Transcript kolberg crime cognition

FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
TURNING TO CRIME
THE ROLE OF COGNITION
What do we mean by
MORAL DEVELOPMENT?
Moral development refers to the set of
values
that we learn and internalise during our
development. These values become
internalised or inbuilt and we develop our
own
sense of right and wrong.
Morality: Kohlberg
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Asked about moral issues and thought that our reasoning develops
as we get older.
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In his original study he used a sample of 58 working and middle
class boys from Chicago. They were aged 7, 10, 13 & 15
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He presented the boys with 10 moral dilemmas and asked them to
discuss what they would do and why in response to each dilemma.
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Kohlberg concluded that it was possible to assess the maturity of
a person’s moral development by analysing their responses to the
dilemma and their answers to a series of open-ended questions.
Your Task:
Read the Heinz dilemma and decide what
he should do.
● Think about:
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Should Heinz have stolen the drug?
Why?
Was the druggist in the wrong at all?
Could his behaviour excuse what Heinz
did?
Were there disagreements in your group?
If yes, what did you disagree about?
The Heinz Dilemma
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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 produce. 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, 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 Heinz got desperate and broke
into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
Stage one obedience
Heinz should not steal the medicine because he will consequently be put in
prison which will mean he is a bad person. Or: Heinz should steal the medicine
because it is only worth $200 and not how much the druggist wanted for it; Heinz
had even offered to pay for it and was not stealing anything else.
Stage two –
self-interest
Heinz should steal the medicine because he will be much happier if he saves his
wife, even if he will have to serve a prison sentence. Or: Heinz should not steal
the medicine because prison is an awful place, and he would probably languish
over a jail cell more than his wife's death.
Stage three conformity
Heinz should steal the medicine because his wife expects it; he wants to be a
good husband. Or: Heinz should not steal the drug because stealing is bad and
he is not a criminal; he tried to do everything he could without breaking the law,
you cannot blame him.
Stage four –
law-and-order
Heinz should not steal the medicine because the law prohibits stealing, making it
illegal. Or: Heinz should steal the drug for his wife but also take the prescribed
punishment for the crime as well as paying the druggist what he is owed.
Criminals cannot just run around without regard for the law; actions have
consequences.
Stage five human rights
Heinz should steal the medicine because everyone has a right to choose life,
regardless of the law. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine because the
scientist has a right to fair compensation. Even if his wife is sick, it does not
make his actions right.
Stage six universal human
ethics
Heinz should steal the medicine, because saving a human life is a more
fundamental value than the property rights of another person. Or: Heinz should
not steal the medicine, because others may need the medicine just as badly,
and their lives are equally significant.
Kohlberg's Stages of Moral
Development
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Level one: Preconventional morality: aspects judged
by consequence. the judged severity of a transgression
is at first related to the amount of visible damage and
then later to intentions of the offender.
Stage 1: Don’t do things to avoid punishmentexternal.
Stage 2: Do things for reward/ personal gaininternal
Level 2
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Conventional morality:
Internalises norms of the
group. justice is viewed as a
universal occurrence and that
punishment should reflect the
amount of harm done. Later,
justice is seen as related to
the consequences that
transgression creates for
others and that punishment
should take account of
intention.
Stage 3: approval of others/
norms (good boy, nice girl)
Stage 4: Following the law and
order; the golden rule. Social
norms.
Level 3
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Postconventional morality: Individuals beliefs
protecting human rights and justice. There is a
transition from the rules being seen as fixed
and unchangeable to being relative to persons
and situations, and being mutually changeable.
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Stage 5: contractual agreement: respect for
law but laws may need to be changed.
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Stage 6: personal responsibility: universal
ethical principles these may override laws.
Key differences between the 3
levels
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In level 1 the individual doesn’t really consider moral
issues – they base their judgements on whether a
behaviour is likely to be rewarded or punished. If it is
likely to be punished then it must be wrong. If it is
likely to be rewarded then it must be right.
The big difference between level 1 & 2 is that the
views and needs of other people are much more
important at level 2. People at this level are concerned
about getting approval from others and to avoid being
blamed for behaving wrongly.
Those at the highest level (level 3) have developed an
abstract sense of morality and justice. They realise
that what is morally the right thing to do sometimes
isn’t the legally right thing to do.
Evaluation of Kohlberg
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The theory explains moral
reasoning and NOT moral
behaviours- do they both match?
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Gender bias?
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Androcentric- in favour of males
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Suggests immaturity in moral
reasoning in women as have
different thinking patterns to
men and are less likely to achieve
highest level.
Can we really apply the theory to
criminal behaviours?
Gender Bias
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How does Kohlberg's
theory fit with
women's moral
development?
Gilligan conducted
research to asses
differences in moral
development
Gillingan: Gender differences in
moral development?
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Carol Gilligan: Ethic of caring:
Generalised male findings to both
genders which lead to the suggestion
that women are inferior in moral
reasoning.
Morality testing is done using male
dominated tests and are scored in
accordance to male morality e.g. justice
Females tend to favours care over justice