1 Psychology 1230: Psychology of Adolescence Don Hartmann Fall 2005 © Lecture 24: Moral Development I (Kohlberg)

2 Administrative Announcements Quiz 2 is scheduled for Friday, November 4 th As usual, extra credit (at the instructor’s discretion) is available for classmates who wear a Halloween (a druid holiday) costume to class on Monday Review session is scheduled for Thursday, November 3 rd from 10:30-11:45 in BS., Rm. 604 I have disbanded the following two WEB Discussion groups due to failure to provide timely (both had summaries delayed more than 2 weeks) WEB discussion summaries: Hotties & Psyched. The same fate will occur to the Pith-Helmets if I do not receive the complete summary for Pith-Helmet II by 5:00 on Friday, October. 28th

3 WEB Discussion Topic #23 #23: Family Dynamics during Adolescence: MAJACS IV (Summary-Evaluation due on Friday, 11/11): Individuals who view the family as a developing organism have noted that in many families the children are going through adolescence at the same time that their parents are experiencing mid-life and it associated crises and problems. Assuming that that is true, how would you expect the adolescents to affect the parents, and how would you expect the parents to affect their adolescents? Feel free to both make your own individual responses and comments on those made by others.

4 WEB Discussion Topic #24 #24. Common parenting situations B: Whippets IV: (Summary-Evaluation due on Monday, November 14 th ): What follows are three situations you are confronted with by one of your children. Discuss how you would handle at least two of the situations, and comment on at least one of the other contributors’ discussion. Your eighth-grader and peers seem to delight in sprinkling their conversation with an assortment of swear words. Your tenth-grader starts to insist that she will only wear certain expensive brands of jeans, shoes, and tops; and they are so expensive that your budget could not afford very much. Your seventh-grader thinks she is old enough to date and is interested in a ninth-grade boy.

5 WEB Discussion Topic #25 #25. Parental Handling of Sibling Rivalry. Justice League III: (Summary due Tuesday, November 15th). Not too long ago a situation occurred in which a young teen stole a gun and used it to kill his older sibling. The older sibling apparently had a history of teasing his younger sibling. How might you handle talking about this event if you were teaching a social sciences unit to eighth grade children? Attempt to relate your remarks to something in the text/lectures. Feel free to comment on other’s comments.

6 WEB Discussion Process Group#2 due#3 due#4 due Whippets10/03 (10/03)10/27 (10/26)11/14 HottiesDisbanded 4 ♀ +1 ♂ 10/04 (10/04)10/28 GypsyMafia10/07 (10/07)10/24** JusticeLeague10/17 (10/09)11/15 PsychedDisbanded PithHelmets10/10 MAJACS10/13 (No takers)10/25 (10/25)11/ Note: Anyone can contribute to any WEB discussion; group members are responsible to summarizing the discussion. The last day to contribute to any discussion is 3 days before the due date. Dates in parenthesis indicate the date handed in. Bolded dates indicate that material handed in was incomplete; more is required. **Where is the summary??

7 Handout Summary Handout WEB Date Date 25. Lect. #10: Social Cognition 09/ Study Guide #509/ Lect. #11: Identity10/ Study Guide #610/ Lect. #12a: Gender—Introduction10/ Lect #12b: Gender—Theory & Androgyny10/ Lect. #13: Gender: Gays & Lesbians10/ Study Guide #710/ Lect. #14: Sexuality10/ Lect. #15a: Moral Devel (Piaget)10/ Study Guide #810/ HO: Lecture Critiques10/ Lect. #15b: Moral Devel (Kohlberg)10/27

8 Supplementary Reading Damon, W., & Hart, D. Self-understanding and its role in social and moral development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (3rd ed., pp ). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Turiel, E (1998). The development of morality. In W. Damon (Editor-in-chief) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. Vol. 3: Social, emotional, and personality development (5 th ed., pp ). New York: Wiley.

9 Lecture Overview Kohlberg’s Refinements 3 levels each with 2 stages Tests of Kohlberg’s notion—successful & less successful Gilligan’s feminist contributions Corresponds with text, pp Next: Lecture: #16: Attachment.

10 Whose kind of morality?

11 Kohlberg’s Refinements Ask the question “Is that all there is? Is it all over after age 10, as suggested by Piaget?” Refinement and extension of Piaget—again with the dependence of moral reasoning on cognitive development. Again, focus on thought (method of thinking) rather than type of particular moral decision (content). --Popularized the now famous story of Heinz and his wife who was dying of cancer and couldn’t afford to pay for meds (see text, p. 275). Should he steal the drug to save his wife, or let his wife die? The answer isn’t what’s important: It is the justification.

12 Kohlberg’s Levels: I Three levels each with two stages Preconventional: 1. Punishment & Obedience Orientation: “It’s OK as long as he doesn’t get caught” 2. Naïve Hedonism: “The druggist is in business to make money; you can’t blame him for not giving Heinz the drug. Heinz has to follow the American way.”

13 Kohlberg’s Levels: II Conventional: 3. Person Orientation: “ You can’t blame him for doing something out of love for his wife.” 4. Social-Order Maintaining: “ You can’t go around breaking the law, even if it means that your wife would die.”

14 Kohlberg’s Levels: III Postconventional: morality of self ‑ accepted moral principles: 5. Social-Contract Orientation: “Even laws have limited applicability, and in this case the value of life is even more important.” 6. Individual principles of conscience. “I have considered this very carefully, and I believe strongly that a society that would favor property over life is not worth preserving; Heinz is morally required to steal the drug in order to save his wife.”

15 And in pictoral form…

16 So How Does It Happen? Cognitive Development! Peer Interaction Cognitive disequilibrium: Induced by exposing individuals to reasoners slightly upwardly discrepant from themselves Parental Interaction: Encouraging discussion of value-based issues

17

18 From Santrock, 2005, p. 278 Age and percentage of individuals at each Kohlberg stage Age, in years Percent

19 Tests of Kohlberg Generally supportive results: Individuals progress pretty much in the order that Kohlberg theorized Few people progress beyond the conventional level, and in some underdeveloped countries individuals, particularly those from rural villages, show no evidence of postconventional moral reasoning. This may be due to limitations in schooling Formal operational thought is necessary, though not sufficient for post conventional moral reasoning

20 Tests of Kohlberg Generally unsupported results: The results could be dependent upon method of assessment. We need addition methods, besides Heinz-like stories, to assess moral reasoning (Rest’s DIT) Moral development seems not to be based on universal principles, as Kohlberg insisted, but instead is at least partly contextually (e.g., culturally) defined Gender biased: Scanty evidence that the average guy is at stage 4 (authority and social-order-maintaining) and gal at stage 3 (good boy or good girl orientation). Does this mean that boys are more moral than girls?

21 And here she is…

22 Gilligan’s Feminist Concerns The manner in which we socialize girls & boys results in differences in the manner in which they reason about moral issues: boys being more oriented to rules and girls to relationships. Because Kohlberg was a male, used only boys in developing his stages, and used their performance to develop his scales, he interpreted stage 3 as being less sophisticated than stage 4 -- rather than merely different. Gilligan, in a study of pregnant females found 3 levels of care with each level representing a more complex understanding of the relationship between one’s own perspective and the rights and concerns of others.

23 Gilligan’s Stages of Care Perspective

24 Rules versus Relationships?

25 Summary Moral Development II (Kohlberg) Lecture Kohlberg’s Refinements 3 levels each with 2 stages Tests of Kohlberg’s notion— successful & less successful Gilligan’s feminist contributions Next: Lecture 17: Attachment Go in Peace