Moral Development

Class Notes 10/27

What makes up morality?

• Conscience and moral emotions

• Moral reasoning

• Prosocial behavior

Conscience, Moral Emotions, & Empathy

• Provide an internal regulatory mechanism that increases the individual’s ability to conform with standards of conduct accepted in his or her culture

  • Promotes prosocial behavior

  • Restrains antisocial behavior

Moral Emotions

• By 2 years - Children exhibit guilt when they violate social standards/parents’ moral values

• Temperaments matter - fearless children show less guilt than fearful children

Development Between Domains

• Development in one domain affectrs development in another

  • Cognitive: being able to take others’ perspectives

  • Social/Emotional: Empathy and motivation to act

Teens: Development Between Domains

• Teens seem to be more insensitive to other’s feelings than young children and to misinterpret other’s emotions and intentions

  • Cognitive: Brain reorganization in adolescence

  • Social/Emotional: Identification of emotions and empathy

Infant Preferences

• Infants as young as 5 months have a preference for prosocial behavior

  • This innate preference along with increasing empathy seems to promote prosocial behavior (and lower empathy is related to more antisocial behavior)

• Prosocial emotion (empathic concern)

• Prosocial behavior (comforting)

Antisocial Behavior

• Instrumental aggression: Motivated by the desire to obtain a concrete goal, such as gaining possession of a peer’s toy

• Relation aggression: Harms others by damaging their peer relationship

• With age, physical aggression decreases and verbal aggression increases

• Children who are aggressive tend to be aggressive adults

Prosocial Behavior

• Prosocial behavior can depend on the ability to take someone else’s perspective (i.e., theory of mind)

• Reasoning also plays a role (I wonder how I would if…)

Moral Reasoning

• The process in which an individual tries to determine the difference between what is right and what is wrong in a personal or social situation

• People make judgments by reasoning about the morality of the action and weighing that against its consequences

Overall Trends in Moral Reasoning

• Rules viewed as unchangeable —> rules viewed as constructed by the group (so modifiable)

• Focus on actions and consequences —> focus on motives and intentions

• Self —> others’ expectations —> internalized values

The Heinz Dilemma

• Famous ethical thought experiment created by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg to study how people develop a sense of morality

• Wife dying of rare cancer, company develops medicine, charges husband too much, he steals it to save his wife

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning

• Preconventional level: Self-centered and instrumental

  • Focus on consequences (e.g., getting rewards and avoiding punishments)

    • Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation (it’s ok to do it if you won’t get caught)

    • Stage 2: Instrument-relativist orientation (if it feels good, do it)

• Conventional level: Centered on social expectations and motives/intentions

  • Focus on compliance with social duties and laws (“good boy/girl”, maintaining law-and-order)

    • Stage 3: Good boy, nice girl orientation (do it for me)

    • Stage 4: Law and order orienation (do your duty)

• Postconventional level: Centered on greater-good and ideals

  • Focus on upholding rules that are in the best interest of the group and on moral principles

    • Stage 5: Social contract orientation (consensus of thoughtful people)

    • Stage 6: Universal ethical principles (what if everyone did that?)

Those with higher levels of moral reasoning are…

• More likely to help others (prosocial behavior)

• Less likely to engage in delinquent behavior (antisocial behavior)

Nature and Nurture

• Nature (evoluntionary roots) + nurture (socialization) = development

• Nurture Example: Socialization

  • Process through which children acquire appropriate values, skills, and behaviors

Socialization Involves 3 Processes

1. Modeling

• Through everyday actions, adults demonstrate behaviors and attitudes toward others

2. Parent as “Social Manager?”

• Parents control children’s experiences, including exposure to various people and activities

3. Direct Instruction

• Children are directly taught skills and strategies, and advised in different situations