Moral Development Flashcards
What is morality?
An understanding of the difference between “right” and “wrong”
Intuition vs reason
What are the theories of moral development?
Piaget’s theory
Kohlberg’s stages
What is Piaget’s theory of moral development?
Moral realist vs moral subjectivist
Children made judgements about relative naughtiness of two boys
- good intentions but large damage
- bad intentions but small damage
What are moral realists?
Children below 7
Preoperational stage
Judgements based on scale of damage
What are moral subjectivists?
Children above 7
Concrete operational stage
Judgements based on the intention of the protagonist
What are the issues with Piaget’s theory?
What about cases where someone intentionally damaged property?
Is there a cognitive explanation?
Is moral development fully developed by age 7?
Is morality only based on understanding the difference between outcomes and intentions
What are Kohlberg’s stages?
Level 1 = preconventional morality
- 1: punishment = wrong
- 2: reward = right
Level 2 = conventional morality
- 3: consider intentions
- 4: obedience to authority
Level 3 = postconventional morality
- 5: morally vs legally right
- 6: consider multiple views
Not everyone gets to stage 6
What is altruim?
Costly helping
What did Hamlin et al (2007) find about helping?
Watch video where either help or hinder
Experiment 1
- 6 and 10 month olds preferred helper over hinder
Experiment 2
- preferences disappeared when eyes of agent were removed
Experiment 3
- preference for helper and aversion to hinderer returned when compared to neutral condition
- helper vs neutral or hinderer vs neutral
What did Warneken and Tomasello (2006) find about helping in toddlers?
Adult drop something and look if toddler picked up and gave it to the experimenter
18 month olds will help adult
What do children think of helping?
Infants seem to understand others’ helping behaviours before they are able to help
Evaluate helpers more positively (by approaching helpers)
Engage in helping behaviours already by 18 months
Is this based on understanding morality?
What did Smith, Blake and Harris (2013) find about sharing?
Norms vs actions
3-8 year olds given 4 stickers
How many should you/another child share?
How many will you/another child share?
Many children up to 8 said sharing is something meant to do but in actuality, wouldn’t really share
As get older, do more sharing
What do children think of sharing?
Young children understand that it is “right” to share equally
Children don’t adhere to fairness principles until 7-8 years
Perhaps sharing is more costly than helping
Perhaps sharing requires more reasoned thought, whereas helping is based on intuition
What did Rhee and Waldman (2002) find out about genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviours?
Meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies aimed to tease apart the genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviour
32% variation due to genetic influence
43% variation due to environmental influence
What are the environmental influences on antisocial behaviour?
Style of parenting - coercive cycles (Patterson et al, 1992)
Child attachment to parent
Peer group influences (Harris, 1995)
Watching TV
