Transcript Are Kohlberg`s stages of moral development universal?

Psychology 307:
Cultural Psychology
March 18
Lecture 17
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Reminder
Paper:
Topic due date: March 25 (Option A or B, 3-5 sentence
summary; e-mail to your TA for approval).
Paper due date: April 8.
Questions?
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Morality
1. What are Kohlberg’s stages of moral development?
2. Are Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
universal?
3. What are Shweder’s codes of ethics?
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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. distinguish between the universalist, relativist, and
evolutionist perspectives.
2. describe Kohlberg’s levels and stages of moral
development.
3. review evidence for and discuss criticisms of Kohlberg’s
theory of moral development.
4. describe Shweder’s codes of ethics.
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The Kargar Case
In 1996 in Maine, USA (State of Maine v. Mohammed Kargar,
679 A. 2d 81), an Afghani immigrant was charged with child
molestation after he was seen kissing the genitals of his infant
son. Mohammed Kargar provided baby-sitting services to local
families. One of these children saw Mohammed Kargar place a
kiss on the genitals of his own 18-month-old son. Disturbed by
this behavior, the child that Kargar was babysitting reported
Kargar’s behavior to her parents, who then reported the incident
to the police. Kargar claimed that his gesture is customary and
familiar to members of his family and within the Afghani
community, where it is understood as a display of love and
affection for baby boys.
Was Kargar’s behavior immoral?
Are there cultural differences in what is moral or immoral behaviour?
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● When judging the morality of the behaviours of
members of other cultural groups, we are prone to
adopt an ethnocentric perspective.
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What are Kohlberg’s stages of moral development?
● Kohlberg proposed that:
 there are three levels of moral development, each
characterized by two stages.
 individuals progress to higher levels
and stages as a consequence of
cognitive development.
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 people progress through the levels and stages in the
same order across cultures, provided that the cultural
context allows for moral capacities to develop (an
evolutionist perspective).
● Kohlberg’s levels and stages are as follows:
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 Level 1: The Preconventional Level
Moral reasoning is based on internal standards—in
particular, the physical or hedonistic consequences of
the action.
Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment
Stage 2: Self-Interest and Reciprocity
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 Level 2: The Conventional Level
Moral reasoning is based on external standards—in
particular, the maintenance of relationships and social
order.
Stage 3: Interpersonal accord and conformity.
Stage 4: Social order and system maintenance.
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 Level 3: The Postconventional Level
Moral reasoning is based on internalized standards—in
particular, abstract ethical principles regarding
individual rights and justice.
Stage 5: Individual Rights
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles
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● Kohlberg used moral dilemmas to assess participants’
level of moral development.
Example: The Heinz Dilemma
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In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of
cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save
her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had
recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the
druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make.
He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose
of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone
he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but
he could only get together about $1,000, which is half of what it
cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him
to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I
discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So,
having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and
considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his
wife.
Should Heinz break into the drugstore?
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 Level 1: The Preconventional Level
Stage 1: “Heinz shouldn’t steal the drug because it’s
illegal and he may go to prison.”
Stage 2: “Heinz should steal the drug because the
druggist is trying to rip him off.”
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 Level 2: The Conventional Level
Stage 3: “Heinz should steal the medicine because
his wife expects it; he wants to be a good husband.”
Stage 4: “Heinz should follow the law, because the
law is what is right. If everyone did what they wanted
to do, there would be chaos.”
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 Level 3: The Postconventional Level
Stage 5: “Heinz should not steal the drug because
the druggist has the right to determine the
compensation he should receive.”
Stage 6: “Heinz should steal the drug because the
preservation of life must always take priority over the
property rights of an individual.”
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Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother promised her that
she could go to a special rock concert coming to their town if
she saved up from baby-sitting and lunch money to buy a ticket
to the concert. She managed to save up the fifteen dollars the
ticket cost plus another five dollars. But then her mother
changed her mind and told Judy that she had to spend the
money on new clothes for school. Judy was disappointed and
decided to go to the concert anyway. She bought a ticket and
told her mother that she had only been able to save five dollars.
That Saturday she went to the performance and told her mother
that she was spending the day with a friend. A week passed
without her mother finding out. Judy then told her older sister,
Louise, that she had gone to the performance and had lied to
her mother about it. Louise wonders whether to tell their mother
what Judy did.
Should Louise tell her mom that Judy lied?
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Are Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
universal?
● Snarey (1985) conducted a meta-analysis of 27 studies
that investigated the universality of Kohlberg’s model.
Recruited participants from Alaska, Bahamas, Canada,
Finland, Germany, Guatemala, India, Kenya, New
Guinea, Turkey, U.S.
Found:
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 Most children: Demonstrated preconventional
reasoning.
 Most adults: Demonstrated conventional reasoning.
 Western urbanized cultures: Some adults demonstrated
postconventional reasoning.
 Village folk and tribal societies: No adults demonstrated
postconventional reasoning.
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● These findings suggest that Kohlberg’s model does not
adequately describe moral reasoning in non-Western
cultures.
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What are Shweder’s codes of ethics?
● Richard Shweder (see Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2007;
Shweder et al, 1997) maintains that there are three
codes of ethics that guide moral reasoning across
cultures (a relativist perspective):
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 Ethic of Autonomy
Concerned with harm, rights and justice. Moral issues
include:
Whether or not someone was harmed.
Whether or not someone suffered emotionally.
Whether or not someone cared for someone weak/vulnerable.
Whether or not someone was cruel.
Whether or not someone was denied her/his rights.
Whether or not someone acted unfairly.
Whether or not some people were treated differently than others.
Whether or not someone tried to dominate someone else.
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 Ethic of Community
Concerned with duty, loyalty, and hierarchy. Moral
issues include:
Whether or not someone showed a lack of loyalty.
Whether or not someone did something to betray his/her group.
Whether or not the action affected your group.
Whether or not someone’s action showed love for her/his
country.
Whether or not someone failed to fulfill the duties of his/her role.
Whether or not someone conformed to the traditions of society.
Whether or not someone showed a lack of respect for authority.
Whether or not an action caused chaos or disorder.
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 Ethic of Divinity
Concerned with sacred order, purity, and sanctity.
Moral issues include:
Whether or not someone violated standards of purity and
decency.
Whether or not someone was able to control her/his desires.
Whether or not someone acted in a way that God would
approve of.
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 Examples (Haidt, 2007):
How much would you have to be paid to …..?
 stick a pin into the palm of a child you don't know.
 slap your father in the face (with his permission) as
part of a comedy skit.
 clean a toilet with your national flag.
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 accept a plasma screen TV from a friend who
bought it a year ago from a thief who had stolen it
from a wealthy family.
 say something slightly bad about your nation (which
you don't believe to be true) while calling in,
anonymously, to a talk-radio show in a foreign nation.
 attend a performance art piece in which the actors
act like animals for 30 min, including crawling around
naked and urinating on stage.
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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. distinguish between the universalist, relativist, and
evolutionist perspectives.
2. describe Kohlberg’s levels and stages of moral
development.
3. review evidence for and discuss criticisms of Kohlberg’s
theory of moral development.
4. describe Shweder’s codes of ethics.
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