention behind behaviour
- believed to be fully morally developed
What is Kohlberg’s moral dilemma?
- given to adults
- woman near death from cancer
- there was one drug drs thought may save her
- form of radium recently discovered by local pharmacist
- drug was expensive to make
- pharmacist charged £20,000 for small dose
- husband could only collect £10,000
- husband told pharmacist wife was dying and for drug to be cheaper
- pharmacist said no
- husband broke into pharmacy and stole drug for his wife
What is Kohlberg’s moral dilemma?
this dilemma was given to adults to judge
- woman near death from cancer
- there was one drug drs thought may save her
- form of radium recently discovered by local pharmacist
- drug was expensive to make
- pharmacist charged £20,000 for small dose
- husband could only collect £10,000
- husband told pharmacist wife was dying and for drug to be cheaper
- pharmacist said no
- husband broke into pharmacy and stole drug for his wife
What did Kohlberg ask adults to do when judging dilemma?
ppts were asked:
- should the husband have done this?
- was it wrong or right for husband to do this? Why?
- would a good husband do this?
- did the pharmacist have the right to charge that much for drug?
Kohlberg asked people to justify the moral behaviour of people in this scenario
Outline Kohlberg’s stages
- preconventional reality
- conventional reality
- postconventional morality
How would people make justification of morality in the preconventional reality stage?
- justifications of whether behaviour is right or wrong is based on if individual is rewarded or punished
- e.g.: husband would go to jail for stealing, therefore behaviour is wrong
- then may start thinking that more rewarded behaviour is morally right
How would people make justification of morality in the conventional morality stage?
- starting to defer from the conventions of society
- considering the intentions behind behaviour
- start thinking about obedience to authority
- is this behaviour something that is going to be policed
- this would fit into the conventional right vs wrong
How would people make justification of morality in the postconventional morality?
- highest level of understanding
- going beyond the understanding of societal conventions of what is right and wrong
- start thinking of abstract constructions of right vs wrong
- looking at morally vs legally right and wrong
- there is acknowledgement that people may do things against the law but it is morally right to do
Define prosocial behaviour
behaviour that benefits other people
What are different types of prosocial behaviour?
- altruism
helping others at the cost of yourself, not expecting anything in return - helping others
- sharing resources
