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CLASS 16
Morality
-how do children
learn right from wrong?
Beyond the reach of psychology?
Philosophers say:
“one can’t convert “is” to “ought”
Kohlberg’s Answer:
 Children get more morally mature as they age
 They improve in 6 stages
 Most people stop before stage 6
 therefore, we can evaluate adult morality
-- it’s a kind of cognitive
development
i.e., the ability to think about
complex moral issues
Three levels
Pre-conventional morality
(reward-punishment)
Conventional morality
(social stability)
Post-conventional morality
(universal principles)
Measured by:
Set of ethical dilemmas
 Hypothetical dilemmas with difficult moral choices
 e.g.,
stealing vs. loyalty
 Not your choice but your reasoning
Four alternatives
to Kohlberg’s theory
1. PSYCHO-DYNAMIC VIEW
 Shame
 External valued audience
 Guilt
 Internal audience
 Id misbehaves
 Superego administers self-punishment
2. TRAIT PSYCHOLOGY
 Consistent with our beliefs about others
 Among the Big Five
 Conscientious people are moral (sort of)
 Ashton-Lee Big Six
 Added Factor 6 = honesty
3. SOCIAL LEARNING VIEW
- morality is conditioned
- involves both behavior and emotional
aspects
A. Moral Behavior
- society declares a set of inappropriate
behaviors
- punishment reduces their frequency
- instrumental conditioning
B. Moral Emotions
 classical conditioning

We associate that behavior with negative feelings
 creates an anxiety during future temptation

Warns us with a negative emotion
 Also makes us judge others
Mischel’s contribution:
Resisting temptation
 Ability to delay of gratification
 Varied level of temptation
 anyone can be dishonest
The Marshmallow Test
Hartshorne and May (1928)
 Searched for the honest child
 lying vs. cheating vs. stealing
 RESULTS
 different children misbehaved in the 3 different
situations
Summary of SLT View
 no honest personality
 match between previous conditioning and
current context
 morality is anxiety
 In short, no glory
4. HAIDT’S EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
 Built-in reactions to distress in others
 We convert to reality and institutionalize
into our culture
 Care; Fairness vs. Purity; Respect; Loyalty
 Politics determined by relative weights
 Explains why political arguments are so
heated
SUMMARY: 5 approaches to morality
1. Kohlberg
-- cognitive development
2. Freud
-- guilt
3. Trait psychology
4. Social learning
-- high C or factor 6
-- behavior and anxiety
5. Evolutionary psych – hardwired empathy
MIDTERM EXAM
 In class on Friday February 12, 2016
 50 multiple choice questions
 Worth 35% of your course mark
 About 30 items from text; 20 from lectures