OCR Psychology For A Level Book 1 sample

Kohlberg’s 25 moral concepts or aspects Kohlberg identified 25 moral concepts that people use when making judgements. He gave examples of two of the moral concepts and explained how each would be represented in the six stages. M ive given for rule obedience or moral action 1. Obey rules to avoid punishment. 2. Conform to obtain rewards, have favours returned, etc. 3. Conform to avoid disapproval, dislike by hers. 4. Conform to avoid censure by legitimate authorities and resultant guilt. 5. Conform to maintain the respect of the impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare. 6. Conform to avoid self-condemnation. The value of human life 1. The value of human life is con sed with the value of physical objects and is based on the social status or physical attributes of the possessor. 2. The value of human life is seen as instrumental to the satisfaction of the needs of its possessor or of her people. 3. The value of human life is based on the empathy and affection of family members and hers toward its possessor. 4. Life is conceived as sacred in terms of its place in a categorical moral or religious order of rights and duties. 5. Life is valued b h in terms of its relation to community welfare and in terms of life being a universal human right. 6. Belief in the sacredness of human life as representing a universal human value of respect for the individual. Up to now Kohlberg asked ‘Is virtue something that can be taught (by rational discussion), or does it come by practice, or is it a natural attitude?’ In other words, are morals due to nurture or nature ? Psychologists have presented various theories: • Behaviourists suggest it is learned through conditioning. • Freudians claim it is due to identification with parents and the growth of the superego . (Freudian concepts are discussed on page 195.) • American psychologists listed the traits of good and bad character found in ordinary language. Hugh Hartshorne and Mark May (1928–1930) found no evidence of character traits that corresponded to honesty, service or self-control. For example, with respect to honesty, they found that none of the people they studied were consistently honest – even the most honest people occasionally cheated. This means there is no such thing as an ‘honest person’. Other research has found similar results for concepts such as ‘superego-strength’ or ‘ego-control’. Just because someone might display superego strength in one situation doesn’t predict that they will behave in the same moral fashion in another situation. The capacity to show superego strength and resist temptation may be equivalent to the idea of ‘will’. Yet many of the greatest evildoers in history have been people of strong wills pursuing immoral goals. So, a strong will does not equal high morals. Moral reasons: The aim of the research An alternative approach is to explain moral behaviour in terms of moral thinking . Kohlberg proposed that people go through the six stages outlined on the facing page in an invariant sequence – everyone goes through the stages in the same order and does not skip steps. At any point in time 50% of a person’s thinking will be at a single stage, so they may be half in and half out of a particular stage. Kohlberg identified 25 moral concepts and, for two of them, gave examples of the kind of thinking that would be shown at each of the six stages (see right). The aim of Kohlberg’s research was to gather further support for his view of moral development. In particular he wished to find out if people at Stage 6 go through Stage 5 or whether these are two alternate orientations. Another moral dilemma Collect responses to the following moral dilemma composed by Kohlberg. Ask people what they think the captain should do, and ask them to explain their decision. Try to classify the responses using Kohlberg’s stages. In Korea, a company of Marines was way outnumbered and was retreating before the enemy. The company had crossed a bridge over a river, but the enemy were mostly still on the other side. If someone went back to the bridge and blew it up, with the head start the rest of the men in the company would have, they could probably then escape. But the man who stayed back to blow up the bridge would not be able to escape alive. The captain himself is the man who knows best how to lead the retreat. He asks for volunteers, but no one will volunteer. If he goes himself, the men will probably not get back safely as he is the only one who knows how to lead the retreat. Method American longitudinal study 75 American boys were followed from early adolescence onwards – a longitudinal study . The boys were aged 10, 13 and 16 at the beginning of the study. They were then tested every three or four years and were aged 22–28 years at the end of the study. Materials Kohlberg assessed moral stages using the Moral Judgement Interview . This consisted of a number of fictional moral dilemmas such as the Heinz study (previous spread) and the one on the left. These dilemmas were based on his 25 moral concepts. [This information was not provided in the article.] Procedure Each semi-structured interview lasted about 45 minutes during which the participant was presented with nine dilemmas and asked various questions such as ‘ What should the person do? ’, ‘ Why or why not? ’. The decision of which question to ask depended on the previous answer given by the participant. The form and structure of the answers was scored using the standard scoring manual (a book over 900 pages long). The person’s moral stage of development was established by matching their reasoning with one of the stages. The cross-cultural sample Kohlberg tested the moral thinking in children from two villages, one Atayal (Malaysian aboriginal) and the other Taiwanese. A Chinese researcher interpreted the responses. The boys (aged 10 to 13 years) were asked about a story concerning the theft of food: ‘A man’s wife is starving to death but the store owner won’t give the man any food unless he can pay, which he can’t. Should he break in and steal some food? Why?’ Kohlberg also tested young boys in Mexico, Turkey and Yucatán (and the UK and Canada – but these results were not included here). 199 A level only Developmental core study 3: Kohlberg on Moral development