Moral Developmental Theory

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Moral Developmental Theory

• Neil Ferguson

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What is Morality?

• what is a virtuous man, and what is a virtuous
  school and society which educates a virtuous
  man? (Socrates)
• What is a virtuous person?
• Are we born good or bad?
• Or do we become good or bad?
• Is a virtuous person someone who does a lot of
  virtuous deeds?

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Moral Reasoning
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Piaget

• The godfather of cognitive developmentalism
• Research morality by investigating
• Lying
• The rules of the game
• Clumsiness
• Stealing
• Piaget proposes that morality consists of a
  system of rules, and the essence of all morality
  is to be sought for in the respect which the
  individual acquires those rules (Piaget 1932,
  pp. 1)
• He explored a childs moral reasoning through the
  moral realities of the childhood game of
  marbles
• Interviewed over 100 children from Switzerland
  about the rules of the game of marbles and
  discovered a progression in the childs actual
  practice of the rules and the consciousness of
  rules.

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The Game of Marbles
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(No Transcript)
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Heteronomy and Autonomy

• This progression is not viewed as 3 separate
  stages, but a two moralities
• Heteronomy, or the condition of being under the
  domination of an outside authority, either human
  or divine.
• Autonomy, or independence or freedom, as of the
  will or one's actions.
• The two moralities are based on relationships
  with parents and peers and are in conflict with
  each other.

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Piagets Stories

• There was a little boy called Julian. His father
  had gone out and Julian thought it would be fun
  to play with his fathers ink-pot. First he
  played with the pen, and then he made a little
  blot on the table cloth.
• A little boy called Augustus once noticed that
  his fathers ink-pot was empty. One day while his
  father was away he thought of filling the ink-pot
  so as to help his father, and so that he should
  find it full when he came home. But while he was
  opening the ink-bottle he made a big blot on the
  table cloth.
• Q. Are the two children equally guilty? Which of
  the two is the naughtiest?

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Piaget

• Development was a continuation and a gradual
  movement.
• Co-operation with peers led to autonomous
  morality.
• The denser the society the quicker the stage
  movement.
• Heteronomous obedience can be found in adulthood
• Provides the corner-stones for Kohlberg Gibbs

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Piaget Summary

• Piaget provided a universalistic view of
  morality, with moral reasoning and behaviour
  being judged by a collection of timeless and
  universal principles, common to all of humanity,
  in terms of which any culture can be judged.

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Kohlberg

• Laurence Kohlberg (1927 1987) is one of the
  most frequently cited psychologists in the social
  and behavioural sciences.
• During WW II as an engineer on a freighter he
  assisted Jews escaping from Germany to Palestine.
• Gained his BSc Psychology in one year at the
  University of Chicago.
• Worked at the University of Chicago and Harvard
  University.
• Set up just community schools in US after his
  work in a Kibbutz
• Committed suicide after struggling with
  depression and pain caused by a tropic disease he
  contracted in Belize in 1971.

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Kohlberg
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Kohlberg
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These 3 levels reflect differences in the
relationship between an individual and societys
rules and expectations

• Pre-conventional Rules and expectations are
  external.
• Conventional The individual internalizes the
  rules and expectations of others.
• Post-conventional The individual now defines
  their own rules based on universal ethical
  principles.

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Kohlbergs Stages (1 2)
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Kohlbergs Stages (3 4)
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Kohlbergs Stages (5 6)
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Development Through Interaction

Infant Child Adolescent
Adult

Parents Peers Community Society

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Example Stage Responses

• Q. Lets say a friend of yours needs help and may
  even die, and youre the only person who can save
  him or her. How important is it for a person to
  save a friends life?
• A. Saving your friends life is important
  because
• Stage 1. If you dont youll get shouted at
• Stage 2. You may need your friend one day
• Stage 3. Thats what friends are for, otherwise
  your not much of a friend
• Stage 4. People must help each other for the
  sake of society

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Percentage Stage Usage in Child and Adolescent
Samples
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Characteristics of Kohlbergs Stages

• Invariant stage development.
• Individuals are attracted to plus-one reasoning.
• Turiel, E. Rothman, G. R. (1972). The influence
  of reasoning on behavioural choices at different
  stages of moral development. Child Development,
  43, 741-756.
• Cognitive disequilibrium causes upward stage
  progression.
• Linked to logical or cognitive development.
• Progress requires role-taking opportunities, or
  encounters in which the individual is exposed to
  moderately more advanced thought.
• Linked to moral atmosphere. The society must
  allow role taking opportunities for an individual
  to advance through the stages.

