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Psychology 307 Cultural PsychologyLecture 17
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Morality

1. What are Kohlbergs stages of moral development?
2. Are Kohlbergs stages of moral development
   universal?
3. What codes of ethics guide morality in
   non-Western cultures?

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By the end of todays class, you should be able
to
1. describe Kohlbergs stages of moral
development.
2. review evidence for and discuss criticisms of
Kohlbergs stages of moral development.
3. describe Shweders 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
  Kargars 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 Kargars behavior immoral?
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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.

• Given our tendency to exhibit ethnocentrism,
  appreciating the moral priorities of other
  cultural groups can be challenging.

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What are Kohlbergs 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 levels and stages are as follows

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• Level 1 The Preconventional Level

Moral reasoning is based on internal standardsin
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 standardsin
particular, the maintenance of 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
standardsin particular, abstract ethical
principles regarding justice and individual
rights.
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 shouldnt steal the drug because
its 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 Kohlbergs stages of moral development
universal?

• Snarey (1985) conducted a meta-analysis of 27
  studies that investigated the universality of
  Kohlbergs model. Participants recruited 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 Kohlbergs model
  does not adequately describe moral reasoning in
  non-Western cultures.

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What codes of ethics guide morality in
non-Western cultures?

• 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

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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
his/her 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 someones action showed love for his/her
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 his or her 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.

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• accept a plasma screen television that a friend
  of yours wants to give you. You know that your
  friend bought the TV 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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• According to Shweder, the ethic of autonomy is
  most important in Western cultures.

• However, in other cultural contexts, the ethics
  of community and divinity are as important or
  more important than the ethic of autonomy.

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Morality

1. What are Kohlbergs stages of moral development?
2. Are Kohlbergs stages of moral development
   universal?
3. What codes of ethics guide morality in
   non-Western cultures?