Values and Identity

1
Values and Identity

• Page 464 shows the agreement in values between
  High School Seniors and their parents in 1975 and
  1992. What do you notice?
• Erikson believed that values are an important
  part of our identity. The many crises that arise
  in adolescence allow them to re-examine their
  sense of who they are and what they are all
  about. One decision is whether or not to decide
  things for themselves or live with decisions made
  by others

2
Values and Identity

• Identity Achievement-Adolescents who discover the
  ways they differ from their families are more
  tolerant of differences in others. The
  independence these adolescents achieve reflects
  an internal struggle that frees them for change,
  not an external one in which they must sever ties
  with others.

3
Values and Identity

• Identity Foreclosure-Adolescents are more rule
  bound and authoritarian than achieved
  adolescents. They have a strong sense of duty
  and feel that all people should obey the rules.
  They develop conventional standards and are
  critical of others whose behavior or ideas is
  different from their own. Foreclosed individuals
  gain self-esteem from the approval of others.
  Security, not independence is their primary
  concern.

4
Values and Identity

• Moratorium-These adolescents seek others, as
  models, to complete themselves. They realize
  that their own values are not more right than
  anyone elses and they set out on a crusade to
  determine what is really right.These
  adolescents live with indecision themselves and
  so tolerate not having the answers in others.
  These adolescents are more likely to live lives
  of conformity and are bound by the expectations
  of others.

5
Values and Identity

• Identity Diffusion- Adolescents tend to avoid
  issues rather than confront them. These
  adolescents do not have strong commitments of
  their own and dismiss the importance of
  commitments in others. Their actions are likely
  to reflect the demands of the situation rather
  than beliefs or values.

6
Developing Morality

• Adolescents have different behavior than children
  with respect to morality.
• Adolescents are more likely to engage in
  prosocial behavior.
• Adolescents evaluate others actions using
  internalized standards.
• Adolescents take the intentions of others into
  consideration when judging actions and their
  consequences.
• Adolescents will question values.

7
Four Approaches to Morality

• Social Cognitive Theory an environmental model
• Kolbergs Model an organismic model
• Gilligans Model an organismic model
• Freuds Model an organismic model

8
Social-Cognitive Theory and Moral Development

• Internalizing standards there is an assumption
  that rewards and punishments regulate behavior.
  Community standards determine which behaviors are
  rewarded and which are punished. In learning the
  consequences of behavior, children internalize
  the standards of the group or ones community.

9
Social-Cognitive Theory of Moral Development

• Considering intentions children judge actions
  in terms of their consequences because they are
  seldom given reasons for consequences by parents
  that help them direct their actions.
• Questioning values-adolescents are expected to
  start thinking for themselves and to evaluate
  ideas on their merits. Learning experiences
  explain the relative form of thought that emerges
  as adolescents reach their twenties. Exposure to
  new values challenges adolescents to consider
  their own values as one possibility of many.

10
Social-Cognitive Theory

• Acting morally- is based on rewards and
  punishments for acting in particular ways.
• Adolescents are more likely to choose to be
  socially responsible if there would be negative
  consequences for not doing so.
• Other factors are identification with the models
  of interest. Adolescents will imitate the
  actions of prestigious, nurturant, or similar
  models to themselves

11
Critique of Social-Cognitive Theory

• Forms of moral behavior Cheating is motivated
  by fear of failure or need for approval. Both
  personality and situational variables explain
  cheating.
• Regardless of motives, students working for
  tangible prizes were more likely to cheat.
  Similarities are greater than differences in
  students with regard to nationality and reason
  involved in cheating.

12
Critique of Social-Cognitive Theory

• High school students report cheating even though
  they consider it wrong. They copy someones
  homework more often than they copy someones
  exam.
• 30 of college students admit to cheating on
  exams and over 50 admit to plagiarizing even
  though they know it is unethical. Cheating
  becomes more likely as the term progresses and as
  the concern for grades grows. Other factors such
  as opportunity, size of the class, and
  student-to-proctor ratios predict cheating.

13
Critique

• Shoplifting is another form of deviant behavior
  that can be explained by social-cognitive
  principles. Shoplifting is more likely when
  unemployment is high and conditions of low income
  more prevalent. Individuals believe that the
  incentives are higher and their actions are more
  justifiable when they are needy.

14
Critique of Social-Cognitive Theory

• Shoplifting is more likely in adolescents who do
  not regard it as morally wrong, these are the
  thrill seekers. Adolescents can also engage in
  this behavior if they believe there are
  extenuating circumstances.
• Social-Cognitive Theory suggests that
  internalized controls are not necessarily related
  to internal values or a moral code, they simply
  reflect conditioning. When a conscience appears
  it is simply a set of standards internalized
  through the learning process. There is no inner
  voice in this theory.

15
Kohlberg and Moral Development

• Kohlbergs theory bases its assumptions on the
  organismic model which stresses the importance of
  inner forces, the highest of which is a sense of
  justice.
• Increases in role-taking ability and cognitive
  development (thinking about and balancing the
  demands of several perspectives) contribute to
  moral development.
• There are three levels of moral development with
  two stages at each level, pg. 474, chart.

