How Moral are you?

1. How Moral are you? By Jessica Jancose and Ketan Jain-Poster

2. Background • Morals: attitudes and beliefs that help people decide what is right and wrong • Influenced by culture, parental influences and peer influences • Humans are born without morals

3. Hypothesis • Lawrence Kohlberg built off of Jean Piaget’s work • Question: “How does the amoral infant become capable of moral reasoning?” • Hypothesis: Human ability to make moral judgments develops in a predictable way – specific stages

4. Theoretical propositions • 1) Each stage is uniquely different • 2) Stages always occur in same step-by-step sequence • 3) Children comprehend all stages below their own

5. Method • Interviewed young boys of varying ages (10,13,16) 10 hypothetical moral dilemmas • The Heinz Dilemma • The Brother’s Dilemma

6. What the boys said…. • 10 year old boys’ responses focused on what was best for the individual • 13 year old boys’ responses focused on considering relationship roles • 16 year old boys’ responses focused on individual needs vs. society

7. Results • Discovered six stages of moral development, six types of motives to explain reasoning Categorized into 3 “moral levels”: • Premoral Level- Egocentrism and personal interests • Level 2- Recognition of one’s role in relationship • Level 3- Own views on morality and judgment

8. Six stages of moral development

9. Discussion • Children actively organize the morality of the world around them in steps • Morality – emergence of cognitive moral structures influenced by social and cultural environment • Morality is not learned, it is constructed

10. Criticisms • Moral reasoning = not the same as moral behavior • Study didn’t address situational factors • Six stages of moral reasoning are not universal • Western individualistic societies • Stages do not apply equally to both men and women • Women – care orientation

11. Applications • Law and criminal justice • Criminals understand moral issues but ignore them • Child eye-witness testimonies • Their understanding of secrecy