Moral Reasoning

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Moral Reasoning
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What is Moral Reasoning?

• contains the rules and standards for what people
  should do
• ability to discern right from wrong
• ability to reason ethically about issues
• depends on the use of cognitive skills, a
  perception of reality, evaluation of experiences,
  making fine discriminations generalizations,
  and reason abstractly

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Jean Piaget, Barbel Inhelder,et al.

• As a child we think concretely and
  egocentrically, but as an adult we think in more
  principled, abstract, sociocentric ways
• 4-7 yrs - Heteronomous Morality - rules are
  seen as unchangeable we have no control over
  changing them
• 10 yrs - Autonomous Morality - children become
  aware that rules and laws can be changed must
  judge a person by intentions as well as the
  consequences

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Lawrence Kohlberg

• examined moral dilemmas
• initial study (1958) with 84 men interviewed
  every 3 yrs for 20 years
• from this and other initial studies he developed
  his theory of moral development - 6 stages of how
  people solve moral dilemmas

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Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development

• Level 1 - Preconventional - egocentric and
  individual needs
• Stage 1 - obedience punishment
• Stage 2 - instrumental relativism
• dont question authority
• behaviorsindividual needs
• you scratch my back Ill scratch yours

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Kohlberg, cont.

• Level 2 - Conventional-
• shared norms and values
• Stage 3 - interpersonal concordance
• Stage 4 - orientation toward authority law
• good behavior is what pleases others impt to
  maintain rules laws are fixed and are to be
  upheld

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Kohlberg, cont.

• Level 3 - Postconventional- societal values and
  principled action
• Stage 5 - Social Contract Orientation - focus on
  rights, equality, human dignity rules can be
  changed
• Stage 6 - Universal ethical principles - place
  highest value on human life, equality, justice

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How measure moral reasoning/development?

• Most often- individual interview technique, but
  this is very timely, tedious
• J. Rest developed the Defining Issues Test - a
  paper/pencil instrument which attempts to measure
  MD

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The Defining Issues Test (DIT) by James
RestHeinz and the DrugIn Europe a woman was
near death from a special kind of cancer. There
was one drug that 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 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, 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 began to think about
breaking into the man's store to steal the drug
for his wife.
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Carol Gilligan

• its not that women are less moral, not deficient
  in some way
• they think and speak in a different voice
• women have a stronger sense of interconnectedness,
  relationships, intimacy.
• women feel more comfortable when connected with
  others

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Gilligan suggests

• Women
• use conversation to expand understand
• see people as interdependent
• see actions in broad context
• like intimacy and connection

• Men
• use talk to convey information
• view themselves as self-reliant
• regard events as isolated and discrete
• dont like intimacy and affiliation

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Gilligans Levels of Moral Development

• Level 1 - Individual Survival
• selfish, egocentric
• Level 2 - Care and Responsibility for others
• self-sacrificing, altruistic acts
• Level 3 - Balance of care for self and others
• recognize legitimize impt. of own needs as well
  as others

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Focus for Gilligan is on caring, involvement,
connectedness, intimacyWhile men see issues in
terms of justice, women in terms of care

• (Care vs. justice)

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Several books on adolescent girls

• Mapping the Moral Domain, Making Connections,
• says younger girls are confident, self-assured,
  but as they move into adolescence and realize the
  demands of the culture they become unsure, silent

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Praises and Criticism of Gilligans Work

• Stiller Forrest (1990) found men talk in terms
  of justice, women in terms of caring
• McAdams (1988) women scored significantly higher
  in intimacy motivation

• small, skewed samples
• overgenderizing - reinforces old stereotypes
• undermines struggle for equality
• Walker (84) analyzed 61 studies and found
  majority with no differences in moral reasoning

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But Gilligan counters

• We wouldnt have to act like men if our society
  would start appreciating and legitimizing womens
  ways of thinking

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Small Group Exercise

• Read and Discuss the moral dilemma
• List items/issues to be considered
• As a group decide which are the 2 or 3 most
  important issues to consider

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Escaped PrisonerA man had been sentenced to
prison for 20 years. After one year, he escaped
from prison, moved to a new area of the country,
and took on the name of Thompson. For 18 years,
he worked hard, and gradually saved enough money
to buy his own business. He was fair to
customers, gave his employees top wages, and gave
most of his own profits to charity. Then one
day, Mrs. Jones, and old neighbor, recognized him
as the man who had escaped from prison 18 years
before, and for whom the police had been
looking.
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Which of the following is most important?1.
Hasn't Mr. Thompson been good enough for such a
long time to prove he isn't a bad person?2.
Everytime someone escapes punishment for a crime,
doesn't that encourage more crime?3. Wouldn't we
be better off without prisons and legal system
oppression?4. Has Mr. Thompson really paid his
debt to society?5. Would society be failing what
Mr. Thompson should fairly expect?6. What
benefits would prisons be apart from society,
especially for a charitable man.7. How could
anyone be so cruel and heartless as to send Mr.
Thompson to prison?8. Would it be fair to all
the prisoners who had to serve out their full
sentences if Mr. Thompson was let off?9. Was
Mrs. Jones a good friend of Mr. Thompson?10.
Wouldn't it be a citizen's duty to report an
escaped criminal, regardless of the
circumstances.11. How would the will of the
people and the public good best be served?12.
Would going to prison do any good for Mr.
Thompson or protect anybody?