Moral Development Flashcards
Story of Heinz often used in moral development investigations:
Wife is dying and Heinz can’t afford to buy the drug to heal her to he steals it.
- was Heinz right to steal the drug? Why or why not?
What is morality?
APA- “A system of beliefs and values that ensures that individuals will keep their obligations to others in society and will behave in ways that do not interfere with the rights and interests of others.”
Oxford dictionary- “Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.”
Pillars of morality
Reciprocity/fairness.
Empathy/compassion.
We don’t just think about morality, we feel it also.
Empathy- affective response stemming from apprehension or comprehension of another’s emotions, similar to what the person is feeling (Eisenberg, 2000).
Early moral development mostly reflects the emergence of empathy and the “moral emotions.”
Where does it come from?
- evolutionary perspective on moral development.
- Darwin (1874) theory of the origin of morality.
- evidence of evolutionary roots for altruistic behaviour.
When does morality develop?- empathy
Empathetic behaviour appears early- the ability to perceive and respond to another’s emotional state.
Newborns become distressed when they hear another child crying.
10 week old infants show mimicry of facial expressions (Meltzoff & Moore, 77); by 12 months, infants begin to comfort people in distress.
Because babies can’t talk, we do research on their emotion and behaviour.
When?- Hamlin (2013)
Argues that babies are born with innate sense of good and bad.
- infants prefer ‘helpers’ to ‘hinderers’ in multiple tasks.
- by 10 months infants incorporate intentions into their judgements.
- only show a preference when puppets knew the goal/desire and acted accordingly.
- prior to 2 years, infants punish hinderers and prefer antisocial characters who harm.
When?- prosocial behaviours
Young children show prosocial behaviours (intended to promote welfare of specific others but no benefit to self).
- experiments consistently show young children (18 months) helping adults (Warneken, 15).
- quickly and without being prompted.
- helping actually declines if children are rewarded for it.
When?- emotions
Moral emotions (included in secondary emotions)- eg. guilt, shame, pride etc.
- precursors of guilt present from about 2 yrs.
- by 2-3 yrs children show awareness and emotion signs of empathy and reparative behaviours.
- discomfort about wrongdoing, apologies, concern about other’ wrongdoing all increase between 2-3 yrs.
- guilt thought to emerge around 3 yrs.
When?- beyond infancy
2-3 years: basic building blocks for morality in place:
- understanding of self-other and empathy.
- basic judgements about “good” and “bad”.
5-7 years: children recognise basic obligations: eg. hurting others is bad.
8-12 years: harm is wrong and helping is right:
- non-moral elements generally ignored.
12-14 years: multiple factors attended to but not integrated:
- leads to moral ambiguity.
16 + years: can coordinate multiple moral factors.
How does morality develop?- cognitive perspectives
Development of cognitive abilities drives thought and reasoning about moral issues.
Development of morality viewed as a product of general cognitive development.
- children seek out knowledge about their environment- including moral standards.
- general cognitive development processes drive children through different stages.
- see morality as domain-specific.
- emphasised the importance of social perspective-taking.
- used this to explain variability across cultures and social classes.
Cognitive approach
- use moral dilemmas to assess moral reasoning (a person’s sense of justice, or what is right and wrong, and why).
- propose a series of fixed stages in development or moral reasoning.
- initially proposed by Piaget.
- teacup dilemma.
Piaget’s model on morality
Two basic stages:
1) Heteronomous morality- younger (4-7) children: judgements are based purely on adults rules, with little understanding of intention.
2) Autonomous morality- older children (around 10 yrs): morality based on cooperations and social exchange.
- come to understand that intentions are important.
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development:
- developed Piaget’s theory on morality further.
- 6 fixed stages.
Preconventional morality (stage 1 & 2)- childhood:
- people follow unvarying rules based on rewards & punishments.
- avoiding punishment (stage 1).
- meeting personal needs (stage 2).
Conventional morality (stage 3 & 4)- adolescence:
- people approach problem in terms of their own position as good, responsible members of society.
- about interpersonal relationships and social order.
- wanting to appear “good” (level 3).
- maintain social order (level 4) obedience to social contract.
Postconventional morality (stage 5 & 6)- adulthood:
- universal moral principles (eg. individual rights and justice) are invoked and considered.
- issues are not clear cut and involve considering multiple factors and principles (eg. individual rights vs. maintaining social order; justice; equality).
- social contract driven (stage 5).
- universal moral principles (stage 6).
Kohlberg’s dilemmas aren’t good at distinguishing between 5/6.
Not everyone reaches stage 6.
Limitations and reflections on Kohlberg’s moral development theory
- Moral reasoning vs. moral actions/behaviour - are they consistent?
- Kohlberg’s stages and styles seem to predict some behaviour.
- 4-6 year olds moral reasoning (usually satge 2) relates to sharing behaviour (Eisenberg-Berg & Hand, 1979).
- But not helping or comforting.
- In adolescence (Fabes et al, 99) “Delinquent” individuals tend to use lower stages of reasoning (1/2).
- But real-life behaviours (eg. cheating, honesty) do not have consistent relationship with moral reasoning (Blasi, 1980). - Moral (or immoral) actions may be motivated by different levels of reasoning or other factors.
- is it always immoral to steal?
- moral actions (eg. prosocial behaviour) might be motivated by factors other than reasoning.
- sympathy.
- social environment (eg. parenting, peers).
- context.
- emotional control. - Universality of the stages?
Gender:
- these tend to favour males (Snarev, 85).
- Kohlberg’s initial sample was hopelessly male-biased- 84 males (cross sectional), 58 males (longitudinal).
Culture:
- basic stage progression is consistent (stage 2-4).
- but stages 5 & 6 are less prevalent in some groups.
- variation within the same culture (eg. different social classes).
Cognitive approach- Gilligan (1982) Moral orientations
Gender was a large factor or moral development.
Boys: broad principles (justice and fairness).
Girls: responsibility toward individuals and self-sacrifice in specific relationships.
Differences in how children are raised underpins views of moral behaviour.
Gender only accounts for 17% of variance in justice/care reasoning (Jaffee & Hyde, 2000).
There are some differences between genders:
- woman are more oriented towards care and men towards justice.
- but not as much as Gilligan argued.