16
Kohlberg Morality as Justice

• Preconventional moral reasoning-children at this
  level want to satisfy their needs and not get
  punished for doing so.
• Conventional moral reasoning internalizing
  standards and living up to the standards of the
  community which have become their own,
  distinguish adolescents at this level.
• Postconventional moral reasoning questioning
  values using inner controls over behavior that
  reflect values that are universal and common to
  all cultures. Motives reflect an obligation to
  live within a code determined by principles.

17
Discussion of Kohlberg

• Chart on page 474 shows interesting way of
  understanding Kohlbergs theory.
• Look at the dilemma in Box 11.2, pg. 475, for a
  typical Kohlberg scenario.
• Question, what would you do? Look at the
  reasoning, for and against, at each level and
  each stage.

18
Justice and Forgiveness

• Justice decides for competing claims, weighs the
  claims and makes a decision in favor of one or
  the other.
• Forgiveness is a decision to release a person
  from a claim that justice would honor.
• Forgiveness is a special case in which the
  injured party relinquishes claims for
  retribution.

19
Levels of Forgiveness

• How is forgiveness related to the practice of a
  religious faith or is it?
• Stages of forgiveness range from vengeful
  retribution to unconditional forgiveness based on
  love and closely follow stages of moral
  reasoning.
• Three types of forgiveness restitutional
  forgiveness (get back what I lost) lawful
  forgiveness (required by the law or a higher
  authority) unconditional or principled
  forgiveness (based on loving others).

20
Forgiveness

• Religious beliefs appear to contribute to
  forgiveness for adolescents, while in college and
  adult samples, forgiveness was unrelated to
  religiosity when forgiveness was needed by
  someone close.
• For adolescents to engage in forgiveness,
  research indicates the need for support of
  friends who encourage them to adopt forgiveness
  as a part of their approach to resolving
  interpersonal conflicts.

21
Critiques of Kohlbergs Theory

• Implicit in the theory is the assumption of
  developmental change, i.e., that reasoning can be
  characterized as being at one particular stage or
  another. The reality is that reasoning is has
  been found to be at several adjacent stages in
  any one situation.
• Moral rules and convention differ, how?
• Kohlberg assumes that distinctions between moral
  codes and social conventions occur only in later
  stages of moral reasoning (the 5th stage), but
  research shows that children and adolescents can
  distinguish the concepts.

22
Critique

• Kohlberg assumed that the highest levels of moral
  reasoning reflect universal values that are
  common to all cultures but research finds
  evidence for cultural differences.
• Social context seems to influence moral
  development more the Kohlberg thought.
• Despite debate, Kohlbergs theory enjoys a wide
  range of support.

23
Gilligans Ethic of Care

• The female perspective of moral development is
  more personal, an ethic of care.
• Females make moral decisions based on compassion
  as well as fairness.
• Gilligan traces the sex differences to show that
  males tend to view themselves as separate from
  others females view themselves in terms of their
  relationship to others.

24
Gilligans Theory

• The assumption of being separate from others
  highlights the need for rules to govern behavior
  the assumption of connectedness to others
  emphasizes the responsibility to others.
• Males think of responsibility as not infringing
  on the rights of others females think of
  responsibility in terms of meeting the needs of
  others.
• Gilligan traces 3 levels of female moral
  development, each reflects a differing resolution
  between responsibility to self and responsibility
  to others.

25
Gilligan An Ethic of Care

• Level 1 caring for oneself (survival)
• Transition to the next level moving from
  selfishness to responsibility to others
• Level 2 caring for others (equated with goodness
  and self-sacrifice)
• Transition to the next level from conformity of
  helping others to choice of also helping self
• Level 3 morality is caring for both self and
  others (truth and honesty, care extends to all)

26
Gilligans Theory

• Gilligan gives some powerful thoughts on page
  486.
• Researchers have not found the differences
  between sexes that Gilligan suggested for various
  reasons cultural differences, changes in gender
  roles with time, and being asked to experience
  the Kohlberg dilemma personally rather than
  viewing it as happening to someone else.

27
Freuds Theory

• Freuds theory of morality derives from his
  theory of personality development.
• Freuds theory looks for sources within the
  organism to explain developmental changes.
• Freud assumed that biological forces are balanced
  by strong social constraints that develop with
  age.
• Freud believed moral behavior resided in the
  superego which embraces the cultural standards
  that make up the conscience.

28
Freuds Theory

• Identification with the same sex parent is the
  process by which the child appropriates the
  values and behaviors of parents. These values
  form the superego and serve as a basis for
  internalized standards of behavior.
• Adolescence is a time for reworking the parental
  standards that have been previously uncritically
  accepted.

29
Freud Morality and the Superego

• Sequence of development according to Freuds
  Theory
• Superegos development
• Identification with same-sex parent
• Reworking relationship with parents

30
Critiques of Freud

• Theory is based on a small clinical population.
• There is an absence of systematic objective
  support.
• Gender differences in Freuds Theory have not
  been supported by research.
• Research has not shown males to have stronger
  superegos than females.

31
Adolescents Religious Beliefs

• Development of abstract thinking
• Importance of religion