Moral Development

I. IntroductionA. Definition of moralityB. Components of morality

1. Affective – Psychoanalytic 2. Cognitive – Cognitive-Developmental3. Behavioral – Social-Learning

II. Psychoanalytic theoryA. Freud’s theory of Oedipal moralityB. Evaluation of Freud’s theory

III. Cognitive-developmental A. Piaget’s theory

1. Piaget’s stages of moral development2. Evaluation of Piaget’s theory

B. Kohlberg’s theory1. Kohlberg’s levels of moral development2. Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory

i. Is the theory culturally biased?ii. Is the theory biased against women?

3. Carol Gilligan’s theory of moral developmentIV. Morality as a product of social learning

A. Consistency of moral conduct and characterB. Learning to resist temptation

1. Reinforcement and moral conduct2. Social models and moral behavior

Moral Development

Definition of Morality• When asked about morality, most university

students agree that it implies the ability to:• distinguish right from wrong• act on this distinction• experience pride in virtuous conduct, and

shame or guilt over acts that violate one’s standards

Moral Development

How psychologists look at morality:• The affective component:

• Feelings (pride, guilt, shame) that surround right or wrong actions

• The cognitive component:• The ways we conceptualize right and

wrong• The behavioral component:

• How we actually behave

• Psychoanalytic theory – Affective component:• Emphasizes moral affects

• Cognitive-Developmental theory – Cognitive component:• Examines moral reasoning

• Social-Learning theory – Behavioral component:• Emphasizes moral behavior

Moral DevelopmentPsychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud

• Components of the personality – id, ego, and superego• The superego as the moral arbiter of the

personality• Freud’s theory of Oedipal morality

• The development of the superego and the resolution of the Oedipal complex

• Gender differences

• Evaluation of Freud’s theory• Do threatening parents raise morally

mature children?• Evidence for gender differences?• Age trends for the development of

morality?

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

Jean Piaget

• Piaget’s theory of moral development• The premoral period (birth – 4-6 years)

• Little awareness of the rules• The stage of moral realisim, or

heteronomous morality (6 – 10 years)• Respect for rules and the belief that

they must be obeyed• Actions are judged by consequences

rather than intentions• Expiatory punishment• Immanent justice

• The stage of moral relativism, or autonomous morality (10 year – )• Social rules as arbitrary• Reciprocal punishment

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

• Evaluation of Piaget’s theory• Do children ignore an actor’s intentions?

• The confounding of intentions and consequences

Story A:A little boy who is called John is in his room. He is called to dinner. He goes into the dining room. But behind the door there was a chair, and on the chair there was a tray with 15 cups on it. John couldn’t have known that there was all this behind the door. He goes in, the door knocks against the tray, bang go the 15 cups, and they all get broken.

Story B:Once there was a little boy whose name was Henry. One day when his mother was out he tried to reach some jam out of the cupboard. He climbed onto a chair and stretched out his arm . But the jam was too high up, and he couldn’t reach it … While he was trying to get it, he knocked over a cup. The cup fell down and broke.

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

• Evaluation of Piaget’s theory• Do children ignore an actor’s intentions?

Negative PositiveO utcom e of the Action

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Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

• Evaluation of Piaget’s theory• Do children ignore an actor’s intentions?

• Do children respect all rules and adult authority?• Turiel – The distinction between

moral rules and social-conventional rules

• Smetana – The seriousness of violations of moral versus social-conventional rules

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

Lawrence Kohlberg

• Kohlberg’s theory of moral development• Level 1: Preconventional morality: Rules are

external to the self. The child conforms to avoid punishment and to obtain personal rewards. Morality is self-serving; what is right is what one can get away with.

• Stage 1: Punishment and obediance: Goodness or badness of act based on consequences. Obey authorities to avoid punishment, but won’t consider an act wrong if not detected and punished. Seriousness depends on punishment received or harm done

• Stage 2: Native hedonism: Conform to gain rewards and satisfy personal needs. Some concern for perspective of others, but motivated by hope of benefit in return.

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

• Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, con’t• Level 2: Conventional morality: Obey rules to win

praise and recognition from others. Social praise and avoidance of blame replace tangible rewards and punishments as motivators of ethical conduct.

• Stage 3: Good boy/Good girl orientation: Moral behavior pleases, helps, approved by others. Actions evaluated on basis of intent. Goal is to be a “good” person.

• Stage 4: Authority and social order maintaining: Individual considers perspectives of the “generalized other” – that is, the will of society as reflected in law. What is right conforms to legal authority. Rules and laws maintain societal order, which is worth preserving.

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

• Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, con’t• Level 3: Postconventional morality: Define right

and wrong in terms of broad principles of justice that could conflict with written laws, or with dictates of authority figures.

• Stage 5: Morality of contract, individual rights, democratically accepted law: Laws express will of majority and further human values. Laws that accomplish these ends are impartially applied, and viewed as social contract that one has to follow. Laws that compromise human rights are unjust and worthy of challenge.

• Stage 6: Morality of individual principles of conscience: Individual defines right and wrong by self-chosen ethical principles or his/her own conscience. Not concrete rules, but abstract moral guidelines.

Moral DevelopmentCognitive-Developmental Theory

• Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory• Is Kohlberg’s theory culturally biased?

• Is Kohlberg’s theory biased against women?

Carol Gilligan

• The Morality of Justice (stage 4)

• The Morality of Caring (stage 3)

Moral DevelopmentSocial Learning Theory

• How consistent is moral behavior?• Character Education Inquiry (Hartshone & May,

1928 – 1930)• Doctrine of specificity• Burton’s re-evaluation

• Learning to resist temptation• Reinforcement as a determinant of moral conduct• The effects of social models