PSYCH 2AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Ego Ideal, Phallic Stage, Reference Group
27 May 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Moral Development
Psychoanalytic Approach (Freud):
• Role of the moral emotions (Shame, Guilt, Pride)
• Freud, Erikson
• Remember: Id (bad desires), Ego, Superego (punishment, tells you what’s good and what’s bad)
- Superego is developed at the end of phallic stage (developed by age 4/5)
- 2 components
o conscience → guilt – things we grow up knowing are bad, and will be punished with guilt
if we commit these acts and fail to live up to the rules
o ego ideal → shame – learn to behave morally to prevent being punished, things we should
do, meet the ‘ideal’ and if you fail to meet these ideals you experience shame
o if you have healthy personality, you will pay attention to superego > id (impulses)
- Erikson adds pride to these this – pride for moral behaviour
- Adds a positive, not all about feeling negative
- Behave morally because you feel good when you do it
Behavourist Approach:
• Role of reinforcements and punishments
• Skinner, Bandura
• Moral behaviours are the result of operant conditioning experiences
o Rewards and punishments (Skinnerian approach)
• More on Punishment
o Inappropriate punishments teach the wrong lessons
▪ Screaming and hitting children is not an effective punishment (makes them
angry and not understand the reason why they were punished) – learn only not
to do it in front of mom and dad
o But punishment can still be effective
▪ Appropriate response: take them aside and tell them its wrong and undo the
wrong
- learn how to become moral actors due to CONSEQUENCES of behaviours (operant
conditioning experiences)
o rewards and punishments (Skinner approach)
o kids who behave well will get reward, immoral will get punished
- Recently, movement to try not to punish kids
- inappropriate punishment teaches the wrong lesson Eg. Stole candy bar and spanked me in
public. I just learn to not steal in front of parents.
- created fear, anxiety > realizing what I did wrong, don’t learn mistakes
- BUT punishment can still be effective Eg. It’s wrong to steal so you should return it and tell
manager and you do chores.
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- Effective b/c: EXPLAIN WHY what I did was wrong and do a consequence for it, not as
terrifying and fearful
- Thus, learned stealing is wrong
Vicarious rewards and punishments
- Bandura’s Social-Learning Theory Approach: learning moral, immoral behaviours through
vicarious experiences
- Learn by seeing how other people behave and get rewarded/punished.
- Eg. Learnt from TV, watching my brother, seeing my friend
Cognitive Approach
• Cognitive development
- Making judgments about “rightness" or “wrongness” of specific acts
- Depends on cognitive development (Piaget…)
o Egocentrism – need to understand other people’s perspective to develop morals. Feel like
part of community
o Centering - if you can only think about one thing, most moral problems are complex and
have layers, can’t think through it properly
o Abstract thought - most moral problems are abstract. Need abstract thought to be
sophisticated moral thinker Eg. Law-making.
Piaget’s Model of Moral Development* (INTENTION)
- Just think of how it's related to YOU
- Black and white thinking: rules are rules and we can’t change them
- INTENT: kid break 15 tea-cups while trying to get his mother vs. kids
- Breaks 1 tea-cup trying to steal cookies. Kids <10 years old don’t understand INTENT, only
understand consequences, what’s worse right now? - Will think kid who broke 15 cups is worse
- → See textbook on this area!
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
- Moral Judgment interviews (Present scenarios and ask them questions about the dilemmas to
find out more about moral reasoning) Semi-structured interview
o Present Ss w a series of moral dilemmas
o Ask a series of questions about the moral question
o Eg. The Heinz Dilemmas
o Q: Should Heinz have stolen the drug? What if he didn’t love his wife? What jail sentence
to give him if caught? What if stole for stranger?
o What’s their reasoning behind their thoughts?
Kohlberg describes 3 LEVELS:
▪ Pre-conventional: not yet looking to reference group to tell you what’s right/wrong. Don’t feel
part of culture yet. Only care about consequences to yourself, very selfish thinking.
▪ Conventional: moral reasoning based in your reference groups eg. What culture, school, family,
country, society is saying right
o you are part of something larger than yourself (country, mosque, community,
university..etc)
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o you take on the perspective of a group
▪ Post-conventional: are part of culture, but moving beyond culture and making more abstract
ideas/solutions
o Eg. Something unfair is happening in this culture, something needs to be done
Each level has 2 stages
**Each stage shows a more cognitively and “morally advanced” way of reasoning about moral
dilemmas
**Back then, females came out as being “less moral” [his sample subjects were all male]
1. Pre-conventional Morality:
Moral judgment are only based on consequences to SELF
Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience Orientation
- Older adults must be obeyed b/c they’re bigger, stronger
- Authority figures must be obeyed
- Ideas: things that don’t get us punished are good, things that get us punished are bad
- Eg. Young kids morality: will say it’s bad b/c you can get punished.
- Heinz should steal the drug b/c he asked first and it’s something small.
Stage 2: Self-Interest Orientation / (Pleasure)
- Don’t care as much b/c realize some rules are bendable have caveats
- Things that makes us feel good are good (and vice versa)
- More based on feelings for myself, very self-interested
- Think it is fair (moral) to reciprocate both good and bad acts eg. Revenge and karma. Fair
exchange and fair deals
- Eg. Morality: Heinz was right to steal b/c his wife might return favour (reciprocation), Heinz
should steal b/c if she dies he’ll have to pay for funeral, should steal so he doesn’t have to be alone if
she dies.
2. Conventional Morality:
Moral judgment are based on membership in some reference group
Stage 3: Interpersonal Relationships:
- (Feminine orientation) idea: depends on what your motivation is for behaviour, motivation
determines morality (like intent)
- Motivation is bad = act is bad, motivation is good = act is good
- Concern for other people
- Eg. Heinz was right b/c he was good man to save wife, his motivation/intent is good still okay
to break law, Should steal to be a good husband, most people hate the druggist in this stage (think
druggist have bad motivations)
- 13 year old: was druggist fault his price was too expensive, think he has bad motivations
Stage 4: Maintaining Social Order
- Concern for society as a whole
- “I don’t care why you did it, but you broke the law and you must be punished”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Psychoanalytic approach (freud): role of the moral emotions (shame, guilt, pride, freud, erikson, remember: id (bad desires), ego, superego (punishment, tells you what"s good and what"s bad) Superego is developed at the end of phallic stage (developed by age 4/5) Erikson adds pride to these this pride for moral behaviour. Adds a positive, not all about feeling negative. Behave morally because you feel good when you do it. Recently, movement to try not to punish kids inappropriate punishment teaches the wrong lesson eg. Stole candy bar and spanked me in public. I just learn to not steal in front of parents. Created fear, anxiety > realizing what i did wrong, don"t learn mistakes. But punishment can still be effective eg. It"s wrong to steal so you should return it and tell manager and you do chores. Effective b/c: explain why what i did was wrong and do a consequence for it, not as terrifying and fearful.
