Moral Development Flashcards

1
Q

What is morality?

A

an understanding of the difference between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’

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2
Q

Who are the two key theorists of moral development?

A
  • Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
  • Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Moral Development
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3
Q

Outline Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development

A
  • proposed children progressed in stages
  • ran a study asking children to make judgements about relative naughtiness of two boys
  • one scenario involved good intentions but large damage
  • boy snuck into father’s office to help tidy up (good intention) but spilt ink on desk, ruining desk beyond repair (large damage)
  • another scenario involved bad intentions but small damage
  • boy snuck into father’s office and deliberately poured (bad intention) small amount of ink onto desk (small damage)
  • based on experiment, children were categorised into two stages
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4
Q

What were the two stages the Piaget categorised children into based on his experiment?

A
  • Moral Realists
  • Moral Subjectivists
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5
Q

What are moral realists?

A
  • children below age 7
  • tended to be in preoperational stage of development
  • judgements about boy were based on the scale of the damage
  • intentions behind act were not considered
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6
Q

What are moral subjectivists?

A
  • children above 7
  • tended to be in concrete operational stage
  • judgements were based on the context of the intention behind behaviour
  • believed to be fully morally developed
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7
Q

What is Kohlberg’s moral dilemma?

A
  • given to adults
  • woman near death from cancer
  • there was one drug drs thought may save her
  • form of radium recently discovered by local pharmacist
  • drug was expensive to make
  • pharmacist charged £20,000 for small dose
  • husband could only collect £10,000
  • husband told pharmacist wife was dying and for drug to be cheaper
  • pharmacist said no
  • husband broke into pharmacy and stole drug for his wife
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8
Q

What is Kohlberg’s moral dilemma?

A

this dilemma was given to adults to judge

  • woman near death from cancer
  • there was one drug drs thought may save her
  • form of radium recently discovered by local pharmacist
  • drug was expensive to make
  • pharmacist charged £20,000 for small dose
  • husband could only collect £10,000
  • husband told pharmacist wife was dying and for drug to be cheaper
  • pharmacist said no
  • husband broke into pharmacy and stole drug for his wife
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9
Q

What did Kohlberg ask adults to do when judging dilemma?

A

ppts were asked:

  • should the husband have done this?
  • was it wrong or right for husband to do this? Why?
  • would a good husband do this?
  • did the pharmacist have the right to charge that much for drug?

Kohlberg asked people to justify the moral behaviour of people in this scenario

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10
Q

Outline Kohlberg’s stages

A
  1. preconventional reality
  2. conventional reality
  3. postconventional morality
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10
Q

How would people make justification of morality in the preconventional reality stage?

A
  • justifications of whether behaviour is right or wrong is based on if individual is rewarded or punished
  • e.g.: husband would go to jail for stealing, therefore behaviour is wrong
  • then may start thinking that more rewarded behaviour is morally right
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11
Q

How would people make justification of morality in the conventional morality stage?

A
  • starting to defer from the conventions of society
  • considering the intentions behind behaviour
  • start thinking about obedience to authority
  • is this behaviour something that is going to be policed
  • this would fit into the conventional right vs wrong
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12
Q

How would people make justification of morality in the postconventional morality?

A
  • highest level of understanding
  • going beyond the understanding of societal conventions of what is right and wrong
  • start thinking of abstract constructions of right vs wrong
  • looking at morally vs legally right and wrong
  • there is acknowledgement that people may do things against the law but it is morally right to do
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13
Q

Define prosocial behaviour

A

behaviour that benefits other people

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14
Q

What are different types of prosocial behaviour?

A
  • altruism
    helping others at the cost of yourself, not expecting anything in return
  • helping others
  • sharing resources
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15
Q

Explain the study that shows infants preferring those who help
(Hamilton et al, 2007)

A

METHOD
- infants as young as 6 months old
- shown video of red ball trying to get up hill
- one video showed prosocial behaviour (helping) of yellow triangle pushing red ball up hill
- another video showed red ball trying to get up hill but blue square pushes ball back down hill
- infants then asked which toy do you want to play with, triangle or square?

FINDINGS
- found that in both 6 month and 10 month olds preferred playing with helper (yellow triangle)
- also found that when eyes were removed from agents, so agents just looked like shapes, the preference over toys disappeared

  • suggests as young as 6 months old, children are sensitive to good and bad actions of others
  • able to understand helping behaviour
16
Q

Explain the study that investigates when do children engage in prosocial behaviour (helping)?

(Warneken & Tomasello, 2006)

A
  • looked at 18 month olds
  • set up scenario where experimenter would drop item and not be able to pick it up
  • observed whether infant watching experimenter’s behaviour would independently get up to help
  • found that in all these cases, infant would get up with help
17
Q

Explain the study that looks at children’s understanding of sharing norms
(Smith, Blake & Harris, 2013)

A
  • looked at how sharing behaviour is developed
  • looking at children’s understanding of sharing norms

METHOD
- children aged 3-8 years given 4 stickers
- first asked how many SHOULD you share with another child
- also asked if other child was given 4 stickers, how many should child share with you
- asked to perform sharing task

FINDINGS
- across all ages found would share 2 stickers
- shows understanding from age 3 that they should share half
- even split of sharing only reached at 7/8 years old when asked to put this into practise

  • shows that understanding of sharing is there much earlier than actual. tendency to share
18
Q

define anti-social behaviour

A

behaviour that violates social norms in ways that reflect disregard to others or violation of others’ rights

19
Q

how is antisocial behaviour developed?

A
  • environmental factors (learnt)
  • genetic factors (born with)
20
Q

Outline a study that looks into genetic and environmental explanation for antisocial behaviour
(Rhee & Waldman, 2002)

A
  • meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies
  • found a 32% variation due to genetic influence
  • found a 43% variation due to environmental influence
  • suggests that more of an environmental influence of antisocial behaviour
21
Q

Give examples of environmental influences for antisocial behaviour

A
  • style of parenting
  • child attachment to parent
  • peer group influences
  • watching TV
22
Q

Outline Eron (1987) longitudinal study on the effects of watching TV on anti-social behaviour

A
  • studied 8 year olds
  • children reported favourite shows/characters, how lifelike they were, child’s own violent tendencies, classmates violent tendencies

INITIAL FINDINGS
- 8 year olds who stated they liked violent TV programmes rated by peers as being most aggressive
- most aggressive children rated violent programmed being more lifelike

FOLLOW-UP FINDINGS
- watching violent programmes at age 8 correlated with ratings of aggression at age 19
- watching violent programmes at age 8 correlated with various anti-social behaviours at age 30
e.g.: drink-driving, criminal convictions, beating and bullying spouses, beating children

23
Q

What does Bandura’s Bobo Doll study suggest about antisocial behaviour?

A
  • suggests behaviour is learnt through imitation
  • applying the SLT onto how antisocial behaviour is developed
  • when children observe an adult behaving aggressively towards Bobo doll, children imitated aggressive acts as well