Week 8 - Learning to Trust II / Moral Development

Theory of Mind

ability to attribute mental states to themselves and others

• Capable of reading a story with multiple points of view, including stories with an “unreliable narrator” 

• Readers can be assumed to have more highly developed powers of empathy, and therefore to be capable of reading and caring about characters whose lives are very different from their own

• Young people supposedly won’t read about characters younger than themselves, but in these longer books the mix of ages can be greater

Abstract thinking

• Readers can be assumed to have the ability to think abstractly to some extent, and therefore to follow a narrative that proposes an alternate world or universe, with rules and laws of nature other than those known to us

• Readers can be assumed to have a more sophisticated sense of time - of history and the future

• Readers can be assumed to know more about the world, including some of the more intense and disturbing aspects of reality

• Readers may not want illustrations but prefer to create their own mental pictures of characters and events

Social Learning Theory

Moral behavior is learned through reinforcement and modeling

• Effective adult models of morality are warm and powerful and consistently model their values

Cognitive Developmental Theory

• Children are active thinkers about social rules

• Through sibling and peer interaction, children work out their first ideas about justice and fairness

  • Think of the animals on the farm; the rules and way of life they pass on to Wilbur

Middle childhood morality

• Internalized “oughts and shoulds” of the latency period represents new cognitive advance and new capacity to understand emotions

• 8 yr old can turn on father for slightest moral infractions for sake of obeying the code

• Kids chide parents for not following the rules and not attending church

• Notion of “do as I say, not as I do” easily contested and latency-age kids recognize parental hypocrisy

• Tendency for good and bad to take on absolute valence, allowing little room for grays

Kohlberg - Stages of Moral Understanding

• Through clinical interviews Kohlberg presented a sample of 10-16 year old boys with hypothetical moral dilemmas and asked them what the main character should do and why

• The way an individual reasons about dilemmas determines moral maturity, not the content of their response 

• Three levels, each consisting of 2 stages

Pre-conventional level

1. obedience and punishment orientation

2. instrumental purpose orientation

Stage 1 - Obedience and Punishment Orientation

• Believes in a fixed set of rules

• Authority figures

  • Morality is something that “big people say they must do”

• Judge morality of action by its direct consequence

• Punishment is to be avoided

  • “The last time, I got spanked; therefore, I won’t do it again”

• Pro-stealing: “If you let your wife die, you’ll be blamed for not spending the money to help her. There’ll be an investigation of you and the druggist for your wife’s death.” 

Stage 2 - Instrumental Purpose Orientation

• Concrete understanding of different perspectives

• Self-interests determine what is right

  • “What’s in it for me?” 

• Any concern for others is based on “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” 

• Anti-stealing: “[Heinz] is running more risk than it’s worth [to save a wife who’s near death]”

Conventional Level

3. Good girl - nice boy

4. Maintaining social order

Stage 3 - Good girl - nice boy

• Typical of adolescents and adults

• Evaluate actions in terms of relationship to others

• Live up to expectations of family and community

• Pro-stealing: “No one will think you’re bad if you steal the drug, but your family will think you’re inhumane if you don’t. If you let your wife die, you’ll never be able to look anyone in the face again.” 

Stage 4 - Maintaining social order

• Societal laws

• Important to obey rules to maintain a functioning society

• Rules must be enforced in the same manner for everyone

• Everyone has a personal duty to uphold the rules

• Laws must be obeyed under all circumstances; otherwise, chaos would ensue

• Anti-stealing: “Even if his wife’s dying, it’s still his duty to obey the law. If everyone starts breaking the law when in a jam, civilization would crumble”

Post-Conventional Level

5. Social Contract

6. Universal Ethical Principles

Stage 5 - Social Contract

• Free and willing participation for the “Common Good”

• Basis for a democratic gov’t

• The greatest good for the greatest number of people

• Pro-stealing: “the law against stealing wasn’t meant to violate a person’s right to life. If Heinz is prosecuted for stealing, the law needs to be reinterpreted to take into account situations in which it goes against people’s natural right to life.” 

Stage 6 - Universal Ethical Principles

• Moral behavior is defined by self-chosen principles of conscience

• Laws are valid only in so far as they are grounded in justice

• Principles respect each person’s worth and dignity

• Considers what one would do if they were in the other’s shoes

• Pro-stealing: “It doesn’t make sense to put respect for property above respect for life itself. [People] could live together without private property at all. [People] have a mutual duty to save one another from dying.” 

Carol Gilligan’s take on Kohlberg

Kohlberg’s theory does not adequately represent morality of girls and women

• Feminine morality emphasizes an “ethic of care”

• Different not less valid

• Studies have tested Gilligan’s claims

  • Females display reasoning at the same stage as males

  • Female approach = interpersonal concerns of caring and responsiveness are a real life reaction to a moral dilemma

Moral Identity

The degree to which morality is central to self-concept

• Moral behavior is influenced by many factors besides cognition

  • Emotions (empathy, sympathy, guilt)

  • Temperament

  • Cultural experiences and intuitive beliefs

  • Moral identity

Pragmatic approach to morality (challenges to Kohlberg)

• Each person makes moral judgments at varying levels of maturity, depending on the individual’s current context and motivations

• Everyday moral judgments are practical tools that people use to achieve their goals