Transcript Document 7274636

Chapter 12
Moral Development, Values, and
Religion in Adolescence
What is moral development?
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Moral development involves thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors regarding
standards of right and wrong.
Moral development consists of
intrapersonal and interpersonal
dimensions
What are some of these intrapersonal
codes of conduct? Interpersonal?
Moral Thought: Piaget
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Piaget distinguished between the
heteronomous morality of younger
children an the autonomous morality of
older children.
Heteronomous morality begins about 4
to 7 years of age and is viewed as
unchangeable law and not subject to
the ambiguities of life. Either/Or.
Jean Piaget
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Cognitive
Development
Theories
Moral Development
Theories
Based on
observation of his
own children
Moral Thought: Piaget
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Autonomous morality: Begins about age
10; Piaget’s 2nd stage of moral
development
In Autonomous morality, rules are made
by people and one must consider the
circumstance, the consequence, and
the entire whole when making
judgments about moral action.
Moral Thought: Piaget
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Formal operational thought might
undergird changes in adolescent’s
moral reasoning.
Dealing with abstracts, hypotheticals,
and contradictory issues in ambiguous
situations help to sharpen this type of
moral development.
What is right? Why is it right? Can right
ever be wrong?
Moral Thought: Piaget
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Hoffman proposed cognitive
disequilibrium theory which describes
movement from relatively homogenous
grade school to the more heterogenous
high school and college involvements.
Individuals face contradictions to their
moral stance. This causes
disequilibrium. Cognitive dissonance.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development
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Kohlberg’s theory is provocative.
He argues morality is developed in 3
stages and each stage has 2 levels.
Preconventional, conventional, and
postconventional morality as the big 3
stages. Why do you do the right thing?
Increased internalization characterizes
the movement from level 2 to 3.
Kohlberg: Level 1:
Preconventional Level
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Children at this level reason in terms of
their own needs.
Answers to moral dilemmas are based
on what they can get away with.
Right and wrong, are interpreted in
terms of punishment, reward, exchange
of favors, or the physical power of those
who advocate the rules and labels.
Kohlberg: Level 1, Stage 1
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Children worry about avoiding
punishment by adults or people with
superior power and prestige.
They are aware of rules and the
consequences of breaking them in a
strictly personal and physical sense.
There is no internalized morality.
Kohlberg: Level 1, Stage 2
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Children want to satisfy their own needs
(and occasionally the needs of others) if
they can get away with it.
They are motivated by self-interest and
are aware that relationships are
dominated by concrete reciprocity (you
scratch my back. I’ll scratch yours), not
loyalty, gratitude, or justice.
Kohlberg: Level 2 Conventional
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Moral value resides in performing good
and right roles.
Children are concerned with meeting
external social expectations. They value
meeting the expectations of family,
group, or nation by conforming to the
expectation of significant people and the
social order.
Kohlberg: Level 2, Stage 3
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Children earn approval by being “nice.”
They are concerned about living up to
“good boy” and “good girl” stereotypes.
Good behavior is what pleases or helps
others and what is approved of
by them.
The Golden Rule
Kohlberg: Level 2, Stage 4
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Children are motivated by a sense of
duty or obligation to live up
to socially defined roles, and to maintain
the existing social order
for the good of all.
They are aware that there is a larger
social system, which regulates the
behavior of the people within it.
Kohlberg: Level 3:
Postconventional
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Children make a clear effort to define
moral values and principles
that have validity and application apart
from the authority of
groups or individuals and apart form
their own identification.
There is a concern for fidelity to selfchosen moral principles.
Kohlberg: Level 3, Stage 5
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Right actions tend to be defined in
terms of general individual rights and
standards that have been critically
examined and agreed on by the whole
society.
There is an emphasis on procedural
rules for reaching consensus because
of awareness of the relativism of
personal values and opinions.
Kohlberg: Level 3, Stage 6
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The person defines right by decisions of
conscience in accord with self-chosen
ethical principles that appeal to logical
comprehensiveness, universality, and
consistency.
These principles are abstract and
ethical; at heart they are universal
principles of justice.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development
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Influences on the stages include
cognitive development, imitation and
cognitive conflict, peer relations, and
perspective taking.
Morality as an extended form of
empathy.
Morality as an extended form of
enlightened self interest.
Kohlberg in a nutshell
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Level A: Preconventional Level
– Punishment and Obedience
– Individual Instrumental Purpose and
Exchange
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Level B: Conventional Level
– Mutual Interpersonal Expectations,
Relationships and Conformity
– Social Systems and Conscience
Maintenance
Kohlberg in a nutshell
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Level C: Postconventional and
Principled Level
– Prior Rights and Social Contract or Utility
– Universal Ethical Principles
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Your text provides more discussion;
check out the internet as there is a lot of
information about Kohlberg on the web.