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Kohlbergs Critics

• Culturally Universal?
• Snarney, J. (1985). The cross-cultural
  universality of socio-moral development A
  critical review of Kohlbergian research.
  Psychological Bulletin, 97, 202-232.
• The Use of Moral Dilemmas.
• Vine, I. (1986). Moral maturity in socio-cultural
  perspective Are Kohlbergs stages universal? In
  S. Modgil C. Modgil (Eds.), Lawrence Kohlberg
  Consensus and controversy (pp. 419-430). Sussex,
  England Falmer.
• Justice vs. Care
• Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice
  Psychological theory and womens development.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.

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John Gibbs

• Gained his PhD from Harvard in 1971 and worked
  with Kohlberg at from 1975 to 1979 as a research
  faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of
  Education.
• Professor of Developmental Psychology at The Ohio
  State University

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Gibbs
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Progression Through Gibbs Stages

• Fuelled by continual cognitive decentration.
• Natural process utilising optimal role-taking
  opportunities to evolve towards moral adequacy.
• Also upward development can evolve from
  encounters between same stage individuals with
  opposing viewpoints.

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Global Meta-analysis
OLDER ADULT (approx. 40-50 years old) n Global
Stage USA (Basinger et al.), university parents/
(50.1) 58 3(4) USA (Peterson), offenders/
(41.7) 29 2(3) - 3 YOUNG ADULT (approx. 20-35
years old) USA (Peterson), university students/
(34.5) 20 3(4) - 4 Australia (Stevenson et
al.), university students/ (26.9) 94 3
3(4) LATE ADOLESCENT (approx. 16-19 years old)
Italy (Comunian Gielen), volunteers/ 15-21
(17.9) 49 3 3(4) England (Palmer Hollin
98), female students/ 13-22 (17.9) 210 2(3)
3(4) Australia (Putnins), male delinquents/ 14-18
(16.5) 38 1(2) 2(3) EARLY/MIDDLE ADOLESCENT
(approx.12-15 years) Japan (Takaki), 6th graders/
(12.4) 46 2(3) - 3 Ireland (Ferguson
Cairns), secondary school students/
14-15 325 2(3) 3 Kenya, middle school students/
11-13 83 1(2) 2 LATE CHILDHOOD (approx. 9-11
years old) USA (Garrod), primary school students/
11-12 (11.4) 17 2 2(3) Japan (Takaki), 4th
graders/ (10.3) 37 2 - 3 Ireland (Ferguson et
al.), primary school students/ 10-11 28 2
2(3) Nigeria, (Ferguson et al.), primary school
students/ 10-11 37 1(2) - 2
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Moral Atmosphere Effects

• Donated Social Discourse
• Emler, N. (1987). Socio-moral development from
  the perspective of social representations.
  Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 17,
  4, 371-388.
• Kibbutz
• Snarney, J., Reimer, J., Kohlberg, L. (1984).
  The development of sociomoral reasoning among
  Kibbutz adolescents A longitudinal
  cross-cultural study. Developmental Psychology,
  21, 3-17.
• Prison
• Kohlberg, L., Hickey, J., Scharf (1972). The
  justice of the prison A theory and intervention.
  Prison Journal, 51, 3-14.

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Useful References

• Colby, A., Kohlberg, L. (1987). The Measurement
  of Moral Judgment Vol. 1. Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press.
• Duska, R., Whelan, M. (1977). Moral
  Development A Guide to Piaget and Kohlberg.
  Dublin, Ireland Gill Macmillan.
• Gibbs, J. C., Basinger, K. S., Fuller, D.
  (1992). Moral Maturity Measuring the Development
  of Sociomoral Reflection. Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  Erlbaum.
• Gibbs, J. C., Basinger, K., Grime, R. L.,
  Snarney, J. (In Press). Moral Development and
  Values across Cultures Revising Kohlbergs
  Universalist Claim with a New Assessment Method.
  Psychological Bulletin.