lecture 9.docx

Lecture 9 13/11/12 Components of moral development - Cognitive  Children develop knowledge about ethical rules and make judgements about the “goodness” or “badness” of certain acts - Behavioural  Children behave in good or bad ways in situations that require ethical decision - Emotional  Children have feelings about their good and bad behaviours Moral judgement  Piaget cognitive theory of moral judgement - Studied how children’s attitudes towards rules in games changed as the children get older - Examined the way children’s judgements of the seriousness of transgressions changed with age - Proposed stage theory - Stages of moral reasoning  Premoral stage – children show little concern for rules (<5)  Moral realism – children show great respect from rules and apply them quite inflexibly (age 5+)  Moral absolutionism – rigid application of rules to all individuals regardless of their culture or circumstances  Immanent justice – the notion that any deviation from rules will inevitably result in punishment or retribution  A lot of behaviour in the world can operate in these two (absolutionism and immanent justice)  Moral reciprocity – children recognize that riles may be questioned and altered, consider the feelings and views of others, and believe in equal justice for all (age 11+)  Start to consider the reality of the situation  the nuance of the situation and try to consider the intention of the other person etc creating many conceptions of why someone would break a rule Kohlberg’s Cognitive theory of moral judgement - Levels and stages of moral judgement  Preconvention- justification for behaviour is based on the desire to avoid punishment and gain rewards  Avoid punishment (stage 1)  Seek rewards (stage 2)  Conventional – moral judgement is based on motive to conform, either to get approval from others or to follow society’s rules and conventions  doing what you’re supposed to do  Conform to get approval from others (stage 3)  Conform with society’s rules, laws, and conventions such as duty to family, marriage vows, or the country (stage 4)  Post-convention - judgments are controlled by internalized ethical code that is relatively independent of the approval or disapproval of others  abstract idea  Morality is based on society’s consensus about human rights (stage 5)  Morality is based on abstract principles of justice and equality (stage 6) - With Kohlberg’s theory it is more plastic and you can regress into moral judgements not like how Piaget spoke of it in stages - Limitations of Kohlberg’s theory  Theory may not be universal as cultural difference have been found  Collectivistic cultures focus on community  Carol Gilligan expanded the moral domain to address gender issues and the dimension of caring  Ppl move in and out of moral orders, not stages f moral development  Different contexts like work (stage 2) vs. home (stage 3) vs. legal system (stage 4) - How children learn the rules and distinguish between social domains  The role of culture  Morality will differ depending on which culture you are from  Children all over the world distinguish among moral, social conventional, and psychological domains o However, the content of social conventions varies dramatically across cultures  The content of personal issues also varies across cultures o However, children still judge violations in the moral domain as more serious than infractions in the social-conventions and psychological domains - New aspects of moral development  Expansion to include the area of civil rights and liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion  As children mature their appreciation of the freedoms we take for granted increases  Children’s judgements about forms of gov’t also change with age Development of moral emotions - Emotions like remorse, shame, and guilt play a role in regulating moral actions and thoughts - We have emotions about our behaviours that evoke us to change or continue our behaviours and such emotions like guilt, shame and remorse play a role in motivating our actions and regulating how we approach a situation - Guilt is experiences as early as 2 - Researchers now suggest that the period between 2 and 3 years is normal for the emergence of guilt and the beginning of conscience Prosocial and altruistic behaviour - Prosocial behaviour – conduct intended to help or benefit other ppl  Includes sharing, caring, comforting, cooperating, helping, sympathizing, and performing “random acts of kindness” - Altruistic behaviour – intrinsically motivated conduct intended to help others without expectation of acknowledgment or reward  Often anonymous - Human altruism  Wesley Autrey  50 yr old construction worker, father of 4 and 6 yr old girls  Jumped in front of a subway train to rescue a man Mr. Hollopeter who had fallen in the tracks  How?  Anterior cingulated makes emotional decisions  Mirror neurons can make us feel what someone else is feeling - Determinants of prosocial development  Biological influences  Specific brain regions are activated when ppl hear sad stories, feel empathy and compassion etc o Emotional (amygdala and insula)  feeling the others distress o Emotional and behavi