Moral development

Lecture outline
The development of empathy;
Moral reasoning (Piaget theory, Kohlberg’s theory, critic);
Moral behavior
Socialization

Morality
Behavior that helps another human being;
Behavior in conformity to societal norms;
The internalization of social norms;
An arousal of empathy or guilt;
Reasoning about justice;
Putting another’s interest ahead of one’s own

Moral development
Age-related thoughts, feelings and behaviors regarding rules, principles and values that guide what people should do.
Rules
Conventional – created
by particular group
Moral – universal
and obligatory

Moral feelings
Psychoanalytic theory:
Superego
Conscience
Ego-ideal
Pride
Guild
Worthless

Stages of Empathy Development (Hoffman, 1982, 1988)
Stage 1. Global empathy;
Stage 2. Egocentric empathy (12-18 month – 2-3 years);
Stage 3. Empathy for another’s feelings (2-3 years – late childhood)
Stage 4. Empathy for another’s life conditions

Moral thoughts. Piaget’s theory
Heteronomous morality (4-7 years):
absolute truth of the rules;
strict adherence to rules and duties, and obedience to authority.
Moral realism
Immanent justice
results from egocentricity, relative powerlessness of young children
Autonomous morality (> 10 years)

Moral thoughts. Kohlberg’s theory (1969)
First level: Preconventional reasoning
Stage 1. Punishment and obedience orientation
Stage 2. Instrumental
Second level: Conventional reasoning
Stage 3. Stage 3. “Good boy-nice girl”
Stage 4. Stage 4 authority maintaining morality
Third level: postconventional reasoning
Stage 5. Morality of agreements and democratically determined law
Stage 6. . Morality of individual principles of conscience

EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGY
HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION:
In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could get together about half of what it cost.

EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGY
HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION (continued)
He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay it later. But the druggist said, “no.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.

EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGY
MORAL DILEMMA: STEALING VERSUS SAVING A LIFE
JUDGMENT: SHOULD THE HUSBAND HAVE STOLEN?
JUSTIFICATION: WHY DO YOU THINK HE SHOULD HAVE/SHOULD NOT HAVE STOLEN?

EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGY
IF KOHLBERG BASED HIS STAGE ANALYSIS ON JUDGMENTS, THERE WOULD BE TWO STAGES
YES STEAL
NO STEALING
KOHLBERG BASED STAGE ANALYSIS ON PEOPLE’S JUSTIFICATIONS
PEOPLE AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT COULD GIVE THE SAME JUDGMENT BUT JUSTIFY IT WITH DIFFERENT LEVEL JUSTIFICATIONS

The brother’s dilemma
Joe’s father promised he could go to camp if he earned 50$ for it, and then changed his mind and asked Joe to give him money he had earned. Joe lied and said he had earned 10$ and went to camp using the other $40 he had made. Before he went, he told his younger brother, Alex about the money and about lying to his father. Should Alex tell their father?

Level 1
Stage 1. Punishment and obedience orientation (consequences of actions determine right and wrong)
PRO: If you let your wife die, you will get into trouble. You’ll be blamed for not spending your money to save her and there will be an investigation of you and the druggist for your wife’s death;

Level 1
Stage 2: Instrumental
Naïve instrumental hedonism (satisfaction of one’s own needs define what is good)
: If you do happen to get caught you could give the drug back and you wouldn’t get much of a sentence. It wouldn’t bother you much to serve a little jail term if you have your wife when you get out.

Level 2
Stage 3. “Good boy-nice girl” (what pleases others is good);
PRO: Nobody will think you’re bad if you steal the drug but your family will think you’re an inhuman husband if you don’t. If you let your wife die, you’ll never be able to look anybody in the face again.

Level 2
Stage 4 authority maintaining morality (maintaining law and order, doing one’s duty is good)
CON: You’re desperate and you may not know you’re doing wrong when you steal the drug. But you’ll know you did wrong after you’re punished and sent to jail. You’ll always feel guilty for your dishonesty and lawbreaking

Level 3
Stage 5. Morality of agreements and democratically determined law (society’s values and individual rights determine right and wrong)
CON: You can’t completely blame someone for stealing but extreme circumstances don’t really justify taking the law in your own hands. You can’t have everyone stealing whenever they get desperate. The end may be good, but the ends don’t justify the means

Level 3
Stage 6. Morality of individual principles of conscience (right and wrong are a matter of individual philosophy according to universal principles)
PRO: This is a situation which forces him to choose between stealing and letting his wife die. In a situation where the choice must be made, it is morally right to steal. He has to act in terms if the principle of preserving and respecting life.

Kohlberg theory
Cross-sectional and longitudinal support that moral reasoning develops through stages and with age, is slow and gradual;
Stage 6 is very rare;
Real-life dilemmas – lower scores;
Moral reasoning is highly correlated with IQ level, performance on Piagetian tasks and perspective taking;
Peer experience and parental support increase moral reasoning

Kohlberg's critic
More focus on thoughts, than behavior;
Problems with research method – hypothetical dilemma, difficult to score;
Underestimated the impact of culture;
Feminist criticism

Carol Gilligan and
the Morality of Care
morality of care versus the morality of justice;
Girls are less concerned with inequality and
unfairness because of linger attachment with mother;
Research: difference may exist among adults,
(Lollis et al, 1996; Lyon, 1983),but not among children and adolescence (Jadack et al., 1995; Smetana et al., 1991 etc)

Eisenberg model of prosocial behavior
Self-centered reasoning.
Needs-oriented reasoning.
Stereotyped and/or approval-oriented reasoning.
Empathetic reasoning.
Partly internalized principles.
Strongly internalized principles.

Moral behavior
Punishment and reinforcement – depends on consistency and schedule;
Imitation – depends on characteristic of the model
Situational-specific behavior

Parenting and moral development
Hoffman, 1970:
Love withdrawal;
Power assertion;
Induction
Eisenberg, Murphy, 1995:
Warm and supportive parenting;
Inductive discipline;
Learn other’s perspective and feelings;
Participate in family decision making;
Model moral behavior