Moral Development
| How well do you know your own moral compass? (if you don’t care, you just answered the question) |
Ok be honest with me for a second. If your friend came up to you with a copy of this years AP Psychology examination would you take a peak?
Let’s say you are guaranteed not to get caught, would you cheat?
I am not interested in whether you would or would not cheat, rather I am interested in how you came to your decision. This is the study of morality and Lawrence Kohlberg came up with the idea that the reasoning behind our morality changing throughout our lifetime– yes, another stage theorist.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Morality
Ok, this is what Kohlberg did: He asked people of different ages to read the famous Heinz Dilemma asked them what they would do and more importantly why.
| Ok, this is what Kohlberg did: He asked people of different ages to read the famous Heinz Dilemma asked them what they would do and more importantly why. (and it has nothing to do with ketcup) |
In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2000, ten times what the drug had cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could get together only about half of what it should cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or to let him pay later. But the druggist said no. The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why?
Preconventional Morality
1. Preconventional Morality: This morality was exhibited by the youngest children in the study (although I make the argument that many of us use this morality throughout our lifetimes). Preconventional morality is the concept that your morality is linked to getting rewarded and trying to avoid punishment. If you do not cheat on the the AP Exam because you are afraid that you will get caught and punished you are using preconventional morality. The same preconventional morality is used when my 6 year old cleans his room because he will get to watch TV- he is cleaning not because he feels some internal sense of moral goodness to clean- but rather, he wants the reward.
If you think Heinz is wrong to steal the drug because he could get punished you are using preconventional morality. If you think Heinz was right to steal the drug because he will be rewarded with his wife’s life, then you are still using preconventional morality. It is not about the decision, but rather how you go about reasoning it.
Conventional Morality
2. Conventional Morality: This is the most common moral stage for teenagers. This is where your morality is based on how you think people will view you. You think to yourselves, “how will my peers view me”. If you choose not to cheat on the AP exam because if you get caught your friends will think you are a cheater, you have used conventional morality.
Thus we have the huge cheating problem we face in our educational system today. Most of you (teenagers) emphasis conventional morality because you REALLY care what your peers think of you. Cheating is not looked at as the horrific act it once was- thus many of you would not think any less of a cheater- reinforcing people to cheat even more. If cheating was look at as a “Scarlet Letter”, teenagers would rarely cheat.
In the Heinz example, whether you think people will like him and think him a hero or if you think people will think him a criminal, you are using conventional morality.
Postconventional Morality
3. Postconventional Morality: The highest level of morality, here you rely on what some people call universal ethical principles. You believe that there is a absolute right and wrong. So you would cheat or not cheat on the AP Exam depending on what your own personal set of ethics are.
In the Heinz example, you may believe he was justified because a woman’s life outweighs the store owner’s right of personal property.
Criticisms of Kohlberg
Carol Gilligan is well known for her critiques of Kohlberg’s theory. She basically said that Kohlberg focused only on boys in his study and did not look to separate by gender. She makes the argument that boys have a more absolute perspective of morality, while girls tend to look at the situation and relationships of the people involved before making a decision. Just like a woman to criticize…..
That’s all the reading that is due today but if you want to finish this unit lets examine how our genders develop.