Developmental psychology

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What is moral developmental?

Concerns the rules and convention about what people should do it their interactions with others.

Influential people in studying moral development

- Piaget, 1931

- Kohlberg, 1984

   - Piaget began development investigation of moral reasoning; Kohlberg continued it.

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Piaget: the rules of the game

Piaget, 1932 - "All morality consists in a system of rules, and the essence of morality is to be found in the respect which the individual acquires for these rules.

Piaget thought 'rules of the game' correspond with 'rules of society' so began studying games.

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Piaget: two stages of moral development

To elicit moral judgements from children, Piaget presented them with hypothetical moral dilemmas --> identified two stages:

1) Heteronomous stage (moral realism)

2) Autonomous stage (moral subjectivism) 

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Paiget: developmental shift

Heteronomous stage (4-7 years)

- Justice and rules are unchangable

- Believe in imminent justice - if a rule is broken, punishment will immediately follow

- Moral realism: judge that rules are absolute and cannot be changed as adults or God developed the rules.

Autonomous stage (around 9-10 years)

- Children recognise that rules and laws are made by people and that, when judging a behaviour, one should consider the actors intentions and the consequences of the behaviour.

-  Reciprocity: idea that peer relationships can enhance social understanding through mutual give-and-take (e.g. disagreements are discussed, reasoned and subsequently settled)

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Piaget's theory

Piaget thought as morality develops, there is a developmental shift from:

- Heteronomy to autonomy

- Egocentric to sociocentric (decentred) perspective

- Adult - child (asymmetric) to peer (symmetric) social relations

- Objective to subjective perspectives

Moral vignettes (Piaget, 1932)

Presented two stories to a child and asked which character was 'naughtier' to identify moral stage.

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Morality

Before 9 or 10 years, children often judge the scenarios on the amount of damage.

- More cups damaged in the tea cup scenario constitutes larger moral violation in the eyes of younger children.

- Younger children likely to judge more harshly

After 9 or 10, children judge more by intention or motive.

Child's morality linked to stage of cognitive development.

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Development of morality

Lawrence Kohlberg's stage theory

Assumptions:

- Children move to higher stages as age increases

- Invarient sequence; pass through all stages

- Each stage forms a structural whole

- Stages are universal and cross-cultural

Measurements:

- Moral dilemmas - similar to Piaget.

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Kohlberg: six stages

Level 1: pre-conventional

- Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation

- Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation

Level 2: Conventional

- Stage 3: "Good girl" and "Nice boy" orientation

- Stage 4: "Law and order" orientation

Level 3: Post-conventional

- Stage 5: Social contract

- Stage 6: Universal ethical principles.

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Kohlberg: six stages

Level 1: pre-conventional

- Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation

- Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation

Level 2: Conventional

- Stage 3: "Good girl" and "Nice boy" orientation

- Stage 4: "Law and order" orientation

Level 3: Post-conventional

- Stage 5: Social contract

- Stage 6: Universal ethical principles.

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A moral dilemma

The most famous of Kohlberg's moral dilemmas involves Heinz:

- Heinz needs a particular expensive drug to help his who is dying of cancer. The pharmacist who invented and controls the supply of the drugs has refused Heinz's offer to give him all the money he has now, which would be half of the necessary sum, and to pay the rest later. Heinz must decide whether to steal the drug to save his wife, that is to violate the rules and laws of society to respond to the needs of his wife, or to obet the rules of society and let his wife die.

What should Heinz do and why?

Kohlberg's six stages of moral development

- Devised in response to child, adolescent and adult judgements of the 'Heinz scenario'

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Kohlberg: pre-conventional stage

Stage 1: punishment and obedience orientation

- People believe that rules should be obeyed, and their behaviour of controlled by the threat of punishment.

Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation

- People judge behaviour with regard to if it was 'fair' and/or statisfied a personal need.

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Kohlberg: Conventional level

Stage 3: "Good girl" and "Nice boy" orientation

- People judge behaviour with regard to what makes others happy or helps others and they think about the motivations and intentions behind behaviour.

Stage 4: "Law and order" orientation

- People judge behaviour on whether it adheres to rules implemented by authority (authority must be respected and social order maintained.

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Kohlberg: Post-conventional level

Stage 5: Social contract

- People judge behaviour on whether is adheres to the norms and rules of society, recognising that different societies have different norms.

Stage 6: Universal ethical principles

- People judge behaviour of universal abstract and ethical beliefs that all societies should agree (e.g. human rights)

- Very few people reach this stage.

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Criticisms of Kohlberg

Moral reasoning vs moral behaviour

- Kohlberg examines moral reasoning not behaviour

- Kohlberg acknowledged that other factors detemined moral behaviour.

Methodological problems

- Used spontaneous verbal responses which need to be coded --> issue of reliability

- Used hypothetical scenarios --> too complex?

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Gilligan

Defined Kohlberg's thoery as a justice perspective and developed a care perspective --> more inclusive.

Also criticised Kohlberg for using solely male participants - stages thus reflect male moral male development

- Looked at whether female morality is different

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Gender differences

Gilligan (1986)

- Studied women's responses to dilemmas involving abortion --> very real moral dilemma.

- Men's reasoning is abstract and justice-orientated.

- Women's reasoning is based of an 'ethic of care'

Gilligan and Attanucci (1988)

- Boys focued more on the justice concerns and girls focused more on the care concerns.

Feamles made significantly more care-based judgements on personal dilemmas than males (Warks& Krebs, 1996).

But, Walker (1984) - no consistent gender differences in a range of morality studies.

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Morality across cultures

Culture is a critical issue

- Stages 1-4: widely replictaed across cultures

- Stage 5: suggested to be culturally biased.

- Stage 6: hypothetical.

Age of moral responsibility?

- In UK, around 10 years (which is one of the lowest)

- Differs from culture to culture.

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