Kohlberg’s critics
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Critics feel Kohlberg’s theory directs too
little attention to moral behavior,
assessment problems, underestimation
of culture’s influences on morality, and
underestimation of the care perspective
(Gilligan’s theory of moral development)
What role does culture have on
morality? Care giving? Empathy?
Moral Reasoning and social
conventional reasoning
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Social conventional reasoning involves
thoughts about social consensus…
what do most people do? Right is
define as a function of what is normal
which is defined as what most people
do.
Moral reasoning stresses ethical issues;
what is right and why is it right?
Teaching morality: Behaviorism
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Behaviorists argue that children’s moral
behavior is determined by the
processes of reinforcement,
punishment, and imitation.
Children will do what they are reward
for, not do what they are punished for,
and will do what they see you do.
Teaching morality
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Situational variability in moral behavior
is stressed by behaviorists
Moral behavior is not internalized and is
no different than any other type of
behavior. Do you agree?
If moral behavior is internalized, how is
this done and why is this done?
Social Cognitive Theory of moral
development
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Moral competence vs. moral
performance.
You might know the right thing to do but
do the wrong thing. Why?
You might not know the right thing to do
but do it anyway. Why?
Is lying wrong? Why? What about white
lies?
Social Cognitive Theory of moral
development
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Hartshorne and May’s classic study
found considerable situational variation
in moral behavior.
What is the criterion for “right” and
“wrong”? Is it always this way? Why or
why not?
Social cognitive theorists believe
Kohlberg’s theory to be inadequate.
Moral Feelings: Psychoanalytic
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Superego is one of the 3 parts of
personality structure
Through identification, children
internalize a parent’s standards of right
and wrong
Conformity to moral standards to avoid
guilt
Ego Ideal, Superego, and conscience.
Moral feelings: Child-rearing
methods
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Methods of controlling children include:
– love withdrawal
– power assertion
– induction
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Each of these methods has an effect on
moral development
Induction is the best method with
middle-SES children.
Empathy
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Reacting to another’s feelings with a
similar emotional response
Empathy involves perspective taking as
a cognitive component
Empathy changes developmentally and
should expand as the child matures
Empathy is the foundation upon which
moral behavior can be built.
Contemporary perspective on
moral development
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Empathy and guilt contribute to
children’s moral development
Emotions are interwoven with the
cognitive and social dimensions of
moral development.
There is a place for guilt; there is a
place for empathy; excesses of either
can also cause problems.
Altruism
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Altruism is the unselfish interest in
helping another person
Reciprocity and exchange are involved
in altruism
Altruism occurs more often in
adolescence than childhood
Forgiveness is an aspect of altruism
The Hidden Curriculum
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John Dewey, father of American
education, proposed the term hidden
curriculum referring to the moral
atmosphere of a school.
What influence has American education
had on moral development in the last 40
years? Good? Bad?
What needs to be different and why?
Character education
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Moral literacy: a direct educational
approach that advocates teaching
students basic moral codes
Does school have this responsibility?
Do parents have this responsibility?
What is the case when these two
conflict? Who sets the standards and
on what foundation?
Values clarification
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This process helps students clarify what
their lives are for an what is worth
working for and why.
Should school be the place where
values are clarified? Why or why not?
What values are immutable? Any?
Why or why not?
Can improper education affect society?
Cognitive Moral Education
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This process emphasizes helping
students develop such values as
democracy and justice as their moral
reasoning develops.
Kohlberg’s theory has served as the
basis for a number of cognitive moral
education programs.
Why be moral?
Rest’s Four-component Model
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Rest argues moral development can
best be understood by considering four
components of morality
– sensitivity: awareness of effects of
behavior
– judgment: correct decisions
– motivation: prioritizing moral values highly
– character: strength of convictions,
overcoming obstacles
Values
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The beliefs and attitudes about the way
things should be.
Over the last 2 decades adolescent
values have become more self-focused
and less other-focused. Good/bad?
Recently a change toward otherfocused values have made a return.
Values: Service Learning
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A form of education that promotes social
responsibility and service to the
community
Service learning is required in some
secondary schools and has a number of
positive outcomes
We do service learning projects in here
some semesters. BB/BS.
Religion
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Adolescents show an interest in religion
as their intellectual abilities expand
Religious institutions are designed to
introduce adolescents to religious
beliefs in many ways
Teen years are a special time in
religious development. Why are we
here? Is there a God? What is right?
Cults
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Cults have been defined in many ways.
Cults may be dangerous institutions to
fringe institutions or just new religious
expressions. Is Christianity a cult? Yes
or no? Why or why not?
People will join cults who are in a
transitional phase in their life; cults
promise to fulfill needs
Cults
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Some cults can be abusive.
Some cults may be physically abusive,
mentally abusive, and isolate the teen
from normalcy; a form of mind-control.
The Heaven’s Gate Cult
The People’s Temple Cult
The Hari Krishna Cult
Questions concerning Ch 12?
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Questions?