Week 10 (Moral Development)

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Approach

Development of conscience or superego. Process of identification.

• Oedipal complex – boys

• Electra complex — girls

Piaget’s Approach

• Moral reasoning

• Invariant sequence

• How to decide what to do and not to do

• Intentions and consequences

Two Moralities acc to Piaget?

• Morality of constraint (heteronomous phase)

• Morality of cooperation (autonomous phase)

Evaluation of Piaget’s Approach

Methodological confound:

• Bad intention, small negative outcome

• Good intention, large negative outcome

Need to unconfound valence of intention and size of the outcome

Kohlberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory of Moral Judgment

Kohlberg used hypothetical scenarios to evaluate how people justify their choices rather than the choices themselves.

Heinz dilemma:

Participants were asked if the husband’s act was right or wrong and why?

Kohlberg: Levels of Morality

1. Preconventional Morality

2. Conventional Morality

3. Postconventional Morality

Level 1: Preconventional morality — Two Stages?

• Stage 1: punishment and obedience orientation

• Stage 2: instrumental hedonism

Level 2: Conventional morality — Two Stages?

• Stage 3: “Good boy” and “good girl” morality

• Stage 4: authority and social order maintaining

Level 3: Postconventional morality — Two Stages?

• Stage 5: morality of contract, individual rights, and democratically accepted law

• Stage 6: morality of individual principles of conscience

Level 1: Premorality — Stage 1: Heteronomous morality

Obey laws because they are there, avoid being punished.

Level 1: Premorality — Stage 2: Instrumental hedonism

Follow rules if you stand to gain by doing so, keep bargains with others so they will keep theirs with you.

Level 2: Conventional — Stage 3: Conformity

Being good means having good motives and showing concern for others – (motivation the need to be liked) no ability to consider an abstract/impersonal code.

Level 2: Conventional — Stage 4: Law and order

Most important guide is the legal rule book – abide by rules rather than another’s needs.

Level 3: Postconventional — Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights

Being 'good’ evolves into what would be the right thing to do. Moral and values for a good society are created, instead of maintaining rules for the sake of doing so.

Level 3: Postconventional — Stage 6: Universal Principles

Follow universal rules like “life and liberty for all” regardless of majority opinion. These may or may not fit the law.

Gilligan’s Challenge (1982)

Gilligan proposed that

a) Care orientation should not be considered a “lower” level

b) Girls are socialised differently which makes them more likely to respond with a care orientation

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Approach

Model of reciprocal determinism whereby behaviour (B) is an interplay between person (P) factors (cognitive, emotional) and situational aspects (E)

Sociocognitive Modes of Influence

1. Modeling (e.g parents, peers, educators, social media)

2. Enactive experience

3. Direct tuition (e.g. being told)

Regulators of Moral Conduct

• Social expectations

• Self-expectations

• Perceived self-efficacy

Cognitive and Social Factors Relating to Lie-Telling

Children’s lie telling has been associated with Theory of Mind and their inhibitory control.

It was also related to their moral evaluations.

Authoritarian parenting is related to greater lie-telling.

Younger vs Older Children Lying

Younger children’s lying is regulated by the anticipation of punishment and older children’s lying is more regulated by the anticipation of guilt.

Hartshorne & May (1928)

Children increased their cheating between the ages of 9 and 14 years when their moral thinking became more sophisticated.

Moral disengagement

 Explains how people can hurt others and behave immorally, contradicting their beliefs and values and yet live peaceably with themselves.

What do moral disengagement mechanisms offer?

Serve to exonerate immoral moral behaviour thereby reducing the discomfort and guilt that would typically be experienced when moral standards are violated. By justifying immoral behaviour individuals are able to maintain their belief that they are moral people while behaving badly.

Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement

• Moral justification

• Euphemistic language

• Advantageous comparison

• Displacement of responsibility

• Diffusion of responsibility

• Distorting the consequences of action

• Dehumanisation

• Attribution of blame

Moral justification

Transforms reprehensible conduct into a worthy activity

Euphemistic labelling

Uses language to downplay the negativity of the behaviour

Advantageous comparison

Compares the current behaviour against a more heinous behaviour

Displacement of responsibility

Shifts the responsibility from the self to others

Diffusion of responsibility

Individual responsibility for the act is obscured

Distorting the consequences

Minimising the effects of the harmful behaviour when to is difficult to avoid responsibility

Dehumanisation

Strips individuals of their humanity and casts them as lower beings not worthy of consideration

Victim blame

Exonerates harmful conduct by blaming the victim for the behaviour performed

Barchia & Bussey (2011)

Children who scored highly on moral disengagement were more aggressive over time (8 months) than children with lower moral disengagement scores even after controlling initial aggression levels.

Doyle and Bussey (2018)

Investigated the relationship between children’s proneness to endorse moral disengagement mechanisms and their anticipated antisocial lie telling.

• Lie-telling self-efficacy was related to willingness to tell lies, and this relationship was mediated by moral disengagement.

• Children and adolescents with higher lie-telling self-efficacy had higher moral disengagement, and those who had higher moral disengagement were more willing to tell antisocial lies.

What is Collective Moral Disengagement acc to Bandura?

“An emergent group-level property arising from the interactive, coordinative, and synergistic group dynamics” (2009).

• Refers to justificatory beliefs that are believed to be shared by a relevant reference group.

Influences on the Use of Moral Disengagement: Parents — What are the two tensions?

• Parents aim to instill moral values in their children so that they know right from wrong and are motivated to behave in accord with their moral standards.

• Parents aim to protect their child from forming negative self-views even when harming others

Influences on the Use of Moral Disengagement: Parents — What is the effect of the tension on children?

Provides a fertile ground for children to learn to use moral disengagement mechanisms to self-exonerate their transgressive behaviour.

Care Orientation

Considers relational situation over and above principles or rules - focus on welfare of others, maintenance of interaction, avoidance of conflict.

Justice Orientation

Considers principles/rules over the relational situation – focuses on rules, reciprocity, rights, fairness and independence.

The role of moral disengagement in youth bullying behaviour (2024) Kay Bussey, Aileen Luo, Emma Jackson

Moral disengagement… explains how people can hurt others and behave immorally, contradicting their beliefs and values and yet live peaceably with themselves. … By activating moral disengagement mechanisms, people can disregard their moral standards and behave immorally without any self-censure. This paper synthesises the extensive research on moral disengagement in a youth bullying context to demonstrate the conceptual strength of moral disengagement theory for research and interventions on bullying. … The analysis of the different components of moral disengagement representing the loci of the disengagement mechanisms sheds light on how the disengagement processes function in the youth bullying context. Its role as both a moderator and mediator further advances its divergent functioning in the youth bullying context. …